Selection, evaluation, organization, and preservation are some of the most important considerations for information professionals working in the field. Library budgets are finite, and as such, it is important that materials are selected and maintained with care to ensure that they are available to as many patrons as possible for as long as possible. The growing shift toward digital materials has added additional considerations about selection, evaluation, organization, and preservation as many library materials no longer need to be shelved, and require no physical space in the library. Methods of organization for physical materials do not meet the demands of digital materials, when the most pressing consideration is no longer where the item should be located in the stacks. The underlying issue, findability, remains the same, but methods of searching for information have evolved, and as such, so must our organizational schemas.

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Selection and preservation of materials are important considerations for both physical and digital collections. For starters, librarians must consider how the library’s collection is used, and where resources are better spent. When selecting physical materials, the library must consider the demand for a particular type of resource. Fiction, nonfiction, reference books, and periodicals all must be balanced according to the needs of the patrons. Additionally, with access to digital resources increasing in cost each year, selecting the digital subscription services best suited to your organization is more important than ever.

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Selection:

Resource selection is one of the major duties of an information professional, and with an increasing number of resources to choose from, combined with a duty to provide patrons with the best resources available to fit their information needs, deciding where to allocate funds can be challenging. Not only must librarians decide what resources to provide, but also in what formats. Should the library acquire physical or digital materials? Audio, or print? These are just a few of the considerations during the decision making process. Increasingly, digital services offer bundle packages so that libraries can offer ebooks, audiobooks, digital magazines, and stream movies, but then librarians are also faced with decisions about whether to offer materials in more than one format. For example, should a popular new release be made available in digital and print? Part of selection is about knowing your patrons and the community. Another part is about understanding what resources you need, and how best to allocate these resources.

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Evaluation:

Evaluation and selection go hand in hand as considerations for information professionals. In order to know which materials or services to select, an information professional must first be able to evaluate these resources. Many periodicals now come in bundles, where the library saves money buy purchasing a package with many journals or resources included rather than selecting the individual titles that they need. While these types of bundles can save money, they are only a value if they provide content that is relevant to the user’s information needs. More information is not always a good solution - better quality, relevant information is the best type of information to provide to patrons. It is important to evaluate materials before adding them to the collection to ensure that they meet the needs of the patrons.

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In addition to evaluating materials before they are added to the collection, librarians must also evaluate materials that already exist within the collection. If, for example, a book is damaged, the extent of the damage must be evaluated to consider whether the item could be repaired, or should be replaced. If the item cannot be repaired, then the librarian must consider whether it is worth replacing the item. Some of the factors that should be taken into consideration are the items popularity, price, availability, and whether or not the item circulates frequently. If the item is obscure, outdated, or costly to replace, the library may decide instead to remove the item from the collection.

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Organization:

Libraries or library systems use cataloging schemes to organize collection materials. Searching a catalog can be done for an individual library, or it can be done through an online public access catalog (OPAC). OPACs can give users useful information about a title, including editions, translations, or other information. A local catalog may contain less information, such as which edition (if any) the library has, and where in the collection it can be found.

 

The digital age has presented new challenges to the way that information professionals organize information. Now that digital items play a large role in library collections, organization means more than knowing where the book goes on the shelf. In addition to traditional cataloging and metadata schemas, there are a growing number of ways that digital items are organized for use and accessibility. User tagging and folksonomies are two new ways of organizing information which was born from the digital age. The term “born digital” refers to content that was created online originally. This type of information, whether it is photos, social media posts, blogs, or another type of material is often organized and categorized by people who are not information professionals. As such, tagging and folksonomies have increased in prevalence as a way for users to label and organize content.

 

Example of Digital Organization:

If a person returned from vacation and decided to share the photos that s/he took while away, those photos could be uploaded to a site such a Flikr. From there, after uploading the photo, it might receive several tags that the user deemed relevant. The photo might be tagged “vacation,” “summer 2018,” “beach,” “waves,” “landscape,” “California,” or any other label that the user decided to use as a descriptor. The good thing about these types of organizational schemas is that because they are digital, the number of tags that a person can use is not limited. An image may be organized into several different categories. This is in contrast to most physical materials, which are categorized by where they fit best, and then placed with similar materials. In some ways these digital organizational schemas can enhance an item’s findability.

 

Evidence:

The first piece of evidence that I submit to demonstrate my mastery of competency F is a PowerPoint presentation that I created for a Special Studies section - INFO 298. I was one of three students selected to assist Dr. Sandra Hirsh with developing instructional materials for her book, Information Services Today: An Introduction 2nd Edition. This presentation is for the chapter on digital resources and digital libraries, and it includes information about selecting, evaluating, and organizing information in the digital library. While in the program at San Jose State, I did not take a course specific to digital libraries, but I found that I did not need to. To some extent, all libraries are digital libraries, and the criteria for providing access to materials should be held to the same standard, whether digital or physical.

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The second piece of evidence that I submit to demonstrate my mastery of this competency is another PowerPoint presentation taken from my Special Studies course. This chapter was titled “Metadata, Cataloging, Linked Data, and the Evolving ILS.” In this presentation, I discuss Metadata standards, both former and current, cataloging, and linked data as methods of organizing and managing content. This presentation demonstrates my mastery of the concepts of organization because of its heavy focus on metadata and cataloging, which are two of the foundations of information science.

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My third piece of evidence is another presentation from my work with Dr. Hirsh, on preservation. This presentation demonstrates my mastery of the concept of preservation, specifically as it applies to analog and digital formats. In this presentation I discuss preservation theory and practice, the decision-making process for selection of materials, standards in digital preservation, and disaster planning and prevention. This piece of evidence demonstrates the depth of my understanding about the importance of preservation for information professionals.

Conclusion:

Competency F encompasses many of the foundational skills that are required for information professionals to succeed in the profession. Selection will determine what resources are available for patrons, organization will determine how easy information is to find, evaluation will determine the quality of materials that are provided, and preservation will ensure that these materials are available for as long as possible for current and future patrons to enjoy.