Abstract: Presents one of the results produced for one research of three years that had as objective to identify the selection process in the scope of Collections Development of the Real Gabinete Português de Leitura, in Rio de Janeiro. Circumscribed in the activity of selection, the Selection Aids are basic and thus, based on literature, this article identifies and argues their relevance. With respect to bibliography it detaches the articles produced in XIX century with the objective to show a theorical corpus of the librarianship little explored. It concludes detaching the necessity of the use of these resources as form of aids the collections development in libraries.