Collection Development in Today's World

I found this article in EBSCOhost. It is called “Challenges and Possibilities for Collection Management in a Digital Age” by Tony Horava from Library Resources & Technical Services of July 1, 2010. http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.jjc.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=7&hid=104&sid=d0fd7f6a-0df4-4838-803f-8888f978078b%40sessionmgr104. You will need to log in with your JJC account to access this article.

This article attempts to reconcile the difficulties with collection management and development in the digital age including a glimpse into the future. He proposes that collection development was much easier in the predigital age because resources available were finite. Now, there is too much information to really know what to do with it. Collection development used to include “decisions about weeding, cancelling serials, storage, and preservation.” These things are still important but are quite different. One important change that affects these activities is obviously technology and the way we communicate. With these changes, we as librarians must revaluate our ideas of collection development. I absolutely love the quote that the article uses about what libraries truly are: “libraries are not about books; they were, are, and will be about facilitating communication across space and time. Books have been a way to do that historically, but today there are other, often better, ways to accomplish this. Libraries need to become facile at supporting all sorts of media, and they must continue to embrace the new, or face the consequences of losing relevance to the mainstream culture.” To me, this sums up where libraries are as of right now. We are at a major turning point that will determine our importance in the future. If we are willing to change while still maintaining some of the old aspects of libraries that people enjoy, I think we will still be relevant for years to come. If we try to stay the way we are without even making an attempt to implement change, we will not be relevant to society. In my opinion, one great change that has had an impact on collection management is the development of “resource-sharing networks.” This allows libraries to share so that the libraries may not have to buy as many copies of a certain item. Also, this allows libraries to fill holes in their collection. The biggest challenge for collection development librarians is going to be how to effectively balance all of the library’s resources in order to build a relevant collection. Basically, we must always consider what will get used by the community that the library serves. If we have materials that are not getting used, then we have failed to provide the collection our patrons need or maybe we haven’t marketed our collection in a meaningful way. One point that is brought up in the article is the idea that the internet has brought about a sort of independence among users. They believe they are able to satisfy all their information needs with a simple Google search. Although this is true in some cases where only clarification of a subject is needed, in-depth research will not be addressed with this type of search. We must help our patrons see the wealth of information our collection provides and encourage them to ask questions. The author sums it up when he says “we need to think in terms of a knowledge management approach to our collections.” I believe there is also a need for special collections in both public and academic libraries. The author quotes a member of the ARL when he says we need to recognize “the unique and irreplaceable contribution that special collections make to scholarship and learning and to the general public good.” I find this to be especially true because although there is a ridiculous amount of information available to people, all of it is the same. Special collections allow the library to stay relevant as well as bringing an element of uniqueness to the library where the special collection is preserved. I also believe in having both in-house materials as well as online resources for patrons. If libraries do this with budget in mind, the collections will remain visible to users. At the end of the article, the author outlines ten ideas that can “redefine collection management in the networked era.” These ideas include: sustainability, considering what a collection does, change, effective decision-making about formats, reevaluating current practices, balancing competition and collaboration, seeking creative partnerships with publishers and vendors, measuring collection value in new ways, exploiting our new understanding of the collection to the best of our ability, and expanding our skills and expertise. If we do these things, the author believes the library will stay relevant to its users in future generations. I happen to agree because all of these ideas involve change and that’s exactly where the library world is heading.