![]() The stuff I talk about on this blog is mostly about programs and social media and readers’ advisory, and I’ve really only ever talk about one aspect of my collection development work, which is thinking about new books. Technically, I’m a collection development librarian, even though I do a lot of other stuff. I started writing a comment in response, then realized I had so much to say I might as well write my own post. ![]() Then, this weekend, I happened to catch a link to this post from a former librarian about the relationship between self-published works and librarians, and I thought it made several great points. I’ve been thinking about self-published books and their place in libraries a lot recently, as my library has been updating our collection development policy and brainstorming ways to streamline how we deal with requests from authors to include their self-published materials in our collection and how our collection development work complements our strategic goal of supporting content creation in our community. Librarians don’t want to buy your self-published book, but not for the reasons you think. It will definitely mean more work for us no matter what, and for acquisitions and cataloging staff as well if we do accept the book as a donation or decide to purchase it. Inevitably, our answer to the request to add their book to our collection will feel personal, which is awkward. ![]() ![]() ![]() When a self-published author contacts someone in the collection development department at my library, we let out a collective groan. ![]()
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