School of Library and Information Science

University of Kentucky

<http://www.uky.edu/CIS/SLIS/>

____________________

 

LIS 659 001 & 002 Collection Development

 

Instructor: Dennis Carrigan                                                                           E-mail carrigan@uky.edu

Spring Semester 2006

January 11 – May 5, 2006

 

“Collections are the concrete expressions of the public library’s mission….”

Kathleen de la Pena McCook

Introduction to Public Librarianship (p.275)

 

Course Syllabus

____________________

 

The description for LIS 659, Collection Development, reads:

Intellectual and administrative aspects of building, maintaining, and evaluating library collections. Top­ics include: library cooperation, national standards, writing and implementing collection policies, strate­gies of selection and evaluation, contemporary publishing and book trade, electronic information resources.

     

What is “collection development”? There are numerous definitions, and the ALA Glossary definition will serve for now to answer that question:

A term which encompasses a number of activities related to the development of the library collection, including the determi­nation and coordination of selection policy, assessment of needs of users and potential users, col­lection use studies, collection evaluation, iden­tifi­cation of collection needs, selection of mater­ials, planning for resource sharing, collection main­tenance, and weeding.

(I provide additional definitions of, and comments about, collection development at the end of the syllabus.)

 

LIS 659  is an introductory course in collection development. In the course I intend to:

·   Offer a blend of the theoretical and practical, but emphasize the practical. I believe there is important theoretical underpin­ning for collec­tion develop­ment, and I also believe that the indivi­dual with collec­tion development responsibilities is in a bet­ter position to perform the practical aspects of the work if s/he has been exposed to, and takes seriously, the theoret­ical underpin­ning. However, the course will have a practical orienta­tion, which I believe is appropriate at the master's level.

·   Discuss col­lection development, and related activities and is­sues, in aca­demic and pub­lic li­brar­ies.

·   Have professionals from the field talk to the class. I have learned from teaching this course that students appreciate speakers from the “real world,” whose comments make the class more val­u­able to those enrolled in it.

 

Textbook: We will use this textbook: G. Edward Evans and Margaret Zarnosky Saponaro, Developing Library and Information Center Collections, 5th ed, Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2005. (The 4th edition will not work.)

 

Additional reading: In addition to the textbook, we will read and discuss a number of articles. Citations to them appear in the class schedule, below. Most are available through UK Libraries online full-text resources.

 

E-mail communication: I will use e-mail to communicate with students in the class and may send Word-file attachments. Also, using e-mail will let us discuss course-related things at other than class meetings. This will require each student to have an e-mail account. I hope you will send course-related comments and questions to everyone in the class. Using the e-mail Address Book makes that easier.

 

URLs: As you know, the World Wide Web makes easily available a remarkable volume and variety of information, and many entries in the class schedule contain URLs for relevant sites. I recently checked all of the URLs. Still, some may change during the semester. If you find that one has changed, please let the rest of us know.

 

Exams: There will be three exams, two in-class short-answer and one out-of-class essay. Each will be worth 50 points, 1/3 of course grade. All students will take the in-class exams at the same time and location. The dates are in the class schedule, as are the distribution- and due-date for the out-of-class exam. Here is additional information about the exams:

·   short-answer exams: Questions on the exams will pertain to (i) class lectures, including what guest lecturers say to the class, (ii) the Evans text, and (iii) other readings that are discussed in class. The final exam will be comprehensive, i.e., will include material for the entire course. However, in it I will emphasize material covered subsequent to the first exam. Each short-answer exam will count for 1/3 of course grade. Dates of exams are shown in the class schedule.

·   essay exam: I will give you a collection development-related topic at one class meeting, and you will have to write an essay on it and submit the essay to me not later than the start of the next class meeting. This exam will count for 1/3 of course grade. Distribution and due date for the essay exam are shown in the class schedule.

 

Term paper: I am not requiring a term paper.

