How Libraries Acquire Documents: Methods and Best Practices

Every great library collection starts with a question: what do our users actually need? Behind the shelves of books, journals, and digital resources lies a careful, deliberate process called acquisition. It is one of the most important housekeeping operations in any library, because it directly shapes the quality and relevance of everything a reader can access. Acquisition is far more than buying books. It involves studying user requirements, applying time-tested selection principles, using the right tools, and exercising sound professional judgment. Let’s walk through how libraries decide what to add to their collections, and the best practices that make the process effective.

Identifying user needs 🔗

The first step in acquisition is also the most fundamental: figuring out what users want and need. A library exists to serve its community, so the needs of users (and even non-users) must guide every decision about what to acquire. If a collection does not reflect the genuine interests and requirements of its readers, even the best-funded library will fail at its core purpose.

Libraries assess these needs in two broad ways: direct methods and indirect methods.

Direct methods of assessing needs 🔗

Direct methods involve actively reaching out to users to ask what they want. The most common approach is the survey or questionnaire, where users are asked about the subjects, formats, and titles they would find useful. Libraries also collect user suggestions through suggestion boxes, recommendation forms, or online portals. Surveys, borrowing data, and user suggestions together help identify the genres, subjects, and formats most valuable to patrons. In academic settings, librarians regularly consult faculty members and research scholars, since they best understand the curriculum and emerging research demands of their departments.

Indirect methods of assessing needs 🔗

Indirect methods rely on observation and data rather than direct questioning. The most powerful of these is the analysis of circulation and usage data. By studying which books are borrowed frequently, which journals are consulted most, and which subjects generate the most requests, librarians can infer where demand lies. Analyzing user feedback, circulation data, and curriculum needs helps determine exactly what materials are required. Other indirect signals include interlibrary loan requests (which reveal gaps in the existing collection) and a study of the community’s demographics, educational background, and cultural profile.

For a public library, this assessment is especially complex. Public library users range across age groups, educational levels, and social and cultural backgrounds, with information needs that are both educational and recreational. The selection policy must account for this diversity. A special library serving an engineering institute, by contrast, will build a deep but narrow collection focused on its area of specialization.

Document selection principles 🔗

Once user needs are understood, the next challenge is choosing the right documents to meet them. This is where the great theorists of library science come in. Their principles, though formulated decades ago, remain the philosophical backbone of collection development today.

Drury’s principle 🔗

Francis K. W. Drury described his approach in his book Book Selection, published by the American Library Association in 1930. His framework is a list of twenty-one points, but the essence can be captured in one famous statement: the aim of selection is “to provide the right book to the right reader at the right time.” Drury placed the reader at the centre of selection. He also stressed evaluating materials carefully for relevance and quality, and considering future demand so that the library acquires documents that remain useful over time.

Dewey’s principle 🔗

Melvil Dewey, the creator of the Dewey Decimal Classification, offered a principle focused on value for money. He held that the librarian should provide “the best reading for the largest number at the least cost.” This means selecting documents that satisfy the genuine demands of users for recreation, knowledge, and study, while being economical in purchasing. Given that every library faces budget limitations, Dewey’s principle urges selectors to maximise the satisfaction of the maximum number of readers within available resources.

Ranganathan’s principles 🔗

Dr. S. R. Ranganathan, widely regarded as the father of library science in India, grounded document selection in his Five Laws of Library Science. He explained how the first three laws guide selection in his 1952 work Library Book Selection.

The First Law, “Books are for use,” means that only those documents should be selected which are of use to the readers of a particular library, keeping both present and future requirements in mind, and avoiding costly books unlikely to be in demand. The Second Law, “Every reader his or her book,” directs the selector to cater to the informational needs of all users, regardless of subject, language, or style. The Third Law, “Every book its reader,” reminds us that a book has a place in the collection even if only a small group of readers will want it, and that the library must devise methods, such as open shelving, to connect each item with its reader.

Ranganathan also classified documents into three categories: those of primary interest to users, those that supplement the basic documents, and those of no relevance to the library’s area of work. This classification helps selectors prioritise wisely.

McColvin’s demand and supply theory 🔗

L. R. McColvin advanced his Demand and Supply Theory of Book Selection in 1925. He argued that books have no real meaning until they are made serviceable by demand, and that the more closely book selection is related to demand, the greater the resulting service. His theory reinforced the idea that user demand should be a central driver of selection. Together, these thinkers established the user as the starting point for all collection development.

Selection tools for acquisition 🔗

Principles tell librarians how to think about selection, but they still need practical tools to discover what materials exist and whether they are worth acquiring. Without these aids, publishers would flood the library with catalogues and announcements, creating an unmanageable workload. Selection tools are therefore time-saving instruments essential to efficient functioning. They fall into several categories.

