From Ocean Teacher Library

This article about collection development is based upon the powerpoint presentation by Pauline Simpson for the ODINAFRICA Marine Information Management Training Course (August 2005).

File:Collectiondevelopment2005.ppt

In order to develop a collection of marine literature and information in a marine library there are several steps and guiding principles which will be explained below:

Contents 1 Collection Assessment 2 Formulation of a Collection Development Policy 3 Identification of selection mechanisms 4 Information Sources for New Materials 5 Ownership procedures 6 Maintenance of Collection 7 Bibliography

Collection Assessment

Evaluation and assessment techniques fall into two broad categories:

1. collection-centered (counting holdings and checking lists to determine the collection's scope and depth)
2. client-centered (conducting user surveys and gathering information on how clients use the collection)

An effective assessment uses both types of techniques to gather two kinds of data: quantitative (including numbers, age, and/or use statistics) and qualitative (such as observations). The type of data useful for your particular evaluation depends on the library's purpose and missio Examples of Quantitative Data:

Number of titles : A manual or automated shelflist count, a physical count or estimate of titles from the shelves, a count of acquisitions and expenditures, the percent of each subject's yearly growth, the percent of acquisitions compared to published titles, and the percent of acquisitions compared to published titles.

Age and timeliness of materials : The materials' median age, the range and distribution of publication dates, and most common publication dates.

Use : Circulation statistics by type or subject and interlibrary loan borrowing statistics.

Per capita measures : How many titles or items per user.

Examples of Qualitative Data:

Percent of standard titles or items: Calculated by consulting "best" lists. What journal titles do your users publish in?

Individual or group evaluation: Shelf scanning by the librarian, observation by an outside expert, or observation by a committee.

Formulation of a Collection Development Policy

The collection policy is a written document explaining the mission, purposes and aims of the marine library. The library mission plays a central role in this. Furtheron the collection policy needs to include the following points:

• Users
• Current research programmes
• Scope - level - language - retrospective - special subjects eg Aquaculture
• National, regional responsibility
• Cooperative Collection Development Progammes
• Budget – currency
• Formats - access or acquisition

This way the collection policy of a marine library provides a framework for all the acquisition of the library.

You can find some examples of Collection Policy documents using the URLs below:

• Library of Congress - Naval science
• Mission statement and collection development policy of the Bermuda Biological Station for Research
• Western State College of Colorado

Identification of selection mechanisms

This process sounds easy, but it is more complicated than it sounds. In order to select the best possible materials for the library, a librarian must go through a number of steps. These include

1. Finding materials that might be acquired by the library.
2. Finding objective information about the quality of materials.
3. Finding out whether the funding is available to purchase the material.
4. Finding out whether the library already owns or has ordered the material.

Who does the selection of new acquisitions ?

• Librarians
• Researchers
• Research Groups
• Library Committee

• Book suggestion forms / online on website
• Review /approve?
• Budget control

Information Sources for New Materials

Purchase of books, journals, multimedia, e-Books can be done through publishers such as

• Blackwells
• EBSCO
• other

Important issues

• Discounts (consortia agreements – does ODINAfrica have a purchasing agreement?)
• Standing orders - annual volumes etc
• Journal agent - one invoice, currency etc
• e-Journal licenses arranged, IP recognition etc

An important question is the store or access at moment of need?

• Acquisition - budget, space vs Access – budget, technology

frequency of use, how current is information, available electronically? Budget. Obtain elsewhere through network

• Exchange

long established but less and less – cost of postage, web publishing makes easy availability but not proative

Centre must have publications to exchange

• Donations

library networks, donor organisations, duplicates,

free newsletters, authors reprints (and now e-Prints), retired scientists

• Own Organisations publications

make sure they are deposited in the library.

Ownership procedures

Selection - Order – Receive - Catalogue

• Ownership
• Stamp, label
• Security tag?
• Record of acquisition (non bibliographic details – order number, price – INMagic fields)
• Accession?

Maintenance of Collection

Preservation and conservation refer to the processes of monitoring the physical condition of the library's materials and taking action to prevent further deterioration. Preservation issues can be defined as those that relate to the longevity of materials, while conservation issues include handling and storage (although the terms "preservation" and "conservation" are sometimes used interchangeably or defined differently). Ironically, books published since the beginning of the 20th century are more likely to decay than older books (due to the paper and methods of binding used). Other modern materials such as microfilm, photographs, videotapes and films have unique preservation needs.� Libraries of all types face several kinds of preservation problems. Some of the most common ones for small libraries relate to climate control, biological pests, and brittle books Environment control requirements – temperature, humidity, light – published standards eg. BS5454

Bibliography

• Anderson, Joanne S. (ed.), 1996. Guide for Written Collection Policy Statements, (2nd end.), Chicago, IL: American Library Association.
• Cassel, Kay Ann and Elizabeth Futas, 1991. Developing Public Library Collections, Policies, and Procedures,, New York, NY: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.*A How-To-Do-It Manual for Small and Medium-Sized Public Libraries, #12
• Chavez, Linda (1990). Collection Development for the Spanish -Speaking, in Salvador Guereza (ed.) Latino Librarianship: A Handbook for Professionals, Jefferson, NC: McFarlane and Company, pp. 68-77.
• Gorman, G.E. and Ruth H. Miller (eds.), 1997. Collection Management for the 21st Century: A Handbook for Librarians, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
• Johnson, Peggy and Sheila S. Intner (eds.), 1994. Recruiting, Educating and Training Librarians for Collection Development, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
• Sales, Susan L, 1996. Guide for Training Collection Development Librarians, Chicago, IL: American Library Association.
• Wood, Richard J. and Frank Hoffmann, 1995. Library Collection Development Policies: A reference and Writers' Handbook, Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.