a collection development policy for st. catherine nabbingo library

Description

The study aimed at designing a collection development policy that can enable the library to acquire the current materials, planning for strategies for continuing acquisition and evaluation of information materials that will match with the users’ needs. The objectives of the study were; to examine the status of collection in St. Catherine Nabbingo Library, to examine the existing collection development processes at St. Catherine Nabbingo Library, to find out the challenges when acquiring the collection and strategies to address the challenges in the library, and to design a collection development policy St. Catherine Nabbingo Library. St. Catherine Nabbingo Library collection development processes are not effective enough to keep up with a variety of information which is responsive to the user’s needs. The study used a case study research design while adopting a qualitative research approach where primary data was collected using questionnaires, interview and observation methods. The findings revealed that there is a variety of information materials that are managed by St. Catherine Nabbingo Library which include; text books and reference books, holy books, periodicals like magazines and newspapers, reports, charts and many others. The research findings also shows that there various collection development processes that are undertaken in St. Catherine Nabbingo Library. These Collection Development Processes are; selection of information materials, acquisition of information materials weeding and preservation of information materials are those that are carried out. These processes carried out are not effective due to lack of procedures to cater for the collection in the library. This brings a concern to develop the library's collection at St. Catherine Nabbingo Library. The study concluded that there is need to develop a Collection Development Policy for St. Catherine Nabbingo Library. The policywill guide the school library on how to develop a library collection development process, selection of library materials, and acquisition of library materials, weeding, conservation and preservation. The study recommended that the management of St. Catherine Nabbingo Library should adopt the proposed Collection Development Policy for the library.