Bibliographies 🔗

A bibliography is a systematic list of books, articles, and other publications on a subject. Bibliographies are valuable because they provide detailed information about existing literature, allowing librarians to identify gaps in the collection and focus on acquiring essential but missing materials. Many bibliographies include annotations that critically evaluate the documents listed, making it easier to judge relevance and quality. National bibliographies are particularly authoritative for verifying bibliographic details such as author, publisher, and ISBN.

Catalogues and announcements 🔗

Publishers’ catalogues, in print or electronic form, list newly released and forthcoming titles. Reputable publishers regularly send these to libraries, and they help selectors track new materials and negotiate bulk purchase discounts. The catalogues of other libraries are also useful, since they reveal what materials peer institutions found important enough to include, though they should be used with care because they reflect another library’s priorities, not your own.

Reviewing journals 🔗

Reviewing journals offer critical, expert evaluations of newly published works, helping librarians assess quality before committing funds. Internationally respected examples include Library Journal, Booklist, and Choice. In the Indian context, book review sections in newspapers such as The Hindu serve a similar purpose. Reviews do have limitations, including limited coverage and delays before a book is reviewed, so they work best when combined with other tools.

Tools for periodicals and government publications 🔗

Journals require their own selection aids. Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory is a standard source for selecting periodicals, including Indian ones, while indexing and abstracting services and the Guide to Indian Periodicals help identify relevant titles in the social sciences and humanities. Government publications are usually obtained through authorised distributors who acquire the rights to supply them on order.

Methods of acquiring documents 🔗

After selection, the library must actually obtain the documents. There are three primary methods of acquisition.

Purchase is the most common method, where the library buys materials directly from vendors, publishers, or dealers. This may take the form of firm orders for specific titles, standing orders for everything in a particular series, or subscriptions and licences for e-books, online journals, and databases. Before ordering, libraries conduct pre-order bibliographic searching of the catalogue to avoid duplication.

Gifts and donations allow libraries to expand collections without spending from the budget. Donations come from individuals, organisations, alumni, or publishers. However, gift materials must be judged by the same selection criteria as purchased items, and accepted or rejected accordingly.

Exchange involves trading materials with other libraries, either duplicate and unwanted items or newly produced institutional publications. Exchange is especially useful for procuring out-of-print or rare works and publications that are not distributed through normal book trade channels.

Role of librarians in selection 🔗

Tools and principles are only as good as the professional who applies them. Librarians bring a blend of technical and interpersonal competencies to the selection process, and the final acquisition decisions ultimately rest with them.

On the technical side, librarians need a deep understanding of library science, including cataloguing and classification systems and the latest trends in information retrieval and technology. They must understand the academic disciplines their library serves and stay aware of current research and emerging topics that will shape future demand. The rapid shift toward digital resources also requires librarians to be technically equipped to evaluate software, hardware, access methods, and licensing terms.

On the interpersonal side, librarians must be skilled communicators who interact regularly with users to assess their needs, and effective negotiators when dealing with vendors and publishers. While librarians may consult and gather input from faculty, the final acquisition decisions remain the responsibility of the appointed professional librarian. Ideally, multiple staff members review materials, with specific subject areas assigned to specialist selectors.

A formal collection development policy ties all of this together. It defines clear criteria such as relevance, quality, diversity, timeliness, and cost, ensuring decisions are consistent, financially responsible, and aligned with the library’s mission rather than left to individual whim.

Best practices in document acquisition 🔗

Bringing these elements together, a few best practices stand out. Always begin with a genuine assessment of user needs rather than assumptions. Maintain a written collection development policy to guide and justify decisions. Use a combination of selection tools rather than relying on a single source. Verify every potential purchase against the existing catalogue to avoid wasteful duplication. Apply the same quality standards to gifts and donations as to purchased items. Finally, treat selection as an ongoing cycle that includes adding new materials, replacing worn ones, and removing items no longer useful, so the collection stays dynamic and relevant.

What do you think? If you were responsible for building a collection in your own college library, which method of assessing user needs would you trust most, and why? And in an age of e-books and online databases, do you believe the classic principles of Drury, Dewey, and Ranganathan still hold the same value they did decades ago?

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_assessment
2. https://www.lisedunetwork.com/the-book-acquisition-process-in-libraries/
3. https://www.librarianshipstudies.com/2015/05/acquisitions.html
4. https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/34902/1/Unit-5.pdf
5. https://www.lismcqspractice.com/2020/07/book-selection-principles.html
6. https://www.librarianshipstudies.com/2017/09/five-laws-of-library-science.html
7. https://www.liscafey.com/2024/01/documents-selection-principles.html
8. https://ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in/lisp6/chapter/selection-and-acquisition/
9. https://limbd.org/book-selection-tools-and-guides-building-robust-library-collections/
10. https://www.egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/33064/1/Unit-6.pdf
11. https://www.ala.org/tools/challengesupport/selectionpolicytoolkit/acquisitions