best_practices_2013

BEST PRACTICES 2013
user committee comprised of frequent users of all parts of the library’s
collections and services. The committee should meet at least every other
month to discuss library issues and how to best allocate the library’s
resources. Special meetings should be called in situations that require
immediate user consultation.
When a situation similar to the example presented above arises, a user
committee can offer their opinions on the direction the library should take to
deal with the impending fiscal crisis. By voicing their opinions, the user
committee can help decide which path would be the best course to follow, or
offer another possible option(s) of their own. Perhaps reductions in some
other area that the user group can identify would help with any budget cuts
the library has to implement.
By asking for the input of the library’s user committee, patrons help define
what the library’s core collections should be. When library services and
resources are faced with the budget axe, users will voice their opinions as to
those a library must retain as opposed to those that they feel are
expendable.
Collaborating with Other Libraries
As indicated earlier in this article, the pain of budget cuts is being shared
throughout the library community. No library is facing this situation alone,
and sometimes other libraries that are experiencing or have experienced
similar circumstances can offer advice and assistance. Ways that other
libraries have successfully met or are meeting the challenges of budget cuts
may offer examples for others to follow.
Libraries can also work together to minimize the impact of cuts to their
resources and services. Consortiums can be formed or strengthened to
coordinate collection development policies in member libraries. Leaders of
libraries within a consortium can agree to choose individual areas of
collection strength within their library that they can devote their future
resources towards acquiring. Other subject areas will then be acquired by
other members of the consortium that are designated as the de facto
centers of knowledge for those fields.
By concentrating on collecting materials on one or a few specific subject
areas, individual members of a consortium can eliminate spending money on
duplicate materials acquired by other members in fields within those library’s
own designated core collection areas. By agreement of all of the
consortium’s member libraries, patrons of those libraries could be allowed to
visit, use, and borrow materials from each other’s libraries. Reciprocal
agreements between these libraries, such as those used for Interlibrary Loan
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