 

Terms: A page of the syllabus following the class schedule has a number of terms that will come up in the course. The student who has completed a course in collection development should be familiar with the terms and be able to define each term or provide the appropriate term if a definition or description or situation is given. The terms have been known to appear on the exams in the course.

 

Grading: The Graduate School Bulletin has this to say about grading:

        The grading in graduate courses is done according to the following scale:

            A-High achievement

            B-Satisfactory achievement

            C-Minimum passing grade

            E-Failure

In the course, I intend to adhere to that scale. In my experience, the number is not large of those whose work shows truly high achievement. Yet, according to the Graduate School Bulletin, only such work merits the grade of A. As a result, grading will be on a curve, and the curve will be based on a modal grade of B+.

 

Grade of I (incomplete): Except in unusual circumstances, I will not assign a grade of I. Rather, at the end of the semester I will assign the appro­priate grade, A through E, based on what the student has earned on the exams.

 

Attendance and class discussion: The modal grade of B+ assumes no more than 2 absences. Although this is primarily a lecture course, nevertheless I encourage class discussion.

 

Course outline:

Collection development

      what it is

      what makes it critically important

Collection management

Universe of materials and resources

Selecting from the universe

Acquiring from the universe

Related issues:

   Evaluation

Deselection

Resource Sharing

Cooperative collectn developmt

Legal issues

Preservation

Censorship

 

Chapters in the Evans and Saponaro text:

   1      Information Age – Information Society

   2      Information Needs Assessment

   3      Collection Development Policies

   4      Selection Process in Practice

   5      Producers of Information Materials

   6      Serials – Print and Electronic

   7      Other Electronic Materials

   8      Government Information

   9      Audiovisual Materials

10      Acquisitions

11      Distributors and Vendors

12      Fiscal Management

13      Deselection

14      Evaluation

15      Resource Sharing

16      Protecting the Collection

17      Legal Issues

18      Censorship, Intellectual Freedom, and…

 

Class schedule:

 

Collection Development – Its Essence and Importance

 

Jan 12 Lecture #1 Introduction: collection development defined; collection development vs collection management; importance of library service model for collection development; service models: public library, roles and service responses; university research library, just in case and just in time; liberal arts college library, curriculum support; organization of collection development.

 

Jan 17, 19 L#2 - Collection development: what is it and why is it of crit­ical im­por­t­ance? Three prior ques­t­ions: (i)Why do li­brar­ies ex­ist? (ii)Why do I say the collection is the heart of the library? (iii)What is a li­brary col­lec­tion? Theo­reti­cal un­der­pin­ning for col­lec­tion de­vel­op­ment: (i) col­lec­tion as an in­vest­ment, (ii) return on investment, (iii) re­sour­ces and their allo­ca­tion, (iv) op­por­tun­ity cost; the collection development dilemma. Evans & Saponaro [chapters] 1, 2, and…

Kenneth Sivulich, “How We Run the Queens Library Good (and Doubled Circulation in Seven Years),” Library Journal 114, 3 (February 15, 1989): 123-127;

Ann Okerson, “Asteroids, Moore’s Law, and the Star Alliance,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 29, 5 (September 2003): 280-285.

 

Universe of Materials and Resources

 

Jan 24, 26 L#3 - Books/mon­ographs, serials/­jour­nals­/per­iodi­cals, gov­ern­ment pub­lica­tio­ns; audiovisual materials; electronic information resources; (GEMS, “Brodart's resource dedicated to the excellent works of small publishers” http://www.gems.brodart.com / Federal Depository Library Program  http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp / US GPO Access http://www.gpoaccess.gov/index.html), Core Documents of U.S. Democracy http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/locators/coredocs/about.html non-print materials. Evans & Saponaro 5, 8, 9, and…

Norman Oder, “The Format Dilemma,” Library Journal 127, 19 (November 15 2002): 38-41;

Norman Oder, “The DVD Predicament,” Library Journal 130, 19 (November 15, 2005): 38-40;

Peter Hernon & Robert E Dugan, “Depository Library Service Expectations and the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 24, 1 (January 1998): 65-68;

Cathy N Davidson, “Understanding the Economic Burden of Scholarly Publishing,” The Chronicle of Higher Education 50, 6 (October 3, 2003): B7-B10.

