Using a Collection Development Curriculum as a Model for Developing Policy Documents in Practice

SUMMARY This article describes the term project developed by students in the author's course in Collection Development and Management at Simmons College's Graduate School of Library and Information Science, which covers much more than the traditional “selection” guidelines. It suggests how course assignments covering components of the project might serve as a model for policy development in libraries and other information agencies. It also amplifies the model by discussing ways in which a real world policy development project differs from the academic model, and offers recommendations about how selected elements might be expanded, altered, and implemented. Particular attention is given to collection evaluation, which the author has often been asked to do or assist libraries in doing in her extracurricular work as a library consultant.