Blair Public Library           HOME

The Blair Public Library is committed to:

1. Maintaining an up-to-date collection of basic works of lasting value.
2. Providing timely materials expressing a variety of opinions on issues of current and historical interest.
3. Purchasing appropriate quantities of items in current demand.
4. Purchasing or borrowing items requested by users in accordance with policy.
5. Supplying self-help materials for informal personal growth.
6. Supporting educational, civic, and cultural activities within the community.

The Librarian will select materials on the basis of community interests and general needs. The general collection will include currently published juvenile and adult fiction and non-fiction, significant books of the past and present, newspapers, and current editions of the most useful reference books.

In Library acquisition, priority is given to printed materials, primarily books, over other media. Magazines, pamphlets, and maps share in this priority, as do microforms when they are appropriate as substitutes. In addition to print, the Library has budgeted collections of audiocassettes. Other media that are appropriate and cost effective will be considered if the funds are available to support them. The library will attempt to provide related equipment not readily available within the community, taking into consideration cost, durability, and manageability.

Gift books or materials are accepted with the understanding that the library will keep what it deems useful and may dispose of the rest without accounting to the donors. The library reserves the right to determine the placement and conditions of use concerning the gift.

In all aspects of materials selection professional judgment is exercised and personal bias is set aside. The library incorporates as part of its policy, insofar as they apply to book selection, the Intellectual Freedom Statement, and the Library Bill of Rights, which endorses each citizen's freedom to read, as guaranteed by the Constitution.

Genealogy
Given the almost limitless possibilities of genealogical acquisitions, the following guidelines have been established to concentrate purchases on those items, which will best serve the genealogical research, needs of the greatest number of citizens.

1. Priority is given to collecting Nebraska genealogical materials, except family histories.
2. Select materials are purchased concerning neighboring states.
3. Materials not purchased are family genealogies and genealogies concerned with foreign countries except for guides to doing research in foreign countries. Such materials may be accepted as gifts.

Local Histories
The Library collects all manner of materials of local history, regardless of format, with the exception of artifacts. For Blair this includes almost all significant materials of any kind. Exceptions are esoteric family papers, personal scrapbooks, and pictures that have a limited historical significance. The local newspaper is acquired on microfilm when available. The same policy applies to purchase of materials dealing with Washington County.

For the State of Nebraska the library acquires some selected state publications and published histories, biographies of major persons, political and economic histories, as well as other studies.

Newspapers
The Library will choose subscriptions to newspapers on the basis of national reputation and patron demand. The availability of subject indexes has no bearing on whether a newspaper is ordered, as the Blair Public Library retains newspapers with certain exceptions for 90 days.

Serials
Two important criteria considered in the purchase of serial titles are patron interest and subject access. To assist in making choices that accurately reflect patron interest, staff members will record titles that are requested but not presently owned by the Library. Once a year the librarian will review the serials on subscription and decide which are to be canceled because of lack of patron interest or inappropriate subject matter.

Documents
Documents acquired by the library will not be treated as a unique format but will be chosen, cataloged, and processed, as are related library materials.

Internet
Public Access Computers
In response to the changing needs of the community, the Blair Public Library offers its patrons computers with Internet access.

The use of computers in the library is a privilege that may be revoked at any time for offensive conduct. Such conduct would include but not be limited to accessing or using unlawful or objectionable material or damaging the system.

The Internet is a global entity with a highly diverse user population and library patrons use it at their own risk.

Parents or guardians, not the library or its staff, are responsible for the Internet information accessed by their children. Concerned parents are advised to supervise in person their children's Internet sessions or ask library staff to prohibit Internet use. The library staff will not supervise Internet sessions of any patron. (See Internet Policy)

Collection Evaluation and Maintenance
Collection evaluation and weeding are ongoing activities, regularly performed as staffing permits and needs dictate. Books are considered for binding, replacement or withdrawal when they are in poor physical condition.

The librarian who does the selection for the library has the responsibility for the collection evaluation and weeding. This person may wish to seek another opinion when questions arise or may wish to delegate the task to a subordinate, but is responsible for its performance.

The following criteria are applied as a basis for replacing or withdrawing material:
1. Books:
    A. Misleading and or factually inaccurate.
    B. Worn beyond mending or rebinding.
    C. Superseded by a truly new edition or by a much
        better book on the subject.
   D. Of no discernible literary or scientific merit.
   E. Irrelevant to the needs and interests of the community
   F. Existence of duplicate copies

Books withdrawn from the library collection will be placed with donated materials that the library staff has deemed unsuitable for the library Collection. These books will be sold by the Blair Friends of the Library. The money from the sale of these books will be placed in the treasury of the Friends of the Blair Public Library and used to purchase new equipment and materials for the library. Books not sold at the book sale will be given to the Hospital Auxiliary for their annual rummage sale.

2. Serials:
    A. The library may keep titles as long as needed.
    B. For most titles, 5 years are kept depending on space.
    C. For non-indexed titles, 6 months are kept.
    D. For unsolicited gifts, the current issue only should be kept.

Materials Selection Procedure
1. Juvenile:
       A. In preparation for ordering:
              1. Read and review copies from various publishers.
              2. Consult appropriate review journals.
              3. Consult the Children's Catalog.
       B. Consider for purchase if:
              1. A book has satisfactory or better reviews.
              2. A book has one satisfactory review or if that book
                  is needed as a subject gap when there is no better source.
              3. Ask evaluator questions.
2. Teenage and adult:
       A. In preparation for ordering:
              1. Consult appropriate review materials.
              2. Keep current with publishers' catalogs, best
                  seller lists, and television promotions.
              3. Keep current with patron requests and suggestions.
              4. Be aware of current interests and events and
                  school assignments.
3. Special materials selection procedures:
      A. In preparation for ordering:
             1. Review and evaluate annually standing orders,
                government documents, and periodicals.
             2. Gifts: The librarian will decide what should be kept and
                 cataloged, and the conditions governing use and placement.

As a forum for ideas and information, the library provides a broad spectrum of opinion on a variety of topics. Books and other materials are selected without bias in regard to the author's race, nationality, political, moral, religious, or sexual beliefs. The library does not practice censorship nor promote particular beliefs or views. The presence of an item in the library's collection in no way constitutes endorsement of the contents of the item by the library or city administration. The processing and shelving of materials are not used to reflect value judgments on materials. There is no labeling of items or catalog entries to indicate a point of view or bias.

Responsibility for the use of library materials by minors rests with their parents or guardians.

Library users not finding desired materials within the library's collection may request that these materials be purchased by filling out a request to purchase form. These requested items are then subject to the same selection criteria as other materials.

Every effort is made to provide materials that will be of interest and use to the citizens of Blair. Because the library serves a diverse community, it is inevitable that some items in the collection will be offensive to library users. Persons wishing to register complaints about specific items in the collection and to recommend that the library avoid the purchase of similar items in the future may do so by completing in full a Library Complaint/Recommendation Form and returning it to the library director, which will then be reviewed by the Library Board of Trustees and the Director. Items on rare occasions may be removed from the library's children's collection if the children's librarian, the director, and the library board are persuaded that its presence in the collection constitutes a danger to children. Items that are offensive to individuals or groups will not be removed from the library in response to those objections.

Accepted by the library Board, Oct. 6, 1991