 

Jan 31, Feb 2 L#4 - Serials/scholarly journals in collection development: their place and prob­lems; e-serials and aggregators; open access and Public Library of Science (http://www.publiclibraryofscience.org/ ) and  BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/ ) ARL (Association of Research Libraries) annual statistics (http://www.arl.org/stats/arlstat/ ); ARL Office for Scholarly Communication (http://www.arl.org/scomm/index.html ); SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) (http://www.arl.org/sparc/ ); JSTOR, the scholarly journal archive (http://www.jstor.org/ ); special challenge of “grey literature” (http://www.nyam.org/library/grey.shtml ); Evans & Saponaro 6, and…

John R Hayes, “The Internet’s first victim?” Forbes (December 18 1995): 200-201 (not available online);

Lee C Van Orsdel & Kathleen Born, “Choosing Sides,” Library Journal 130, 7 (April 15, 2005): 43-48.

 

Feb 7, 9 L#5 –  Electronic information resources; their growing importance: UK Libraries World Wide Web Subject Catalog (http://www.uky.edu/Subject / ) and Online Full-Text Journals Database; Johns Hopkins University Eisenhower Library Digital Knowledge Center (http://dkc.mse.jhu.edu/), Internet Scout Project and Scout Report (http://scout.wisc.edu /  Evans & Saponaro 7, and…

Andrew R Albanese, “Moving from Books to Bytes,” Library Journal 126, 14 (September 1, 2001): 52-54;

William Fisher, “Now you see it; now you don’t: the elusive nature of electronic information,” Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services 27, 4 (Winter 2003): 463-472.

 

Selecting from the Universe

 

Feb 14, 16 L#6 – Identifying materials and resources (print, AV, other electronic, Web): reviews; core and recommended lists; bibliographies; CHOICE magazine and CHOICE reviews online http://www.choiceonsite.org/SiteLicen03ChoiceScripts/Mainmenu.asp ); cur­rent versus ret­ro­spec­tive col­lec­tion de­vel­op­ment; acquiring out of print material (http://www.abebooks.com/); Association of American University Presses Books for Understanding, an online resource for current and archived topics (http://www.aaupnet.org/booksforunderstanding.html ); Evans & Saponaro 4, and…

Michael Buckland, “What Will Collection Developers Do?” Information Technology and Libraries 14, 3 (September 1995): 155-159 (not available online);

Kathleen Sullivan, “Beyond Cookie-Cutter Selection,” Library Journal 129, 11 (June 15, 2004): 44-46.

 

 

Feb 21, 23 L#7 - Selecting wisely: central role of the col­lec­tion de­vel­op­ment poli­cy; Columbia University Libraries Collection Development Policies (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/services/colldev/ ); collecting “levels” and the three time horizons; Vanderbilt University Central Library collecting levels (http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/central/conspec.html#hisconspec ); Bettendorf, Iowa, Public Library collection development policy (http://www.bettendorflibrary.com/policies/collect.htm) ;

Oberlin College collection development policy (http://www.oberlin.edu/%7Elibrary/colldev/policies/Default.html );

Library of Congress Collection Development Home Page (http://lcweb.loc.gov/acq/devpol/ ) and handbook, Collection Development and the Internet http://lcweb.loc.gov/acq/colldev/handbook.html

Evans & Saponaro 3, and…

Merle Jacob, “Get It in Writing: A Collection Development Plan for the Skokie [IL] Public Library,” Library Journal 115, 14 (September 1, 1990): 166-169.

