scholarly journals Begin at the Beginning: Revamping Collection Development Workflows

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elyssa M. Gould ◽  
Jennifer Mezick

“Begin at the beginning,” the King said, very gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” This paper describes how two librarians newer to the University of Tennessee Libraries refreshed collection development workflows at the Libraries after a reorganization. This reorganization distributed tasks across departments in a different manner due to the new departmental configurations. In this new matrix environment, more communication was required to achieve desired outcomes, but more buy-in was also needed from constituents such as the subject librarians. This paper describes how a new Collections Committee was formed to make decisions on high-dollar resources; what information was added to the traditional request form to facilitate the committee’s decisions; what information was asked of vendors at the point of trial or initial interest; and how this fed into a new collection development policy. By revamping the workflows to ask for more information up front, the presenters were able to help the new Collections Committee obtain all the information needed for decision-making at the point of decision. The authors share insights into how organizational changes can be used as an opportunity to instigate workflow changes that help libraries acquire resources more nimbly and flexibly.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Wambui Kamau ◽  
Aggrey Luyiya Elegwa

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing the collection development process at the University of Nairobi library and suggest ways for improvement.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach was employed to collect, analyze and interpret data from collection development librarians at the University of Nairobi purposively selected. Data were collected through structured interviews and documentary review. Data were analyzed using content analysis and descriptive statistics.FindingsThe study established that the library has a written collection development policy which was revised in 2014 and is strictly adhered to. However, the policy has a gap on the role of faculty as stakeholders in the selection process. In addition, the criteria for selection are not explicitly stated. Findings also indicate that budget allocation, collection development policy, user demands, quality of staff, library consortium and the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act of 2015 influence the collection development process at the University of Nairobi Library.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was conducted in one public university library in Kenya. However, the findings may be applicable in similar university libraries in the country.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study may benefit students and faculty in the University of Nairobi from improved collection development process that would ensure that their information needs are met in a timely manner. This would lead to improved research output by students and faculty and ultimately improved research output by the university. University library management may also benefit in improving the collection development process, thereby making it more economical. The findings may also be useful in decision-making and policy development on matters pertaining to collection development at the University of Nairobi and other universities. Furthermore, the findings may be used by researchers to provide context and background information for future research on collection development in public universities locally and regionally.Originality/valueThis paper fulfills the need to make the collection development process in university libraries more efficient by proposing ways of addressing the challenges experienced.


2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 119-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romany Manuell ◽  
Kate McEntee ◽  
Marcus Chester

Collection development at Monash University Library aims to fulfil the research and curriculum needs of university staff and students. To support the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (MADA), collection development operates as a collaboration between academic faculty and the Subject Librarian. In order to further develop this collaboration and to encourage the selection and use of design resources by authors from diverse backgrounds, design lecturers and library staff have initiated The Equity Collection project. The aim of the project is to investigate the diversity of the collection in its current state and to improve its ability to reflect and extend the multicultural nature of the university community. The project includes a campaign to collect and promote books from the design world authored by under-represented groups, including Indigenous Australians, people of colour, and female and non-binary authors. This project is unique in its utilisation of the expertise of the design faculty who have extensive knowledge of authors, small publishers and less widely distributed publications.


2016 ◽  
Vol 117 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 485-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara E. Morris ◽  
Lea H. Currie

Purpose The University of Kansas (KU) libraries has faced increased requests for streaming video in the past five years. While we have provided access to many databases of films, feature films remained a problem. To write a collection development policy, the library undertook three investigations to ensure the outcome reflected the needs of the university. Design/methodology/approach Film titles included in Swank 300 and Criterion-on-Demand were checked against the CanIStream. it? website to check for availability through streaming, rental or purchase services. Student library users were surveyed to determine if they had streaming subscriptions and, if so, which ones. KU librarians also examined academic library collection development polices to understand how others have addressed this issue. Findings More than half of the feature films provided by the two vendors are available through subscriptions, renting or purchasing methods. A majority of students subscribe to one or more of these services. Many academic libraries are deciding not to provide streaming feature films. Originality/value There are no previous studies on students’ subscriptions to streaming services linked to availability of feature films offered from commercial vendors to libraries.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Rahmat Iswanto

The assumption is there are many academic libraries of Indonesia especially under Minister of Religion Affairs (MORA) which hardly meet a demand of their users’ needs because their collection management or collection development policies do not prepare well. Actually to create a better collection, an academic library has to plan its collection well. This research has done with a purpose of inspecting a collection development policy of an academic library in Indonesia and its implementation. The collection development policy of main library of State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah at Jakarta in 2008 is the object of this research. This research has done by a descriptive qualitative approach that inspects deeply by means of any deep interview, observation, and document analysis. Having examined the formulation of its collection development policy we know the context of policy’s formulation, some actors who formulate, the roles of the head of the library, the attitude of the university and some values that influence. Having examined its implementation we know that the aims of the policy have achieved or not.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 477-485
Author(s):  
Bislim Lekiqi ◽  
Aziz Rexhepi ◽  
Albina Sahiti

The Coronavirus epidemic in Kosovo is having consequences in all spheres of life. This reflection is especially noticeable in teaching and learning, especially at the university level, moving from the classical (traditional) form of teaching fully or partially to e-learning. The necessity of such a rapid transformation and the need to achieve the objectives of studies are being assessed by students in different ways. The subject of this research is how students evaluate this rapid transformation from traditional teaching and learning to e-learning, which was conducted in December 2020. 551 Kosovar Bachelor and Master students participated in the research. The research was done through a survey. The analysis of the results, their comparison leads us to the conclusions and recommendations, information which could serve the university institutions and state decision-making structures for the orientation of educational policies in a new era of digitalization, where e-learning is becoming a necessity even in developing countries. Where work enables us to understand that developments in the field of education, imposed by the epidemic, will be one of the forms of teaching and learning in the future and that for this we must all prepare as individuals and as a society in general.


