Collection development literature has burgeoned over the past decade, yet the complaint is still heard that college libraries are not engaged in meaningful collection development…
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Collection development literature has burgeoned over the past decade, yet the complaint is still heard that college libraries are not engaged in meaningful collection development activities. College librarians often consider methods described in published research as too time‐consuming, technologically dependent, or statistically complex to apply to their own situations. How relevant is the literature to the practical needs of the collection developer? In addressing this question, a theoretical overview of collection development is presented, and recent publications reviewed, in terms of their relevance to collection planning, implementation, and evaluation in the small college library.
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Gloriana St. Clair and Rose Mary Magrill
Anyone who has tried to review studies relating to use of academic libraries may argue that a great deal of research exists on college students and how they use their libraries…
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Anyone who has tried to review studies relating to use of academic libraries may argue that a great deal of research exists on college students and how they use their libraries. Studies of reading habits and library use among college students have been appearing for more than fifty years, and the diligent student can compile an impressive bibliography of these studies. In spite of all we have learned about student interaction with library resources, there is still much we do not know.
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The development of Chinese librarianship is related closely to the spreading of the influence of Western librarianship in China upon professional practice and research. Provides…
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The development of Chinese librarianship is related closely to the spreading of the influence of Western librarianship in China upon professional practice and research. Provides an overview of the channels through which ideas were transmitted, and the influences which they exerted on Chinese librarianship, particularly in recent years, upon basic theories, technical services, readers’ services, management, and library science education.
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A prominent field of research in Library Science during the past thirty years has been collection assessment of college and university libraries. No other subject has received the…
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A prominent field of research in Library Science during the past thirty years has been collection assessment of college and university libraries. No other subject has received the attention in library literature as has the question of how to evaluate a collection to determine whether it adequately supports the goals, curriculum, and needs of the sponsoring organization. Collection assessment has also attracted more interest from scholars outside the library profession than any other aspect of librarianship. Research in this area should be of value to collection development personnel in all college and university libraries.
The early 1990s are not the best of times to operate an academic library collection management unit. Financial woes abound: the escalating cost of materials (particularly…
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The early 1990s are not the best of times to operate an academic library collection management unit. Financial woes abound: the escalating cost of materials (particularly serials), the continued proliferation of print sources, and the explosive development of expensive electronic media all conspire to increase the pressure on already strained acquisitions budgets. The problems are not exclusively fiscal, however. There appears to be a new and growing personnel problem: the difficulty of recruiting capable collection management staff.
Automation represents one of the greatest changes a library can undergo. An automation plan must not only produce an optimum system, but prepare the staff, institution and…
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Automation represents one of the greatest changes a library can undergo. An automation plan must not only produce an optimum system, but prepare the staff, institution and clientele for far‐reaching change. This change can be accommodated by a functional model consisting of three phases: 1) organization and overview, 2) project expansion, and 3) project consolidation and preparationof the system plan. An educational program is the centerpiece of the process.
In this article, I have traced the literature of marketing libraries and information services from 1970 to the present. This period immediately follows Kotler and Levy's…
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In this article, I have traced the literature of marketing libraries and information services from 1970 to the present. This period immediately follows Kotler and Levy's introductory article in the Journal of Marketing (January 1969) which first suggested the idea of marketing nonprofit organizations. The use of the marketing concept for libraries and information services was an idea which did not appear until after that date. However, many articles on specific aspects of marketing, such as publicity and public relations, were published prior to 1970. These areas have been touched upon only briefly to show their connection with marketing.
This essay is offered as advice to those who contemplate becoming or have recently become bibliographers. I begin with the admonition that neither users' studies, statistical…
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This essay is offered as advice to those who contemplate becoming or have recently become bibliographers. I begin with the admonition that neither users' studies, statistical analyses, nor approval plans compensate for a lack of knowledge of disciplinary research interests and bibliographic structure. In the final analysis, the best bibliographers are scholars. They keep current with a discipline's investigations and monitor its evolution. Even if they are unable to engage in detailed discourse on the more esoteric subjects its practitioners study, they understand its topography. That is, they possess a “feel” for what students in a given field find interesting, they understand its epistemology, know its publication trends and favored formats, and have a fine reference librarian's ability to use its bibliographic apparatus.