Competency F: Information Retrieval Systems
Use the basic concepts and principles related to the selection, evaluation, organization, and preservation of physical and digital information items.
Introduction to Competency F
I understand this competency as the full life of an item in a collection. Someone decides that it belongs, judges its quality and fit, arranges it so that it can be found and used, and takes responsibility for keeping it usable over time. The competency names both physical and digital items, and my work has involved both, often in the same project. A take-home kit contains printed objects that must survive handling and digital files that must stay reachable through a link.
Selection is the first of these decisions and the one that shapes the rest. Johnson (2018) presents collection development as a planned activity guided by the mission of the institution, the needs of its community, and stated criteria, and not as a matter of personal taste. Criteria make selection defensible and repeatable. They also make it possible to explain a choice to a patron, a colleague, or a funder. Evaluation continues after selection, because an item that met the criteria when it was acquired may stop serving its users.
The kinds of items libraries select have widened. Robison and Shedd (2017) document the growth of the Library of Things, in which libraries lend tools, equipment, kits, and other objects alongside books. A collection of things raises questions that a book collection does not. Each item needs instructions, parts have to be counted on return, some items must be cleaned between borrowers, and equipment wears out. Selection for a Library of Things therefore has to include an honest judgment about whether the library can maintain the item, and not only about whether patrons would want it.
Preservation is the part of this competency I have thought about most. Conway (2010) separates digitization from digital preservation. Making a digital copy of an object is one act. Keeping that digital file usable for decades is a different and continuing responsibility. Conway also makes the point that digitization involves choices, and that each choice determines what later users will be able to see. I learned this directly when I tried to preserve artwork that is meant to disappear. A scan is a new object with its own strengths and losses. It is never the original.
This competency matters to me because I make things, and many of the things I make are intended to circulate. I have been a chalk artist since 2008, working in a form where the original always washes away, so preservation has never been an abstract subject for me. At Scottsdale Public Library I selected and produced the contents of a kit for patrons who could not easily visit a museum. In the Library Technology Integration Lab I chose software for older adults to use in virtual reality. In each case I had to state why an item belonged, what it would do for the user, and how it would be cared for.
The competency matters to the profession because a collection is a set of promises. A library that offers an item is telling its community that the item is worth their time and that it will be there, in working order, when they come for it. Selection without criteria wastes money. Preservation without honesty about loss misleads future users about what they are looking at. The evidence below shows me preserving a physical work in digital form, selecting digital items against stated criteria, and selecting and creating physical items from museum collections.
Evidence
My preparation for this competency came from my work at Scottsdale Public Library on the Museum 2 You program and from my INFO 298 special study in the Library Technology Integration Lab. I also studied photogrammetry while developing the museum kit. [Name any MLIS course that covered collection development or preservation, if you took one.]
Evidence 1: “Photogrammetry & the Chalk Festival” (published article and 3D model collection)
This article was published in the Spring/Summer 2026 issue of Archeota, beginning on page 17. It describes my use of photogrammetry to record chalk murals at a street painting festival and refers to the resulting three-dimensional models, which I host on Sketchfab.
The article demonstrates preservation of a physical item in digital form, including the selection of a method and an evaluation of the result. I explain why conventional photographs fall short: they are taken from one ladder at one angle and distort the scale of a large mural. I explain how photogrammetry reconstructs the geometry of the work from overlapping images, and I trace the method to its origin in nineteenth-century architectural documentation. I then evaluate what the method loses. The colors in the models are less vivid than in a photograph, and the glitter in the pastels does not survive the process. When I attempted to scan an artist at work, using more than 60 images, the result captured little above her shoulders. The article ends by stating that a gap remains between the archive and the moment it records. That evaluation is the part of the article I consider most relevant to this competency. [This article is also used in Competency A. Present it there as an example of consent and honest representation.]
Evidence 2: Seniors VR Kit: At-a-Glance App Guide and kit contents (selection of digital and physical items)
I designed this kit in Fall 2025 in the Library Technology Integration Lab for use by activity directors who work with older adults. The manual lists the physical contents of the kit and includes an app guide covering the applications recommended in its session plans.
The kit demonstrates selection and evaluation against stated criteria. I drew the applications from the catalog maintained by XR Libraries and organized them by type: music, art, travel, learning, stories, puzzles, and relaxation. I then rated each one on two scales that matter for this population. Comfort covers cognitive load and the intensity of sights, sounds, and perceived motion. Exertion covers the physical effort required. The ratings let a facilitator choose an application for a particular person without testing each one first. The physical items were selected on the same reasoning. The kit includes a comfort strap, silicone covers, and disposable fabric covers because the stated design considerations were comfort and cleanliness for immunocompromised seniors. The manual also addresses care of the items, requiring that the silicone cover be sanitized between every use. [This kit is also used in Competency C.]
Evidence 3: Museum2You: An Overview of the Museum Box Project (presentation)
This presentation gives an overview of the Museum 2 You project for Scottsdale Public Library. [State the date and audience. The title slide says Spring 2025, and the closing slide invites viewers to a California Library Association virtual poster session on October 17, 2024.]
The presentation demonstrates selection of items for a defined audience and the creation of physical items from existing collections. It first identifies the intended patrons: older or homebound adults and patrons with mobility, visual, or hearing impairments. It then lists what was selected for the box and where each item came from. Virtual tours and audio were assembled from existing material held by a Western art museum, a railroad museum, and the library’s own collection. Bas-relief prints were produced from images in the existing collection, and three-dimensional copies of artifacts were made with photogrammetry and a 3D printer. Braille materials and captioned video made the content usable by the intended patrons. The presentation names the preservation of cultural heritage as one of the benefits supported by research, and it notes that the finished items could join the library’s Library of Things. The related framework guide I wrote reminds staff to research intellectual property rights before making copies of museum objects, which is an evaluation step that belongs to selection.
Conclusion
I will apply this competency whenever I build or choose materials for circulation, by writing down the criteria first and by planning for the care of each item before it is lent. I will also continue to record ephemeral artwork and to state plainly what each record leaves out. To stay current I will follow the Digital Preservation Coalition and its handbook, the National Digital Stewardship Alliance for standards of practice, and Archeota and the Society of American Archivists for work by archivists on new forms of material. [Add any makerspace or Library of Things community you follow.]
References
Conway, P. (2010). Preservation in the age of Google: Digitization, digital preservation, and dilemmas. The Library Quarterly, 80(1), 61–79. https://doi.org/10.1086/648463
Johnson, P. (2018). Fundamentals of collection development and management (4th ed.). ALA Editions.
Robison, M., & Shedd, L. (Eds.). (2017). Audio recorders to zucchini seeds: Building a library of things. Libraries Unlimited.