Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management

Posted on 2nd Jul 2019

Reviewed by Sarah Beck Kirby

Peggy Johnson.

Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management is an extremely well-written, well-documented book on collection development and collection management. The process of collection management is achieved by incorporating methods of organization and staffing, selecting and deselecting, budgeting, marketing and promoting, understanding electronic resources and the role of interlibrary cooperation, and evaluating and assessing success. The author discusses this process in different types of libraries, ranging from academic to public, to special, to school media libraries.

The author maintains that collection management cannot exist in a “vacuum” but must be an integral part of library operations. Extensive lists of suggested readings at the end of each chapter add value to the work. Each chapter includes a relevant case study and activity that will prove especially helpful to students and that enhances the book for purposes of instruction in collection management.

Another strength of the book is the author's integration of chapter topics into every chapter of the book. Thus, the book is not a compilation of chapters with separate beginnings and endings but, rather, is a series of chapters that form a continuum of collection management ideas and techniques. The subject matters of organization, staffing policy, planning, and budgets are standard fare in collection management books. This book lists and discusses the various tasks, functions, and responsibilities and, where relevant, presents different and complementary styles, methods, and models of each subject. The different ways of organizing and staffing collection activities are carefully integrated by the author through automation, onsite sources, and remote access sources as well as similarities and differences by type and size of library.

The author spends considerable time delineating each of nine planning models and the ways one complements another. Written policies and planning documents enable collection management staff to be prepared for declining budgets that affect acquisitions, as well as weeding, deselection, and cancellations. Five collection development policy formats are discussed, with the strengths and weakness of each delineated.

Collection development, the author maintains, is both an art and a science, combining the professional elements of knowledge, experience, and intuition. The author emphasizes that choices of the collection manager must reflect the needs and interests of the community of users. The author addresses censorship and intellectual freedom, which are accepted cornerstones of collection management.

The other side of the process of choice not only includes the activities of what to acquire and to cease acquiring but also what to withdraw from and to preserve in the collection. The author discusses legitimate reasons for weeding materials as well as criteria useful for the deselection process. Unique or other important materials may require preservation or repair and conservation to extend their physical lives. The steps and criteria in selecting materials for this special handling are thoroughly reviewed by the author.

Marketing of library services is important for all libraries but perhaps more important for small special libraries frequently faced with closure. Marketing through liaison and outreach activities is thoroughly analyzed by the author. The author's discussion of promotional activities—such as positive information sharing with governing bodies, outreach activities, and measures of success—will assist those professionals initiating such endeavors.

The author's chapter on e-resources is informative and helpful, particularly in the emphasis on benefits and complementary functions of contract e-journals. Because librarians are traditionally comfortable with “owned” written materials, it takes some time to comprehend and integrate the nature of “non-owned” resources. Such resources constitute an integral and necessary aspect of a library, despite the increased strains that the prices of e-resource packages place on already limited financial resources. The issues of contracts, licensing terms, and conditions for e-resources as well as copyright laws are thoroughly reviewed.

Cooperative collection development and management is the sharing of resources between libraries and incorporates many potential benefits. With the high cost of print and e-resources, interlibrary loan is the most active and successful component of libraries' sharing of resources. The author outlines types of cooperation, including consortia, library automation, shared or union catalogs, and shared preservation. As an experienced academic university librarian, the author notes that this type of cooperative collection is most successful within state university systems and public library systems.

Collection analysis, the process of evaluating the success of past collection management efforts, plays a key role. The author provides details to assist collection librarians in implementing, evaluating, and assessing a library collection. Detailed collection analysis techniques, both quantitative and qualitative, including e-collections, are thoroughly described, and potential benefits are identified. In addition, collection-based analysis methods are discussed, and a variety of different forms are presented.

This book is informative and comprehensive in its coverage. It will serve to refresh the knowledge of experienced librarians and both educate and assist library science students.