Collection Development, Management Principles & Procedures

Scope of the print collection

The London Library is an Arts and Humanities library, with areas of strength formed by the major classmarks held:

• Literature
• Fiction
• History
• Topography
• Art
• Biography
• Religion
• Bibliography
• Philosophy
• Science & Miscellaneous

Each of these is subdivided into many further divisions, and each area complements the strengths of the others. The eclectic Science & Miscellaneous collection encompasses, the history of natural and life sciences; social, political and environmental sciences; and works on many aspects of historical and contemporary human life through such wide-ranging topics as aviation, folklore, gardens, crime, spies, duelling and many more across around 2,000 classmarks.

The collection is rich in foreign language material, particularly French, German, Russian, Italian and Spanish, although over 200 languages are represented in all. While purchasing in foreign languages has greatly reduced over the last decades in response to lower usage, legacy collections accrued from the Library’s inception up into the middle of the last century remain.

In addition to the c.840,000 items held on freely browsable open-shelf access, the Library has a collection of over 40,000 particularly rare and valuabl books held in closed access, available to use under invigilation. These fall within the same collection parameters as the open-shelf material.

Collection Development principles

We develop and provide access to our collections with current and future members’ needs foremost in our minds:

• We continue to build our collection to develop existing areas of strength and depth within the general remit of providing a high-quality Arts and
• Humanities lending collection, consisting of books deemed likely to make long-lasting contributions to their field.
• We seek to build an inclusive collection that is culturally representative of published works and resources irrespective of country of publication, and which reflects the diversity of London and the UK, and our community of members. We acquire material primarily but not exclusively in English language.
• We welcome all members’ suggestions for additions to our collection and these are considered against the existing and developing collection profile.
• We seek to obtain members’ feedback about the broader gaps in our collection and to respond positively to these where they will contribute to the overall strength of our holdings.
• We accept donations to our holdings where these fit within the overall collection profile. Please see the separate Donations Procedures document for further information.
• We license or acquire eBooks to increase accessibility to higher demand titles; to introduce new content to the Library rapidly either for individual items or as a range of content. 
• We utilise evidence-based acquisition models offered by suppliers and publishers of academic texts to allow us to evaluate demand prior to purchase.
• We maintain and seek to extend a range of subscriptions to online resources and databases that reflect and strengthen our collections, ensuring balance between the cost of resources and their broad appeal across the membership.
• We seek to gain optimal value for money for purchases and subscriptions by negotiating discounts and favourable licence terms. The Library is an associate member of the London University Purchasing Consortium.

Collection Management principles

• We maintain efficient services for the circulation of physical books, including a postal loans service.
• We provide a fetch service for those preparing ahead of time for their visit to the Library and for the retrieval of books for postal loan.
• We aim to keep our collection in circulation through rebinding or replacement of items. 
• We recognize that, owing to the historical nature of the collection, the Library’s shelves hold some books of a controversial nature. The inclusion of such works does not convey an endorsement of the author or the views expressed within their work. We seek to acquire and retain a wide variety of materials, and the collection reflects societal attitudes past and present. We may rebind or box items with potentially offensive titles to reduce their visual impact for those browsing the collection.
• Once a book has been selected for acquisition, our intention is to ensure that it, or a copy of it, remains within the Library’s holdings. Exceptions to this may be made where usage of a title, collection or type of material has no remaining value within our holdings through supersedure or falling demonstrably into abeyance with little or no expectation of future use.
• The Library exercises its judgement in placing works in closed-access storage. This may be due to a variety of reasons including age, value, rarity, fragility and provenance. We provide an invigilation service to allow members and visiting researchers to access this material.
• Our physical collection exceeds the space available for it at St. James’s Square. We seek to retain on-site the material that has higher demand and appeal based on loan data and other indicators of use, making use of off-site storage to ensure there is space for new acquisitions.
• Physical material that is duplicated through stable online sources is likely to be moved off-site or deaccessioned.
• Work to select material for off-site removal or deaccessioning is carried out in consultation with members, other than deduplication of stock where there is no change to access to content: deduplication of items where demand no longer warrants multiple copies is carried out as a matter of course to relieve pressure on our shelves.

Collection development and management procedures

Acquisition of content

Acquisitions budget

The Library has an acquisitions budget that is determined by a calculation of a 30-year average of spend on content per member, adjusted for inflation, to ensure that the acquisitions budget in any given year does not go below this average subject to affordability. The 30-year average per member figure is multiplied by the number of members at the end of a given financial year to determine the budget for the successive year. The acquisitions budget is supported by an endowment – the Drue Heinz Literary Fund. 

The Collections and Library Services teams and the Fundraising team work together to attract additional funding for collections projects.

The Acquisitions and Discovery Team 

This team comprises the Head of Collections and Discovery; an Acquisitions and Discovery Manager; 4 Acquisitions and Discovery Librarians who are also responsible for the cataloguing and classification of stock; an Acquisitions and Discovery Assistant. The team reports to the Director of Collections and Library Services. The strategic direction of the Collections and Library Services Directorate is overseen by the Collections Committee and the Trustee Board.

The Acquisitions and Discovery team has devolved responsibility for the selection of books, periodicals, eBooks and online resources. Responsibilities are divided by subject areas across the team members’ expertise to cover the full range of the Library’s holdings.

