Selecting non-fiction print materials about anthropology, the environment, and maps and geology is one of my responsibilities as a Reference Librarian at the Main Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (CLP). The main components of the task are (1) selecting a fixed number of books from the myriad that are described in reviewing tools and (2) replacing them with updated information as needed.
The Library’s Collection Development Policy reflects our community, an eclectic mix of persons, households, and races that comprise Pittsburgh City and Allegheny County. It serves the formally educated and the self-taught, and city residents as well as outliers. Most of our constituents are natives of the country; however, they represent more than 20 different ancestral strains.
Fire in My Heart and The Lore of Ireland, items in our popular international folklore collection, may owe their appeal to the heritages expressed in the area. Reading Maps and Designed Maps, both books on cartography, are good examples of addressing differing levels of knowledge and expertise. Finally, the books To Love the Wind and the Rain and Native Americans and the Environment bring to our collection persons who rarely appear in environmental literature.
-Gwendolyn
Eleventh Stack 