1. Article Review of “Collection
Development and Psychology of
Bias”
Shallon Gabel
2. Quinn, B. (2012). Collection
development and psychology of
bias. Library
Quarterly, 82(3), 277-304.
3. Two Types of Bias
While most librarians try to avoid bias when
selecting materials for a collection by thinking
about it in an ethical sense, Quinn explains that
there are psychological factors involved that are
mostly unconscious.
Using previous research and offering examples,
Quinn explains how bias can appear in library’s
selections, and how they can be avoided.
He describes two main types of bias and their
subcategories
Cognitive Bias
Deals with one’s thoughts
Affective Bias
4. Cognitive Bias
Cognitive biases are thoughts or beliefs that one
has that can affect what titles one chooses for a
collection. One may choose a title over another
because it is similar to his culture, or because he
has a memory about the certain topic. Some
these types of this bias are:
Age
Memories
Positive (bias)
Intuition
5. Affective Bias
Affective bias is ruled by one’s emotions. Whether
one is in a bad or good mood can affect which
titles are chosen for a collection.
If one is depressed, he may choose more “sad”
titles, but if one is angry, he may choose titles that
are the opposite of his actual beliefs.
6. How to Avoid Bias
Write down the controversial subjects before
making selections.
This helps the selector to pay attention to how many
materials they should have for each view of the
topic.
The selector should also check what the library
already carries for each side.
Recognize one’s own feelings at the time and
biases one may have.
Provide an online tutorial for people to take about
bias, so they can be more aware of what biases
they may have.