Acquisition of content: printed books

The Library seeks to use the acquisitions budget to continue to develop existing areas of strength and depth within the remit of an Arts and Humanities Library. We draw on a range of sources of publishing information for new titles and collection development including:

• Newspaper reviews
• Publishers’ catalogues
• Information provided by our library suppliers
• Other libraries’ catalogues

We take a data-led approach to analysing the effectiveness of our purchases through loan data, including loans and on-site reference use in so far as this is measurable. This data, combined with member feedback provided through surveys, informs continual appraisal of our acquisitions.

We welcome suggestions for additions to the collection from members. Suggestions are considered against the existing and developing scope of the collection, their cost and likely ongoing appeal to other members. 

Acquisition of content: Periodicals and Society publications

The Library seeks to maintain subscriptions to serial publications that mirror and complement the range of subjects held across the Library, including a range of newspapers, publications of general interest, academic journals and society publications. 

Where we can take advantage of online access to periodicals we do so as this provides greater access to the content, and the reading of articles online has become commonplace. Where journals provide hard copy and online access in parallel, the Library may retain the hard copy for a set period or indefinitely depending on the nature of the publication and its potential for long-term contribution to the collection.

Acquisition of content: eBooks

The Library currently utilizes the Overdrive platform for the provision of eBooks to members. These may be added to the collection to increase access to print titles that are in high demand; to extend our range of holdings within a particular theme or genre; to respond to members’ requests for eBooks made via the Overdrive platform (Libby).

The Library works with publishers and library suppliers on evidence-based acquisition initiatives to add further – particularly academic – eBook content. This allows the Library to introduce a high number of eBooks to the catalogue for members to use in order to explore the demand and interest among the membership. At the end of any given trial period, the Library then determines which content to acquire on a permanent basis.

Acquisition of content: online resources

We maintain a range of subscriptions to online resources and databases that balance the cost of resources against their broad appeal across the membership. We monitor available resources and make careful value for money judgements against the amount of new content provided by a resource, its cost and its likely appeal within the membership. Resources with a narrower appeal can be added if the cost is proportionately lower. 

Usage of resources is monitored by the Library to ensure that demand for resources is sufficient to warrant their ongoing subscription.

We welcome requests to extend the portfolio of resources and consider these within the confines of the parameters set out above. 

Acquisition of content: Members’ suggestions

Across the range of content covered in the paragraphs above, members’ suggestions are welcome and encouraged in order to assist the Acquisitions and Discovery Team in building a collection that is relevant and meets current needs and interests. Suggestions are considered against the collection parameters and where appropriate these are acquired. In the 2024/25 year, approximately 20% of print book purchases were suggestions from members.

Discovery

The Library’s catalogue, known as Catalyst, is the key entry point for exploring the collection and identifying where material is shelved within the Library. Catalyst brings together relevant search results from the print collection and content from online databases and journals. Due to the nature of the collection and the classification scheme, to access all relevant material held by the Library on a given topic it is advisable to use Catalyst to identify relevant classmarks prior to browsing for further discovery.

The London Library has its own classification scheme for printed material. 

Our aim is to promote through Catalyst the material acquired through purchase or subscription to our members to ensure that the holdings particular to the Library are easily discoverable. However, we also curate open access (OA) content through Catalyst to facilitate discovery of other relevant content to support members’ research. We utilize filters and other means of including or excluding search results from across the information available to allow members to access as narrow or broad a range of content as they choose.

The Catalyst Basic Search will encompass all material relevant to the search terms held or subscribed to by the Library or available on open access. The flexible nature of the system allows members to broaden or narrow their searches using facets and other search techniques.  The basic results screen allows for the easy identification of each item’s location as well as its current availability.
The Library maintains a watching brief regarding the development of AI tools within Catalyst and online databases which may support members in their research.

Care of the collection

We keep books in circulation through rebinding, taping or boxing damaged and worn items, or replacement with the same or similar edition. This helps meet the aim of retaining the content of items once they have been selected for acquisition.

Items of value, rarity, scarcity among library holdings in the UK, notable provenance or usage, or which are fragile are placed into closed access for their protection.  Age of an item may also be a determining factor for selection for closed access.

The Collection Care team seek to manage the Library’s space capacity on a day-to-day level to prevent overly packed shelves which places books at greater risk. Stock management projects, such as deduplicating and off-site moves are also carried out to manage shelf capacity. The Library adds approximately 160 linear metres of new acquisitions to stock each year.

Support for accessing the collections

The Library provides support for its members in accessing the collections, both for print and online resources through:

• Prospective member tours to ensure those seeking to join understand the nature of the collection and range of resources available through membership of the Library
• Induction tours designed to familiarize new members with the Library, the location of physical collections within the building, how to use the catalogue,
• Catalyst, and how to access online resources
• The provision of online guides [insert link] to searching Catalyst and other resources
• The provision of Collection Guides [insert link] to the main classmarks in the Library, as well as thematic guides spanning collections
• Provision of an enquiry service available to members in-person via the Issue Desk, or via email.
• Provision of an invigilation service for the reading of closed access material
• Continually improving signage and directional information throughout the building
• Review of classmarks and stock moves to improving navigability of the collection

The Library provides access to its collections to non-members through Inter-Library Loan, and day tickets for entry to the Library which gives access to the reading spaces and the extensive open access collection. Invigilated use of the closed access material is also available to non-members through day ticket access to the Library.

Matthew Brooke
Director of Collections and Library Services
December 2025