Editorial Note, Collection Management, 47:2-3 (original) (raw)
2021
The development of academic library collections and the guarantee of their quality and coherence have for decades depended on the knowledge of the subject specialist. Yet with the advent of information technology the importance of subject domain knowledge and disciplinary structures within the library has been challenged. The research issue investigated here has been stimulated by the paucity of studies on collection development as applied to a single academic discipline, English Literature. This study seeks to explore how collection decisions are made and what contextual factors influence the thinking of academic librarians. Therefore rather than simply gathering facts the focus of this study is on individual perspectives. Furthermore, it takes a deliberately holistic approach by examining collection development in the round instead of looking at a particular component. The key findings of this study are that traditional collection development continues to be a critical responsibil...
Romance novels in american public libraries: A study of collection development practices
Library Collections Acquisitions & Technical Services, 2008
In library literature, the collection of romance novels has produced a fairly vociferous debate that has not surrounded other genres. However, there is relatively little in the literature that examines current practices. The authors conducted a national survey, asking libraries how they acquired romance novels for their libraries, what their proportional expenditures were for romance, and the extent of their romance collections. Responses suggested that libraries in general have sizeable romance collections. Some libraries do indeed have smaller collections and spend little or no money on the romance genre. Little is known about public libraries' collection development practices for any genre, and these results help fill that gap in the library literature. Results also suggest that library and information science education, beyond supporting leisure reading, ought to emphasize the roles that leisure reading serves for readers.
The Child, the Scholar, and the Children's Literature Archive
The Lion and the Unicorn, 2011
Welcome to the Archive I'm sitting in the second-floor reading room of what was formerly the main library at the University of Florida, an older building now called Library East, and home of Special and Area Studies Collections. It's a gorgeous room, with soaring walls, windows, and tapestries, recalling the interior of a church. There's no altar, and the room seems wider than your standard sanctuary, but it still has a nave-like feel, as if funneling energy forward and upward. There's an alcove on the left, behind the request desk, a processing office that leads to a maze of workspaces. Not so imposing as, say, the reading room of the New York Public Library, this space seems just right: large enough to suggest the size and stretch of knowledge, small enough to be comfortable. The new main library, part of Library West, was recently remodeled, and boasts many amenities as well as a contemporary, open look. Computer terminals abound, and there's of course a Starbucks. Library East, in contrast, is the library of yesteryear. It opened in 1926 as the main library and was renamed Library East in 1967, with the advent of Library West next door. Later still, it became Smathers Library. Hushed tones are still the norm here. There are fewer students and computers, and no public circulation of coffee. Library East houses UF's Special and Area Studies Collections, including the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature, which I am consulting today. The legacy of library science professor Ruth Baldwin, who came to UF in 1977, the Baldwin Library holds over 100,000 volumes published in Great Britain and the United States since the mid-1600s. In size and scope it is one of the most important collections in the world. It is, of course, non-circulating, and must be accessed in the reading room.
The Organization of Collection Management in Academic Libraries
Collection management in Academic Libraries. 2nd ed., 2000
There is no agreed usage for the terms collection development and collection management - in fact the two are used as rather loose synonyms. However, reflection would demonstrate that they do imply different concepts and some distinction is a necessary preamble to any discussion. Collection development relates to the selection and acquisition of material for an expanding collection and decisions on the material to be included in that collection. Collection management may subsume this, but also includes the allocation of the bookfund and the balance between books, journals and conservation; the disposition of stock between open and closed access, between different media and between branches of the library and stores; and, finally, the monitoring and encouragement of collection use. In sum, collection management also includes issues concerned with conservation and disposal, and is aimed more at the presentation of the collection to the user than at the collection itself. It should be clear from this wide definition of collection management that a variety of types of staff will be involved in different ways and at different times. As with all library activities there is no 'right' or 'wrong' way to manage the activity. The library must decide the importance it attaches to the management of its collections and then deploy staff and other resources in the light of local needs and opportunities.
A Contribution to Improve the Children’s Catalogue of the Public Library
Ibersid: revista de sistemas de información y documentación, 2007
Esta comunicación tiene como objeto el catálogo Infanto Juvenil (IJ) de la Biblioteca Pública Portuguesa (BPP) y tiene como objetivo principal contribuir a su mejora. Se describe el contexto del paradigma comunicativo de la biblioteca contemporánea, como un encuadramiento que fundamenta una evolución del concepto de catálogo y hace emerger el concepto de catálogo infantil- juvenil. Se hace una identificación y caracterización de los catálogos, de las colecciones y de los espacios especialmente dedicados al público infantil- juvenil en 115 bibliotecas públicas Portuguesas (BPP). Se focalizan los catálogos dedicados a este público para encuadrar la futura implementación de una ontología que, interviniendo en la subestructura del catálogo, haga emerger as relaciones entre objetos y mejore el espacio de diálogo idealizado para el catálogo infantil- juvenil de la Biblioteca Pública.
Collectors and Libraries: Some Studies in Symbiosis
1993
On May 17, 1904, a four-year-old boy stood quietly at the dedication of a library his late father had decreed should be built and turned over to Brown University in Rhode Island. “A child bearing the name of his honored father has presented to you the keys of this building,” Robert Hale Ives Goddard declared on the youngster’s behalf: “No words of mine can add to the dignity or to the pathos with which this simple ceremony is invested. Enclosed within these walls is a matchless collection—the harvest of centuries of learning and of historical research. The books which . . .
A STUDY ON COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT BOOKS IN COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE LIBRARY
Academic Library system, College Meaning, College Library, Objective of College Library, Functions of college Library, Library resources, Responsibility of Librarian and Staff, Services of college library, Core services, Collection, Use of college library, Processing, Users of college, library, Book selection in college library, Sources if book selection, Tools of book selection, Tools of periodicals selection, Automation in College libraries, Network of libraries, Place of college library in education, Factors that bring vitality to college library. In these days of cut backs and layoffs, many subject specialist librarians have been let go and replaced with book jobber library profiles to provide some resources, so librarians should be encourages to work with those [people in the institute who have great knowledge of the fields being taught-faculty members. Professors do order some of the library collection to support their teaching needs, and must stay current when it comes to the information available in their subject areas. What better source can collections librarians utilize for evaluation? Often, they can pinpoint gaps in the collection which have existed for a long time. Cooperation between faculty and librarians is a very important component and any barriers so it, should be broken down for the common good.