2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Amos ◽  
Allyson Mower ◽  
Mary Ann James ◽  
Alice Weber ◽  
Joanne Yaffe ◽  
...  

Objective – The research project sought to explore the value of data on publication patterns for decision-making regarding scholarly communications and collection development programs at a research-intensive post-secondary institution, the University of Utah in the United States. Methods – Publication data for prolific University of Utah authors were gathered from Scopus for the year 2009. The availability to University of Utah faculty, staff, and students of the journals in which University of Utah authors published was determined using the University of Utah Libraries’ catalogue; usage was estimated based on publisher-provided download statistics and requests through interlibrary loan; and costs were calculated from invoices, a periodicals directory, and publisher websites and communications. Indicators of value included the cost-per-use of journals to which the University of Utah Libraries subscribed, a comparison of interlibrary loan costs to subscription costs for journals to which the University of Utah Libraries did not subscribe, the relationship between publishing venue and usage, and the relationship between publishing venue and cost-per-use. Results – There were 22 University of Utah authors who published 10 or more articles in 2009. Collectively, these authors produced 275 articles in 162 journals. The University of Utah provided access through library subscriptions to 83% of the journals for which access, usage, and cost data were available, with widely varying usage and at widely varying costs. Cost-per-use and a comparison of interlibrary loan to subscription costs provided evidence of the effectiveness of collection development practices. However, at the individual journal title level, there was little overlap between the various indicators of journal value, with the highest ranked, or most valuable, journals differing depending on the indicator considered. Few of the articles studied appeared in open access journals, suggesting a possible focus area for the scholarly communications program. Conclusions – Knowledge of publication patterns provides an additional source of data to support collection development decisions and scholarly communications programming. As the estimated value of a journal is dependent on the factor being studied, gathering knowledge on a number of factors and from a variety of sources can lead to more informed decision-making. Efforts should be made to expand data considered in areas of scholarly communications and collection development beyond usage to incorporate publishing activities of institutionally affiliated authors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Nuri Ifka Bengi. MS

Collection development is a core activity that has the task of holding and expanding collections in terms of collections in a library. The purpose of developing a collection is to expand and obtain a up-to-date collection. The University of Gajah Putih Takengon  Aceh Tengah Library is a private university library that functions as an information institution to support the implementation of the Tri Dharma Perguruan Tinggi. In supporting the implementation of the Tri Dharma Perguruan Tinggi and fulfilling the information needs of its users, libraries need to develop collections and formulate collection development policies. This paper examines the stages of the collection development process at the Gajah Putih Takengon University Library  Aceh Tengah regency and the collection development policy. This research uses qualitative methods with a descriptive approach. Data collection obtained through observation, interviews and literature study. The results showed that the stages of the collection development process at the Gajah Putih Takengon University Library Aceh Tengah regency were carried out simply without using a written collection development policy. In addition, the minimum number of librarians and budget is a logical factor for libraries in carrying out collection development activities.


Author(s):  
Coleen Hoelscher ◽  
Jillian Ewalt

In 2014, the Marian Library at the University of Dayton completed a long overdue revision of its collection development policy. The new document more clearly defined the scope of the library’s collections, and was intended to guide new acquisition decisions. However, this new document had the unexpected benefit of providing a framework for deselection projects that enabled preservation and improved access to the collections. This paper will discuss and analyze two of these projects, and demonstrate how the revised collection development policy laid the foundation for successful deselection outcomes. In the first case study, legacy collections of genre-based ephemera were heavily weeded to remove photocopies, internet printouts, duplicates, and other out-of-scope materials. Both the challenges and benefits of weeding legacy reference files will be discussed. The second case study will examine a comprehensive review of the library’s inactive periodical holdings, consisting of over five hundred titles that were largely uncatalogued. Removing titles outside of the library’s collection scope transformed the collection into a manageable project for the cataloging staff to tackle. This formerly hidden collection, including rare periodicals not found elsewhere in the United States, is now in the process of being cataloged. Both projects transformed local practices and improved utilization of the library’s limited resources in staffing, time, space, and funding. Faced with legacy practices that compromised physical and intellectual control of materials, librarians leveraged a well-defined collection development policy to undertake two successful deselection projects. The policy was used to justify and guide deselection, ultimately improving both preservation and access.


2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (4/5) ◽  
pp. 275-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Joy Kirkwood

Purpose – Collection development in a post-subject librarian age needs to be done differently; utilising data, metadata, analytical tools and automation more fully may offer new possibilities. The purpose of this paper is to report and evaluate an exploratory project into new techniques for collection development at the University of Manchester Library. Design/methodology/approach – The project employed a cross-team approach where a relatively large number of staff tried some innovative and experimental approaches to individual aspects of a large and complex task in a large, research-intensive university library. The overriding aim was to exploit data to support decision making and to push automation as far as possible. Findings – The quality of (meta)data remains a huge hindrance to data-driven approaches. A proper understanding of usage data is an urgent but intractable issue. Human input and relationships are still important. Data are nothing without analysis, and many librarians currently lack the data fluency to work confidently in a world of dynamic content curation. Practical implications – Librarians need both to re-skill and to change their self-identification and the philosophy that underlies it if they are to achieve confident, data fluency. Originality/value – The University of Manchester Library was one of the first libraries in the UK to make a thoroughgoing structural change from subject-based to functional teams. This paper will be of value to other libraries moving in this direction, and to those looking to make more use of data-driven decision making in collections management.


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