The New Dynamics and Economics of Cooperative Collection Development

Citation

Thomson, H. (2005), "The New Dynamics and Economics of Cooperative Collection Development", Library Management, Vol. 26 No. 8/9, pp. 525-526. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120510631837

The New Dynamics and Economics of Cooperative Collection Development edited by Edward Shreeves is a collection of 12 papers from a conference held jointly by the Centre of Research Libraries and the Association of Research Libraries. The papers have also been published simultaneously in the journal, Collection Management, Vol. 28 Nos 1‐3, 2003.

The papers are diverse and a mixture of theoretical discussions and case studies but all deal with common issues and problems in cooperative collection development. A topic that is becoming increasingly important with the explosion of the number of information resources available and the decreasing amount of resources available to libraries to collect and hold that information. The articles are timely and present a good balance between theory and practice, although some of the papers presenting “How we did it” strongly focused on local practice and details, which may not be useful for other libraries wanting to conduct similar projects but in different environments.

All of the papers are based on experiences in the USA and the majority are drawn from academic or research libraries; however, the papers should still be of interest to readers outside the USA as they cover issues common to libraries worldwide. Issues such as licensing restrictions that limit resource sharing between libraries or restrict access to the consortia members (Atkinson, p. 3); managing the risks involved in cooperative relationships when each party has varying budgets and information needs (Reilly, p. 121); and the costs and user acceptance of relocated duplicated print journals to off site storage in favour of accessing articles electronically (Johns, p. 37); and the relationship between libraries and commercial vendors in developing “the Digital Library” (Sandler, p. 107).

Overall, the papers deal equally with print and electronic collection development. For example, one of the most interesting articles was by Ross Atkinson – “Uses and abuses of cooperation in a digital age” – and looks at cooperative relationships in the digital environment where many licensing agreements prohibit or restrict sharing of electronic resources, something which has occurred fundamentally in many libraries. Atkinson also discussed the ideological shift in collection management to collection development and then to the current idea of knowledge management in a digital world where the emphasis is on access not ownership. Atkinson also uses his paper to discuss the new methods arising in traditional print material cooperative collection management as influenced by the digital age.

Another example deals equally with both print and electronic and highlights the relationship between the two. In a series of three papers dealing with the University of California's experiences by Cecily Johns, Beverlee French and Phyllis S. Mirsky discussed the University of California's experience in forming a consortium to increase purchasing power for and access to electronic resources. Part of the project involved relocating duplicated print journals into off‐site storage and the papers considered library users' experience in only having access to the electronic journals in the first instance. Given that many libraries are struggling to find space to house their collection, this was an extremely useful and relevant paper on how cooperative collection development can be applied successfully to both mediums.

Alternatively, Julia A. Gammon and Michael Zeoli's paper on the OhioLINK consortium discussed how the Not‐Bought‐in‐Ohio Report (NBIO Report) was used to identify English monographs not held by any member library in OhioLINK so that the monographs could be purchased by a member library and access made available to all members of the consortium. Although the NBIO Report was used in an electronic environment, the article describes an example of using cooperative collecting and resource sharing of print materials.

Also included in the book, are four reports from cooperative collection development working groups that were presented at the conference. The working groups looked at the state of cooperative collection development, best practices in cooperative collection development, measuring success in cooperative collection development and a proposal and report on a digitizing geosciences information project.

All of the papers were well written and engaging and will be of interest to anyone involved in collection development.