Collection development as a political process: a case from Norway

Jannicke Røgler, Buskerud County Library9th Northumbria Conference

Parallel Session 4 – Quality Strand - Behavioural Aspects

The Buskerud County Library Serving:

21 Public Libraries 18 Upper Secondary Schools 300 000 inhabitants

Library modernization,emphasising on massiveweeding of collections

”The Buskerud bandits” Bandits since 2007 Focus on collection development From local initiativ to national impact Extensive use of social media

Effects

Library of the Year Elected library of the year 2010 Proud local politicians High profile

Political support

Support from all political parties in Buskerud Close contact with the politicians

Politicians presenting the award

Increased use of statistics

Turnover rate IFLA's ”Global statistics for advocacy” SAMSTAT Community of

statistics

Focus on physical space

National demand

A one day course in collection development has been held in 9 out of 19 Counties

County Libraries all over Norway are facing increased demand for collection development services

National Media Coverage The Doctrine of airiness part I and II Article in the national newspaper ”Dagbladet”

about Drammen and city development

Crammed on the shelves?

Communities of weeding

Weeding together with other librarians give maximum learning effect

Etienne Wenger define Communities of practice as:

«... groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly».

Weeding Statistics

Decrease in book collections

The Purchasing Programme for Contemporary Fiction and Non-fiction

Since 1965 a programme for the public support of contemporary fiction and non-fiction

1 000 copies of about 200 different titles for adult readers

1550 copies of 110 titles for young people

From 1991 bought about 50 Norwegian translations of fiction originally published abroad

15 titles of non-fiction written for young people

Accessions of books from the Purchasing Programme

Conclusion

This case show that a local initiativ can achieve national impact

Less focus on artifacts and more on library space, services and how we best can assist our members

Attention from outside the library world Continous work and emphasis over time give

the best result

Thank you!

janniro@gmail.com

Jannicke.rogler@bfk.no

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jannicke.rogler

Twitter: http://twitter.com/jannicker

Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/janniro

Illustrations

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