Collection Profile and Collection Policy: Mongui Maduro Library

Abstract

June 6, 2022

The Mongui Maduro Library  (MML) is a leading research library on the Dutch Caribbean island Curacao. The library started out  in the early 20th century as a private collection of businessman Salomon  Abraham Levy  Maduro who went by the name of Mongui Maduro.  Through the ages MML developed itself into an invaluable resource center for researchers with a unique collection of documents about Curaçao’s Jewish heritage and  the social and cultural history of Curaçao.  However until a few years ago  MML did not have a collection policy.  All publications  about Curacao and that were published and  seemed of interest  were acquired and added to the library collection.  On a regular basis private persons offered book collections, rare documents , archives and other documents to MML  and all these items were added to the MML collections without any selection criterium. In 2019 management decided that a collection profile and a collection policy were needed. The collection profile was developed on the basis of the mission and vision of  MML.  By using the  the conspectus method the MML librarians  determined what the ideal composition of the collection should be.  The key topics of this ideal collection and collection priorities were translated in to codes representing the main groups of the DDC classification. Since 2020 all documents that are offered to MML are tested against this collection profile before it is decided whether or not they will be added to the collection. In this way step by step the Library collection will become a mirror of the ideal collection. In this paper we will outline the process which resulted in the current collection policy. Since this was an important step in the professionalization process of  MML it can serve as an example for other research libraries.