 

Feb 28, Mar 2  L#8 – Fiscal management: sources of money; allocating the money; materials budget alloca­tion for­mu­lae; encumbering Evans & Saponaro 12, and…

Barbara Hoffert, “The Turnaround,” Library Journal 130, 3 (February 15, 2005): 36-38;

Joseph Petrick, “Electronic resources and acquisitions budgets: SUNY statistics, 1994-2000,” Collection Building 21, 3 (2002): 123-133.

 

[Mar 6 -  Midterm of Spring Semester (Monday)]

 

Acquiring from the Universe

 

Mar 7 L#10 – Acquiring materials: Evans & Saponaro, “eight standard methods of acquisition” (pp 235 et seq)

also: BWI (http://www.bwibooks.com/) and its collection development services;

Brodart (http://www.brodart.com/ ) and its TIPS program (http://www.brodart.com/books/colldev/tips.htm ) and its McNaughton Plan (http://www.brodart.com/books/mcn/mcnhome.htm  );

Random House and its Greenaway Advance Copy Plan http://www.randomhouse.com/library/ordering.html ; Blackwell’s Book Services (http://www.blackwell.com/index.asp );  EBSCO (www.ebsco.com ); Ingram Library Services (http://www.ingramlibrary.com/Default.asp ); Yankee Book Peddler (http://www.ybp.com/; gifts and exchange programs. Evans & Saponaro 10, 11, and…

Carol Pitts Diedrichs, “Acquisitions: So What and Where?” Journal of Academic Librarianship 24, 1 (January 1998): 74-76.

 

Mar 9 – First Exam

 

Mar 14, 16 – Spring break; no class

 

Related Issues

 

Mar 21, 23 L#11 - Evaluating the collection: academic libraries and standards; public libraries and output measures; ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) Standards for College Libraries; RLG con­spec­tus  “collection assessment tool” (http://www.rlg.org/conspechist.html ). Evans & Saponaro 14, and…

Sheila Intner and Elizabeth Futas, “Evaluating public library collections: Why do it, and how to use the results,” American Libraries 25, 5 (May 1994): 410-412.

Scott Stebelman, “Using Choice as a collection assessment tool,” Collection Building 15, 2 (1996): 4-11.

 

Mar 28, 30 L#12 – Deselection: weeding the collection; use of materials; the 80/20 “rule”; Univer­sity of Pitts­burgh study; use of storage facilities; Duke University Library Service Center (http://www.lib.duke.edu/lsc ); Harvard University Depository (http://hul.harvard.edu/hd/ ). Evans & Saponaro 13, and…

William A Britten, “A Use Statistic for Collection Management: The 80/20 Rule Revisited,” Library Acquisitions: Practice & Theory 14, 2 (1990): 183-189 (not available online);

Juris Dilevko and Lisa Gottlieb, “Weed to achieve: a fundamental part of the public library mission?” Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services 27, 1 (Spring 2003): 73-96.

 

Apr 4, 6 L#13 – Resource sharing: cooperative collection devel­op­ment; Farmington Plan; Triangle Research Libraries Network (http://www.trln.org/; CONSORT Colleges cooperative collection development (http://www.wooster.edu/library/oh5/cccd/default.html ); Center for Research Libraries (http://wwwcrl.uchicago.edu /); OhioLINK (http://www.ohiolink.edu/ ); Evans & Saponaro 15, and…

Rob Kairis, “Consortium level collection development: a duplication study of the OhioLINK Central Catalog,” Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services 27, 3 (Autumn 2003): 317-326;

OhioLINK, “The Ohio Library and Information Network,” http://www.ohiolink.edu/about/what-is-ol.html, accessed January 11, 2006;

Hendrik Edelman, “The Death of the Framington Plan,” Library Journal 98, 8  (April 15, 1973): 1251-53 (not available online).

 

[Apr 7 – Final Written Exam for May ’06 graduates; does NOT pertain to this course]

 

Apr 11, 13 L#14 – Legal issues: copyright; interlibrary loan; “rule of 5s”; document delivery; Copyright Management Center (http://copyright.iupui.edu/ ); Copyright Clearance Center (http://www.copyright.com/ ). Evans & Saponaro 17, and…

Richard Schockmel, “The Premise of Copyright, Assaults on Fair Use, and Royalty Use Fees,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 22, 1 (January 1996): 15-25.

