Collection Development and Maintenance Policy
The Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) Board of Trustees Policies include Section 1.4 Collection Maintenance, outlining their statutory obligation for collection maintenance under Colorado Library Law CRS 24-90-103. The PPLD Board of Trustees specifically entrusted collection development and maintenance to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Administrative Policy
The CEO ensures the following policy guides the selection and continuous evaluation of the collection to reflect PPLD’s Rights and Responsibilities Statement. The collection contains information on a variety of subjects and views, and it is organized to provide access to patrons within the limitations of space and budget. PPLD seeks to provide current, popular, or well-reviewed materials, as well as classic and enduring titles.
The materials held in PPLD’s collection may be considered controversial, and any given item may offend some person. Not all materials provide information that is accurate, complete, or current, and some information may be considered offensive or inappropriate to some users. The Library acknowledges the rights and responsibilities of parents and caregivers to monitor their children’s access to library materials and resources. Therefore, parents or caregivers are responsible for the information selected and/or accessed by their children while in the library. The Library does not act in loco parentis (i.e., in the place or role of parent or caregiver).
PPLD has a Reconsideration of Library Resources and Use of Library Facilities Policy to ensure that concerns regarding materials and requests for reconsideration are handled in an attentive and consistent manner.
Administrative Procedures
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The following general criteria are used to evaluate potential purchases:
- Relevant to community needs and interests
- Favorable attention of critics, reviewers, and the public
- Reputation/qualifications of author, artist, publisher, or producer without regard to political, religious, or other affiliations
- Date of publication
- Cost
- Artistic merit, literary value, or recognized award recipient
- Local or national significance
- Permanence or timeliness
- Quality of presentation in relation to content and audience
- Suitability of physical format for library shelving and circulation, including binding, condition, readability of type, packaging, specialized equipment needs, and technical quality for electronic media
- Evaluation of titles in relation to current holdings, available shelf space, patron demand, and budget
- Availability of information elsewhere
- Legal, licensing, or copyright issues
- Availability from preferred vendors, where possible
- Representation of various cultures, viewpoints, and interests
Not all criteria must be met, and no one criterion will be decisive. Additional criteria may be used to select materials for specific collections. Materials purchased for the collection are not an endorsement by PPLD of either content or viewpoint presented in them.
Items generally excluded from selection include:- Textbooks and curriculum-related works unless they are considered useful to the general reader as an introduction to a subject and their presentation is superior to other sources
- Scholarly and technical materials that are carried by academic or special libraries
- Materials having removable media such as memorabilia, patterns, stickers, or toys unless the materials are usable without these items
- Puzzle or workbooks that encourage filling in blanks
- Materials lacking independent review or evaluation
- Patrons have the ability to request a specific title to be added to the collection through our Interlibrary Loan/Request It page. Determination to purchase an item will be evaluated by the above criteria.
- The number of copies of a title that is purchased varies with the expected popularity of that title. Demand for individual titles is monitored, and additional copies may be purchased to meet that demand.
- The collection receives ongoing review in order to maintain its relevancy and physical condition, as well as accommodate shelf space. Staff use the following criteria in choosing materials for continued maintenance:
- Condition
- Relevance to community needs
- Up-to-date information (PPLD tries to update subject areas to have current, authoritative data but cannot guarantee accuracy of all titles in the collection.)
- Number of copies in the collection across all formats
- Circulation statistics
- Shelf space
- Relevance/sustainability of format
- Availability elsewhere, including other libraries, online, or via interlibrary loan.
- Materials withdrawn from the collection are given to the Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District or a vendor for resale. The Library also donates items to other organizations in the Pikes Peak region. Materials that are damaged or unsellable will be recycled, when feasible, or discarded. PPLD does not remove materials from its collection for the purpose of selling them.
- Patrons have access to circulating materials through the floating collection across the various branch locations. Patrons can use the reservation system to transfer materials to another location based on their preferences.
- The Library’s website provides access to eMaterials, such as eBooks, eAudios, eMagazines, eVideos, eComics, and eMusic. Selection of eMaterials is based upon the same selection criteria used for the rest of PPLD’s collection. Not all titles are available in all formats. Some content services are evaluated as a whole, rather than individually, when vendors only offer packages of titles.
- The Library’s electronic research collection consists of authoritative databases that are used by patrons and Library staff to provide reference services. Many of the databases contain specialized information beyond the depth of PPLD's circulating collections; others have information that is more easily accessed online than in print format. Scope, subject coverage, time span, frequency of updates, authority, and currency are considered in reviewing electronic resources.
- PPLD’s Regional History & Genealogy Collection Policy specifies the collection of materials contained within that department’s special collection.
- The Library does not accept gifted materials or gifts of memorials for the addition to our collection.
- Any patron with questions or concerns regarding specific materials in the Library’s collection should review and follow the Reconsideration of Library Resources and Use of Library Facilities Policy.
Updated on May 18, 2026