Diane Todd

LIS 615

Dr. Wertheimer

4/29/04

                                                            CMP Journal

            When I started selecting books for my CMP, I felt like one of my favorite sleuths: I was a review-toting, book-packin’ Kinsey Millhone---or V.I. Warshawski, depending upon my mood. Triumphant when I detected other books while searching for reviews of the ones I had already found, I then faced the agonizing decision: which book would make the cut? Not an easy question to answer, especially as I was continually unearthing books that appeared better than the ones I had already selected. Doubt descended upon me like a cloud of bloodthirsty mosquitos. I soon realized that this dance of triumph and descent into doubt is a common pattern in Collection Development. A collection is an ever-evolving entity that never really stops growing and changing. That is the beauty as well as the agony of building a collection. You’re never really done; no end point, no finish line. Yet you have this amazing opportunity to bring books and other resources to people, and possibly---just possibly---make a difference.

            When my girl detective became tired, I transformed into Boadicea, the warrior queen of the Iceni, featured in at least two of my selections. My tactical strategy was merciless: a three-pronged attack on print resources, electronic resources, and amazon. For the print resources, I marshalled a division to bring me every current copy of the leading children’s and young adult book book review journals and magazines. While I perused the reviews, my loyal subaltern made copies of the reviews I tagged as “potentials.” For the electronic resources, I primarily utilized three databases:

FirstSearch, Literature Resource Center, and Academic Search Premier. Since many of the reviews were available full-text, I printed them and my minions assembled all the reviews for the same book together. In the background---just one click away---amazon stood ready for battle. Using amazon is the easiest way to find out basic information about a book, especially if it is a candidate for the collection. Title, author, price, and several other product details are readily available. I consulted the “Editorial Reviews” since sometimes they include reviews from reputable journals. Most of the time, I already had the review as a result of searching print and electronic resources. I also looked at the “Customers who bought this book also bought...” section in case there were relevant titles. A nifty new feature is the ability to “search inside the book.” Because I was not able to physically evaluate all the books I selected, this feature allowed me to virtually peek at the table of contents and read an excerpt.

            In the midst of my frantic digging, I stumbled across some goldmines. Every March, Booklist celebrates Women’s History Month by reviewing women’s history books for adults and youth. In the youth section, I found several excellent books for the Collection. Booklist also publishes the Amelia Bloomer Project List of Recommended Feminist Books for Youth, which is sponsored by the Feminist Task Force of Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association. The Amelia Bloomer Project List is by far my favorite find. It is exciting that the list exists---never mind how much it helped me with my own project!

            Although I was familiar with many of the big-name publishers, I discovered---to my delight---several small or specialty presses: Barefoot Books, Shoe String, Tricycle/Ten Speed Press, Groundwood, Eerdmans, Carolrhoda, Blue Jean Press, Free Spirit Publishing, Seal Press, Wish Publishing, and Second Story Press. To find out more about them, I visited their websites and browsed their books. I also tried to find author and reviewer websites if possible. Reading through the reviews, a pattern seemed to emerge. The same core of reviewers reviewed the majority of the books I selected.  Reviewers such as Gillian Engberg, Hazel Rochman, and Carolyn Phelan crop up regularly. It makes sense that the review magazines/journals designate one reviewer to review all the books on a certain subject. But now I understand why it is so important to know your reviewers as well as your authors.

            I have been on the frontlines of book retail for over a dozen years, and this experience helped me to decide what books to select. I have developed an intuitive sense about what sells. When I translated “what sells” into “what gets checked out,” my decision-making process improved. I also prowled around the Children’s and Young Adult sections of Borders and scoured their shelves for books that young people are reading. If the books are not being bought, they don’t have a long shelf-life. It’s remainder-city for them.

            When I proposed this topic, I underestimated the magnitude of the undertaking. The broad age range (9-18) and diverse subject matter presented more of an obstacle than I had anticipated. To make it more manageable, I divided the subjects into six sections and the age ranges into three stages. The Collection is definitely not as balanced as it could be; in fact, it is rather lopsided. The History/Biography section is brimming over whereas smaller sections only have three or four books. The books for different age ranges are unevenly distributed. Many times, I had to choose between an intermediate-level book and a middle/high school book on the same subject. Another regrettable weakness is the lack of girl-themed non-fiction books with Asian or Hawaiian/Pacific protagonists. Discovering Yell-OH Girls by Vickie Nam was the highlight of my day. But I was disappointed when I couldn’t find any other similar books---either I was not searching in the right places or they don’t exist. I also encountered a series dilemma. The number of children’s and young adult series is staggering. During my searches, I encountered: Girls Life series, More Than Petticoats series, Cool Careers for Girls series, Breakthrough Biographies series, Collective Biographies series, Snapshots: Images ofPeople and Places in History series, World Writers series, New Moon series, Women’s Hall of Fame series, and of course, my personal favorite, Outrageous Women series. I have to admit my personal bias about this series. I met Vicki Leon, the author of the adult Uppity Women series as well as the Outrageous Women series for younger readers, at Anderson’s Bookstore in Naperville, Illinois. She autographed my copy of Uppity Women of the Renaissance. Now I own all of the books in the series. Series books are extremely popular with adults, young adults, and especially children. How do I decide which series to buy? The answer for that will have to wait until the sequel.