Collection Development Best PracticesThis is a featured page

Thanks to everyone for attending this breakout session! Feel free to add your own ideas & comments to the wiki page below.

Breakout Session Notes
Hosts: Melissa McElroy-Elve & Penelope Klein
Scribe: Erin Dorney

Why did you come to this session & what are some of your thoughts about collection development best practices?
  • Everyone talks about best practices but what are they really?
  • I'm consulting with member libraries and want to pass on good information to them.
  • Organizational changes are resulting in the realization that there is a lack of faculty input on collection development.
  • I'm updating collection policies in a high school library setting.
  • I have no experience with collection developemt andwant to learn!
  • We're going through re-accreditation process and there is currently no collection development plan. We are struggling with the balance between electronic and print collections.

Retention & Continual access:
  • Some libraries have arranged a policy where if a journal is in Portico, we cancel the print subscription. Others are doing the same thing with Jstor or other full text aggregators.
  • This is sometimes not as much of a problem for public libraries. It is less of an issue due to the strong reliance on interlibrary loan and less of a need for older periodical issues.
  • If continual access is unavailable in public libraries and unavailable in academic libraries, then it's an issue of information loss. There needs to be a conversation between both entities.

Print & Electronic:
  • Some libraries have a poblem with storage & mold issues, and have has to get rid of a lot of their print issues.
  • We're finding that undergraduate students don't want to look at print resources. Usage is down, making it difficult to justify budget requests.
  • Some libraries are holding current issues only, with everything else offsite or in storage.
  • Some libraries are seeing the rearrangement of periodicals due to issues of storage & space. Some are replacing stacks with computers.
  • In terms of the quality of the resource, how do we teach the differences between popular and scholarly resources when looking at an html/PDF as compared to a physical copy of the journal/magazine?

Ebooks:
  • Collection development isn't really being thought about except on the level of the subject librarian purchasing a single Ebook.
  • There's nothing to say all of the budget can't be spent on Ebooks (or physical monographs).
  • One public library who just purchased some Ebooks went with travel and languages (things people might want small portions of that would be transportable) and they have been used.
  • Some libraries are using or thinking about Overdrive. However, people with iPods can't use this service.
  • Playaway
  • In a public library system with multiple branches, ideally, the system would buy Ebooks for everyone but not all libraries are monetarily buying in (for both databases and Ebooks).
  • We need Ebook collection development written policies.
    • Used to prioritize resources request
    • Use for annual evaluation
  • Some libraries are buying more ebooks (via Netlibrary), even for reference resources. Statistics show that they're being used, but who knows how extensively they are being read.

ILL/Course Reserves:
  • How does collection development work with licensing for ILL?
  • Public libraries seem to be doing very little ILL, using it mostly for specialized sources.
  • ILL and course reserve librarians can/are/should be reading all licensing agreements to ensure compliance.
  • Consortial work is being effected by the purchase of Ebooks (which aren't usually shared via Connect NY or ILL). This created problems.

Sometimes librarians want to move forward using new technologies, but our users want to use old technologies (vhs, audio casettes). How does that effect collection development and allocation of resources?

Tools Being Used for Collection Development:
  • Books on the air
  • Book Letters
  • Books in Print Plus
  • Shelfari & LibraryThing
  • Non-techie resources: Libraries are reaching out to the community (domestic violence shelter, doctors, physical therapists) to ask what they're recommending so that the library can purchase and offer these resources to patrons.

Best Practices:
  • Educate users
  • Communication with users
  • Start small with Ebooks
  • Written and updated policies
  • Be proactive

Resources
Twiki

"Creating a Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections" by Timothy W. Cole here.

"Rethinking Collections--Libraries and librarians in an open age: A theoretical view" by Heather Morrison here.

Conference to attend (in China!)



edorney
edorney 		Latest page update: made by edorney , Mar 5 2008, 1:49 PM EST (about this update About This Update edorney Edited by edorney

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