 

Apr 13 – Essay exam distributed

 

Apr 20 – Essay exam due

 

Apr 18, 20 L#15 – Preservation and conservation; Council on Library and Information Resources (http://www.clir.org/ ). Evans & Saponaro 16

 

Apr 25, 27 L#16 – Censorship and intellectual freedom; ALA Library Bill of Rights, Freedom to Read, and other statements; First Amendment to the US Constitution; filtering; ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/ ). Evans & Saponaro 18, and…

J Bushman, “Librarians, Self-Censorship, and Information Technologies,” College & Research Libraries 55 (May 1994): 221-228 (not available online).

 

Final Exam Although the final exam will emphasize material covered since the first exam, nevertheless it will be comprehensive. We will comply with the UK final exam schedule, which means the final exam for the…

 

9:30-10:45 class will take place Tuesday, May 2, beginning at 8:00 AM

 

12:30-1:45 class will take place Thursday, May 4, beginning at 10:30 AM.

 

                                                          ____________________

 

 

Some Terms Used in the Course

______________

 

 

What “business” are libraries in?

   information services

   library services

 

Major concerns of this course:

   collection development the

   materials selection

   acquisitions

 

Peculiar slant of this course:

   resources

   asset

   investment

   return on investment

   benefits

   opportunity cost

   efficient

   effective

   cost-effective

 

What individuals or groups does a library serve?

   legal service area

   service community

   service-area population

 

How does the library commit to serve them?

   mission statement

   collection development policy statement

 

Important distinction

   [current] collection development

   retrospective collection development

 

Service models for the research-university library

   traditional model

      ownership/warehouse/just-in-case

   [perhaps] emerging model

      nonownership/access/just-in-time

 

Service models for the public library

   public library “roles”

   public library “service responses”

 

Money is involved

   materials budget

   allocation

   allocation formula

   passive reallocation

      monographs to serials

      non-STM to STM

 

Pesky things that keep coming

   serials

      periodicals

      journals

      magazines

      electronic information products as serials

 

Ways to acquire stuff:

   firm order [often title-by-title]

   standing order

   blanket order

   approval plan

   subscription

   lease

   gift

   exchange

   McNaughton Plan

   Greenaway Plan

   all-important profile

 

Help to acquire stuff:

   vendor/wholesaler

   subscription agent

   aggregator

   occasional need to claim

 

Legal issues

   copyright

   interlibrary loan

   document delivery

   Rule of 5s

   Fair Use

 

Odds and ends

   80/20 “rule”

 

                                            School of Library and Information Science

                                                           University of Kentucky

                                                               _______________

 

                                                  LIS 659 - Collection Development

Spring Semester 2006                                                                           Instructor: Dennis Carrigan

 

                             Definitions of and Comments about Collection Development

                                                          ____________________

 

I. Evans and Saponaro in Developing Library and Information Center Collections, 5th edition, offer two definitions of collection development (both on p. 7)

 

       [Collection development is] the process of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of a library's materials collection in terms of patron needs and community resources, and attempting to correct existing weaknesses, if any.

 

       [C]ollection development is the process of meeting the informa­tion needs of the people (a service population) in a timely and economical manner using information resources locally held, as well as from other organizations. This new definition is broader in scope and places emphasis on thoughtful (timely and economi­cal) collection building and on seeking out both internal and external information resources.

 

II. A. Rose Mary Magrill and John Corbin in their book Acquisitions Management and Collection Develop­ment in Libraries, 2d edition, have this to say:

 

       In one sense, collection development includes assessing user needs, evaluating the present collec­tion, determining selection policy, coordinating selec­tion of items, reevaluating and storing parts of the collection, and planning for resource sharing.

