Public Library Collections in the Balance by Jennifer Downey & James LaRue

Author:Jennifer Downey & James LaRue
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ABC-CLIO

Th ere may be times when the concepts taught in training or written in the collection development policy will clash with an employee’s personal beliefs. The key issue here is that while self-censorship is never an acceptable method of handling discomfort, employees must be supported and valued as long as they are able to hold their personal feelings at bay in deference to the defense of free access (Pearsall, 2014). Make no mistake—this can be a hard thing to do. It can be uncomfortable for library staff members to defend books or other items they don’t personally approve of, but ultimately this discomfort can help in understanding and empathizing with patrons who voice their complaints about library collections. It seems fair to say that most librarians, in the process of their collection development tasks, will purchase books by authors whose politics or ideas they don’t agree with or that contain content they find distasteful. If personal feelings cannot be set aside at these times, it will prove difficult indeed to engage in collection development fairly and objectively in the long run.

The bottom line when it comes to training and empowering staff to handle complaints is to maintain an attitude of respect toward complainants, who certainly have every right to voice their concerns about the collection at their public library. This doesn’t mean that the library will forfeit or lose the challenge—it simply means that customer service skills and professionalism must be maintained even under great pressure.

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