Selecting Materials for Library Collections

Citation

Lyons, N. (2005), "Selecting Materials for Library Collections", Library Management, Vol. 26 No. 8/9, pp. 543-544. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120510631936

The 18 essays deal with selecting materials for libraries as diverse as developing a collection for a maritime college library, a dental sciences library with mainly distance education students to collecting genealogical and local history materials for a large Canadian public library.

There is not enough space to review all the essays so I have chosen six mainly because the authors write about very different collections.

David Isaacson's essay focuses on the dilemma of selecting materials for the English Department of a large academic library and argues that as well as traditional collecting priorities, there should also be examples of genre literature, such as romance, horror fiction and pornography if there is a legitimate research and teaching need for such materials. He also suggests standing orders for quality small press publications and looks at the issues related to collecting hypertext fiction.

The other essays tend to deal with the practical aspects of selecting materials and offer some good tips and web sites on where to go to find these materials.

Eva Stowers and Gillian Galbraith focus on selecting material for a new dental sciences collection with one‐off limited budget at a public university. The dental faculty preferred electronic resources and journals to monographs, although it preferred monograph reference resources rather than lending resources. Because of the limited funding the library relied heavily on document delivery to boost its collection and lists the journals requested. The authors emphasize the usefulness of professional associations and listserves in building a collection.

Janet Owens evaluates tools for the selection of library resources for nursing education, clinical care, nursing research and accreditation. She critically evaluates tools such as the Brandon/Hill lists, Doody's Review Service, Essential Nursing References (ENR), Cinahl and others. She states that Library Journal and Choice often review good publications not picked up by the usual nursing selection tools. She points out that the disadvantage of ordering from professional associations is that their procedures for handling orders are not as streamlined as most library acquisitions would prefer.

Susan Herzog focuses on challenges for the new librarian in the twenty‐first century and emphasizes the importance of consulting library policies for collection development, gifts/donations, weeding and a good liaison relationship with the faculty. She lists some useful web sites and references for further reading.

Mary Laskowski suggests tips and tricks for media selection and acquisition and compares the difficulties of evaluating educational videos and DVDs and documentaries. She examines problems relating to replacing damaged or worn out items and the cost of educational videos and DVDs. She evaluates some useful section tools including video directories and the video librarian which includes reviews by librarians, teachers and film critics.

Audrey Fenner considers the positive and negative effects that approval plans may have on collection balance as well as on acquisitions budgets and workflow.

This book gives a practical and theoretical overview of issues related to selecting materials for libraries with some useful tips and information for the new librarian, student or professionals new to acquisitions. These essays are all available in the acquisitions librarian.