 

II. B. Having said that about collection development, they continue:

 

       However, in a broader sense, collection develop­ment is not only a single activity, or a group of acti­vities; it is a planning and decision-making process.

 

III. The ALA Glossary defines collection development in this way:

 

       A term which encompasses a number of activities related to the development of the library collection, including the [1]determi­nation and coordination of selection policy, [2]assessment of needs of users and potential users, [3]col­lection use studies, [4]collection evaluation, [5]iden­tifi­cation of collection needs, [6]selection of mater­ials, [7]planning for resource sharing, [8]collection main­tenance, and [9]weeding.[1]

 

IV. A. William Hannaford has this to say, in his essay "Toward a Theory of Collection Development":

 

       Collection development is the overall molding or development of a collection for a purpose to suit a group of users. In short, collection development is the building of the best collection possible given certain conditions. The conditions obviously differ greatly for different libraries. [NOTE: One of the important conditions is the mission of the library, i.e., the reason the library exists.]

IV. B. And a little later Hannaford adds this important point:

 

       The shaping and molding accomplished by adding and deleting materials for the collection must be rational. That is, materials must be added to and taken from the collection only after there is a clear idea of what the collection should be.

 

V. This appears in Marcia Pankake's essay, "From Book Selection to Collection Management: Continuity and Advance in an Unending Work":

 

               Collection development requires more than the work of evaluat­ing the intellectual and other merits of a book to decide whether or not to add it to the library. The substitu­tion during the 1970s of 'collection devel­opment' for 'book selection' explicitly con­veyed the idea that librarians should not just add book upon book to build up the li­brary, but rather that they should turn their attention from the individ­ual new title to the existing collection and see them togeth­er. They were not to build, but to develop, the collection. As in music, developing sug­gests elaboration, or as in chess, develop­ing suggests keeping in mind the many pos­sible uses, or the power, of every piece, or every item in the collection.

          The change in terms also acknowledged that librari­ans dealt not only with books but with all forms of the records of informa­tion. Thus collection development retains as its core activity a selection decision about a parti­cular item -- a book, serial, pamphlet, do­cu­ment, map, manuscript, photo­graph, phono­record, data­base, or other print or non­print information-conveying item -- but the deci­sion may conclude, for positive reasons in light of the whole collection, in a nega­tive judgment. One may decide not to add a parti­cular work, but rather to withdraw a title from the collection. Collection develop­ment thus is an expansion of book selec­tion, en­larging the kinds of materials to which sele­ction principles have been applied, and mak­ing the collec­tion itself, rather than any one particular title, the principal object of attention.

 

                                                                           * * *

      Some selection decisions are made individu­ally, title by title, and others are made in masses or en bloc, by setting up certain criteria which allow all works meeting the criteria to be added to the collection.[2]

 

VI. Here is a definition I have developed, and which reflects my definition of library collection. First, a few words of introduction. Although, as the ALA Glossary definition notes, collection development “encompasses a number of activities,” I believe, with Marcia Pankake (above), that “collection development retains as its core activity a selection decision.” That is, at its core collection development has to do with choice, or selection, and the unavoidable need to commit, or “spend,” resources in choosing and selecting. Thus, I have developed this definition:

 

       Collection development is that process through which scarce library resources are allocated to create and enhance the invest­ment in materials, i.e., the collec­tion, so that library users and others may realize benefits. Such benefits are the return on that invest­ment; are dependent on use of the materials; and may justify the allocation of the scarce resources, i.e., the investment.

 

VII. However, given what I emphasize in the course, it occurs to me this short definition might work:

 

       Collection development is that library function responsible for converting the money of the materials budget into benefits for those whom the library exists to serve.

 

 


[1] Heartsill Young, ed, The ALA Glossary of Library and Information Science, ALA, 1983, p. 49.

[2] Marcia Pankake, “From Book Selection to Collection Management: Continuity and Advance in an Unending Work,” Advances in Librarianship, 13, ed Wesley Simonton, Academic Press, 1984, pp. 185-210.