Chapter: Collection Development
Policy Number: 4.03
Original Effective Date: 9/19/18
Revision History: 2/17/21, 9/15/21, 8/13/25
Purpose
The Maude Shunk Local History Room is the area within the Menomonee Falls Public Library for collecting, preserving, and making accessible special collections of materials with enduring historical value that document the social, educational, economic, or political development of the Village of Menomonee Falls and surrounding communities.
Collections in the Maude Shunk Local History Room
The items in these special collections are distinguished from the Menomonee Falls Public Library’s general holdings by virtue of the material’s uniqueness, rarity, physical format, content or depth of subject, or intrinsic or monetary value warranting special treatment regarding housing, cataloging, preservation, or use.
The Library collects a wide variety of formats which may include (but are not limited to) paper documents, electronic and born-digital records, photographic media, audio, and moving images. In addition to the subject content, Library staff also consider long term preservation needs and capabilities, as well as duplicate copies when adding materials to our holdings. In general, museum objects (with or without provenance) are not collected at the Library.
Collections may include but are not limited to: the Digital History Lab and Digital Archive, reference collection, collections kept in storage, collections owned by the Menomonee Falls Area Historical Society, and online collections available on Recollection Wisconsin.
Gifts and Donations
Menomonee Falls Public Library accepts donations that fall within the scope of the Collection Development and Maude Shunk Local History Special Collections Management Policies. All donations or gifts are subject to review by the Library staff and may be declined. The Library reserves the right to decline any acquisition, including but not limited to, the following reasons:
- Inability of the Library to provide suitable space, staffing, supplies and equipment. While the lack of one or more of these does not constitute a compelling reason for refusing archives and manuscripts, deficiency in one or more may constitute grounds for a temporary delay in acquisition.
- Inability to provide sufficient support to preserve and provide access to the archival records.
- Materials do not fit within the scope of the Policies.
- Materials can be readily found in other area archives or libraries (e. newspapers, books, published and unpublished ephemera).
- Donor’s ownership of the materials is in question or disputed.
Once a donation is accepted, a staff member will prepare a deed of gift specifying the materials to be donated, which then must be signed by the donor. This deed of gift transfers any rights the donor may have concerning ownership or—in most cases–copyright to the Menomonee Falls Public Library. Special conditions may be specified by the donor, but the Library may refuse any donation in which it deems the conditions of use are overly restrictive.
If a donor would like their collection appraised for tax purposes, this should be done before collection is donated. The Library may only acknowledge receipt of the donation and will not perform an appraisal.
De-selection of Materials
In order to maintain a viable and useful collection and to assure adequate space for its housing, the Library may occasionally remove items from the special collections. On a highly selective basis, materials that have become obsolete, fall outside the collection rationale outlined in this policy, are no longer relevant, or are in poor physical condition may be withdrawn from the collection and returned to the original donor, offered to a more appropriate repository, transferred to the general Library holdings, be disposed of, or sold.