Robust collection management is necessary for a school library to fulfil the needs of the curriculum, and the needs and interests of the students who use it. These aims are threatened by self-censorship, which excludes material that would otherwise suit the collection and support the intellectual, social, and emotional development of the students. Detailed understanding of the reasons behind self-censorship could aid attempts to mitigate it. However, there is little literature about self-censorship in school libraries, especially within New Zealand; the literature that does exist tends to either be anecdotal or lack depth. Furthermore, while strategies to mitigate self-censorship frequently hinge on adopting collection management policies, formal processes for challenges, and statements about intellectual freedom, there are preliminary indications that this has little effect in practice — but again, a dearth of literature makes it difficult to make definitive statements.
A school library supports its students both in their academic needs and in their interests. For the library to be at its best, the collection should be carefully developed and maintained. The need to support the curriculum is one of the primary focuses of a school library’s collection. Material purchased for this purpose should be accurate, authoritative, reliable, and current. Tilke, and the Australian School Library Association (ASLA) and Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) noted that teachers should be consulted, so that the librarian is able to ensure materials meet educational needs.
Material should also reflect students’ own interests in reading material; no matter how well-reviewed a piece is, it is unlikely to be used if students simply do not care about it. Morris noted that it is just as important to cater to non-users as it is to users of the library — ignoring non-users tends not to turn them into users. He also stated that catering to students’ interests is more effective when the librarian gets to know the interests and backgrounds of individual students, rather than just the broader trends in the collective mass. Another helpful way of learning what students are interested in reading is to solicit requests.
Other criteria which may be considered during selection are literary excellence, perhaps as noted in reviews from reliable sources; the format of the material; the quality of its presentation; and the state of the current collection — the question of whether a new addition would add something that the collection currently lacks.
For materials to remain relevant to the curriculum and to students’ interests – and for the collection to remain a reasonable size – weeding is a necessity. Items can be weeded when they become outdated, or are otherwise shown to be inaccurate; are unpopular (for instance, circulate poorly); or are worn out, damaged, or otherwise in poor condition.
When considering collection management, it is also important for the librarian to get to know the local community and its own interests and needs. It is particularly important to take different ethnic and religious identification into account, and to cater to the languages spoken in the community. Keeping this in mind, the collection should be diverse, balanced, and present a wide spectrum of viewpoints across both fiction and non-fiction.  A diverse collection supports a broader schoolwide commitment to supporting the diversity of its community, which includes catering to students with special learning needs and different levels of reading ability.
