Collection policy

Effective date: May 21, 2025

Revised date:

Review schedule: Four years

Next review date: Spring 2029

This policy outlines how materials are selected, maintained, and removed from the Cochrane Public Library’s collection to support the community’s informational, educational, and cultural needs.

It ensures the collection remains current, balanced, and inclusive and reflects the library’s commitment to intellectual freedom and public service.

Collection information

Goals

The Cochrane Public Library will provide diverse collections of materials to inspire the community to connect, explore, grow, and play. Our collection will:

Meet the informational needs of all members of the community by providing access to a wide breadth of expressions of knowledge, creativity, and intellectual activity.
Promote the communication of ideas, enlightened citizenship, and enriched personal lives.
Support enjoyment of and participation in recreation, leisure, and culture.
Provide access to information of local interest and materials relevant to Canadian society and culture.

Size

The size of the collection is managed to ensure adequate space for public and staff circulation and activities. The library will seek Interlibrary Loan (ILL) materials to supplement the collection, where necessary.

Scope

The Cochrane Public Library provides materials with a broad range of authors, content, and experiences. The collection consists of fiction and non-fiction books, periodicals, audio and video materials, equipment, and other materials, with an emphasis on materials that:

Record and communicate historical, scientific, social, and cultural knowledge.
Are of current significance and interest.
Stimulate imagination, creativity, and curiosity.
Increase the individual’s ability to function as a productive member of society.
Enhance the individual’s enjoyment of life.
Are about Canada and/or created by Canadians.
Are by local authors and/or related to the history of Cochrane.

Additionally, the collection will, to the best of the library’s ability:

Represent all perspectives on a wide range of topics.
Reflect appropriate timeliness, demand, quality, and authority.
Comprise a variety of formats for users of all abilities, ages, and levels of comprehension.
Be in both official languages, proportionate to annual usage statistics.

The collection will not:

Be selected based on anticipated or actual approval or disapproval by any individual or group in the community.
Be proscribed or removed from library shelves because of doctrinal or partisan disapproval.
Be comprised of textbooks or materials needed for formal institutions of learning, unless hey provide the best coverage of a subject and are also useful to the general public.
Contain materials which obviously foster religious or racial intolerance.
Contain materials that are banned under Canadian law.

Acquisition

Selection

All acquisitions will be considered in terms of the following criteria:

High standard of quality, content, expression, and format
Suitability of subject and style for intended users
Reputation and authority of the author and publisher
Comments of reviewers, critics, and publishers
Strengths and weaknesses of the existing collection
Demand in the community for a certain subject or title
Suitability and quality of physical form, layout, and construction
Timeliness and accuracy of the information contained therein
Purchase price and other budgetary considerations
Requested or suggested by library patrons

Source

In choosing sources of materials for the collection, preference will be given to suppliers who are Canadian, provide cataloguing and processing services, offer the best discounts, and provide the fastest, most efficient, and most cost-effective service.

Budgeting

In planning and expending the annual material budget, balanced consideration will be given to materials to keep the collection up-to-date and materials to build the collection in those area in which it is lacking.

Donations

The library accepts donated materials that meet the same criteria as outlined above. Donations are evaluated on an individual basis. Donated items become property of the Cochrane Public Library and will be used in the best interests of the organization.

Due to the complex nature of used book valuation, tax receipts are not issued for donated books.

Withdrawal

Weeding

In order to maintain the high standard of the collection, materials shall be withdrawn from the collection on a regular and systemic basic, for the following reasons:

To remove materials which are no longer useful for the mission, vision, and values of the library
To remove materials whose contents are out-of-date, and therefore potentially misleading
To remove materials which are no longer of interest to the community
To remove damaged materials
To make room for new materials