As part of our review of the past decade, we are interviewing Theresa Power, our Content and Access Librarian for CELA, to chat about all things collection related.
Theresa tell us a bit about yourself.
Hi there! My name is Theresa Power, and I am the Content & Access Librarian for CELA. My job is collection development meaning I select and oversee the addition of books and materials to our collection. I’ve been with CELA for over 8 years, and previous to that I was with the CNIB Library. I’m an avid mystery lover but do a lot of committee work reading and evaluating kids and teen titles. This volunteer work has been with the Forest of Reading, and currently as Co-Chair of the OLA Best Bets Committee.
CELA’s collection has grown a lot in the last decade. How many books are in the collection and how many do you add each year?
There’s well over a million titles in the CELA collection. This includes both the Bookshare collection, and the CELA collection. Last year alone we added over 2,700 commercial audiobooks to our collection, as well as continuing to order titles for original production monthly.
How do you determine which books should be added to the CELA collection?
We use our collection development policy, and the selection criteria within it, to guide how we build the collection. As a Canadian organization, our focus is always on providing Canadian titles to our patrons, but we also know that people love the bestsellers and popular authors. Sometimes we’re lucky and these overlap! We’re also looking for recently published and timely content, and pride ourselves on being able to provide books on hot topics, current trends and big events. Right now, there’s a lot being published about AI, so we’ve added new books, that make sense for our collection, for patrons who are interested in learning the basics and how AI might impact their lives. A good deal of our collection development also goes to supporting the many Canadian awards for which we are partnered, like the Governor General Awards, Gillers, First Nation Communities Reads, the BC and Yukon Book Prizes, and many more. Overall, we strive to have a collection that would look very much like what a medium sized public library would have for their patrons.
How do you stay on top of reading trends?
By reading, of course! I read a lot of articles, bestseller lists and keep on top of some popular websites that span from more literary to the opposite, to keep apprised of as many genres as possible. We also follow a number of awards outside of the big Canadian ones, like the Lambda Literary Awards, celebrating LGBTQ2S+ books, the Spur Awards, for westerns, the Hugo’s for science fiction, the Edgar’s for mystery, etc. All of these angles provide a really good overview of what’s going on in the literary world. Sometimes, the topic is so hot, that news appears in general press.
How much of a role do patron requests play into your decisions?
Patron requests play a large role in how we build our collection. We always love to hear from our patrons and what books they’d like to read, and in many ways these requests inform many of our orders. Conservatively, we either purchase or produce hundreds of patron requests every fiscal year. We review each request on a weekly basis and note it. Some requests are easy to fulfil – they are the bestsellers and popular reads, many of which we can obtain commercially; some are a bit more difficult or take time, because they are obtained through other avenues. Unfortunately, we can’t add everyone’s requests, and this can be for a variety of reasons. Some requests are for books that are quite old. They may be too difficult or pricey to obtain or out of print. Sometimes, the request is for a book that is very niche, and may not be of broader interest to our readers. We also look to see if a book has been reviewed, which is a good way to get a sense not only of what a book is like, but also what the community thinks of it.
We’ve recently revamped our title suggestion form, to help people understand the process of how we choose books . We have also included additional information including timelines, and other options if you’re book isn’t selected.
What’s the process for making an accessible book and how do you determine which books to include in which formats?
Each book that we’d like to add to the collection is checked against a number of resources for availability. If a book is available commercially, we would purchase it, if budget allows. If it’s available through the Accessible Book Consortium, we could acquire it that way. If there is no other way to add it other than produce an alternative format from scratch, we send it to our production partners. They order the physical copy of the book, and once received, send it to the appropriate department, depending on what format has been chosen. In terms of which format we prioritize for production, well that’s a bit complicated. If a commercial book is available already, we may choose braille for original production, because it’s a Canadian title or an award winner. Sometime we choose ePub as a format, to expedite it arriving in the collection. Children’s picture books are typically done in uncontracted printbraille. So, in short, which format we choose depends on a number of factors, including whether it was a request from a patron for that particular format, the timeliness of it’s addition to the collection, whether it is a Canadian title, or not, what other format might already be available, and a decision on whether we should supplement that format or not with another.
CELA works with a lot of award programs now – why do you think it is important to have those books in the CELA collection?
We have definitely see a correlation between awards announcements and requests from patrons for books, so we know that we have many people who want to read and participate. Part of the importance is equity in reading: a person reading a print book for an award would have the same opportunity as someone who would read the braille, or who would listen to the audiobook. As a Canadian organization, we also want to support Canadian writing and these awards as much as possible. I’d also consider following many of these awards to be similar to following the Spurs or the Lambdas, in that we’re getting a sense of what’s the best of the best in a particular category (I’d argue Canadian literature but also largely serious and literary books, though not always!).
Do you have any particular genres or categories of books that you focus on?
Canadian always! But we also try to focus on books that represent and reflect diverse communities and viewpoints, and to satisfy the recreational, educational and life-long learning needs for patrons of differing ages, backgrounds, tastes, interests and purposes. Diversity and inclusion speak in part, but not exclusively to, materials by or about: Black, Indigenous and other racialized communities; individuals in the LGBTQ2S+ community; diversity of family structure; people with a disability; the refugee and new immigrant experience; those struggling with mental health, chronic illness or other complex health issues; and body diversity, to name a few. I’d also like to emphasize that we always strive to add titles by Canadian Indigenous, Metis and Inuit peoples, and partner with a number of awards that celebrate these books.
What about adding self published titles in the CELA collection?
The landscape of self-publishing has changed even while I have been working professionally. Originally we did not add any self-published titles to the collection, which follows the collection development policies of many public libraries. In the past few years this has shifted, and we do consider self-published books by and about people with a disability, as this focus fits well with our collection and our organization. We also recognize that these voices may find difficulty entering main stream publishing, and we do not want to lose these stories as a result. That being said, every title submitted is evaluated with the same collection development criteria as any other title suggestion, and any suggestion doesn’t necessarily guarantee addition to the collection.
How has your job changed since you joined CELA?
My job has changed immensely since I started working within this sphere almost 15 years ago, not just that I changed from one organization to another, and became a virtual employee as well! I remember a time when we were really only doing original production and book choices were limited, as we always strived to not duplicate our work. While titles were available in audio or braille, for example, they weren’t available to us to add to the collection. This has shifted monumentally with our partnerships with Audible, Penguin Random House Canada, the addition of many more Authorized Entities for global exchanges, and as a result books, to the Accessible Books Consortium, and also with our ability to purchase commercially through Overdrive. The landscape is forever changing, but these change see doors only opening to us now, not closing. I can’t overstate how satisfying it is get that latest James Patterson or Norah Roberts, because I remember a time when we just couldn’t make them available, and it was incredibly frustrating. Now our problem is being able to catch up and purchase and add everything that is available to us. I guess it’s not the worse place we could be.
What’s your favourite thing about your job?
Spending other peoples money on books. (grin!)
Thanks Theresa!