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Guidelines for collection development in Helle Libraries

Helle Libraries provide together a free access to a collection of books and other items. The libraries have common guidelines for collection development regarding acquisition, storing and discarding materials.

What materials do Helle libraries acquire?

Libraries follow the duties laid down in the Finnish Public Libraries Act. Versatile and up-to-date library collections provide equal opportunities for everyone to access education and culture. They also promote reading culture and versatile literary skills as well as lifelong learning, active citizenship, democracy, and freedom of expression.

Helle Libraries acquire materials as comprehensively as possible considering the limitations of budget, space, and selection of available items. Different age groups, language groups and ideological groups are considered when acquiring library materials. The aim is to have diverse collections of books in Finnish and in Swedish. Libraries also acquire smaller amounts of books in other languages. Collections are supplemented with loans from Multilingual Library when needed.

When acquiring materials, the long-term demand of an item is estimated with the help of circulation statistics and taken into account. Short-term demand is supplied by shortening the loan period of popular new items.

Library collections support local and national cultural heritage. Libraries acquire works of local authors as well as books about local history.

Helle Libraries cooperate by acquiring different titles of materials with lower demand, such as books in other languages than Finnish and Swedish. In that way the combined collection will have broader selection of different titles. Different libraries can have their own acquisition guidelines that supplement the common collection policy and cater to the needs of local library users.

Library users can send purchase suggestions when logged in the online library. The common collection policy and the library’s own guidelines are considered when the decision about acquisition is made.

There are some limitations to the materials libraries acquire. For example, all e-books, audio books and DVD:s are not available to purchase for library use. Libraries do not acquire materials that are not suited for library use, such as refillable books or books with stickers or toys. Self-published books are purchased mainly if they are written by a local author. Course books are acquired only if there is common interest towards the subject. Scientific publications of specific topic and course books in other languages than Finnish or Swedish are generally not purchased, but they may be borrowed through the interlibrary loan service.

Libraries may accept donations. Every library decides independently whether and how many donated books can be accepted. If the donated book is not placed in the collection, it may be donated further or recycled.

What materials do Helle libraries discard from the collections?

Book or other library material can be removed from the collection if:

  • > it is broken, dirty, or otherwise in poor shape
  • > its contents have aged and contained information is not up to date
  • > it has been missing for a long time
  • > it is not as much in demand as before, and therefore fewer copies are needed
  • > it has not been borrowed for a long time or has been borrowed significantly less than other similar titles
  • > there is not enough shelf space for everything, and therefore older and less borrowed material needs to be weeded out

All copies of a book or will not be removed from the collection if:

  • > the book is a classic and it has historical value
  • > it is comprehensive and useful book about a topic there is no newer material available

At least two copies of such books are retained in Helle Libraries.

Libraries may sell, give away or recycle materials removed from the collections. It is not possible to reserve discarded materials, and an item will not removed from the collections based on a suggestion of a library user.

What materials do Helle libraries store?

Parts of the collections are located in the library storages. Stored materials can be borrowed, and they can be reserved using the web library. All libraries don’t have storage spaces of their own.

Stored material includes:

  • > mostly books in Finnish and in Swedish
  • > books about local history
  • > books that have historical value
  • > classics and different translated versions of them

Materials that are in poor shape or contain information that is not up to date are not stored unless they have special historical value.

If a book is not stored in Helle Libraries and the last copy is removed from the collection, it will be sent to The National Repository Library, unless the NRL already has a copy in its own collection. The book can be later borrowed from the NRL through the interlibrary loan service.