Approval plans,discipline change,and the importance of human mediated book selection

This study examines holdings of 21 members of the Association of Research Libraries for books reviewed in American Historical Review. The study asserts that approval plans are inadequate for collecting from small publishers or from scholarship that crosses disciplinary boundaries. Although approval plans increase efficiency in collection development, the need for expert selection cannot be overstated. Results indicated that small publisher's books were less likely to be in libraries than university press publisher's books, and that history monographs are frequently classified outside disciplinary boundaries, and are therefore invisible to approval plans that define disciplines based on classification systems.     

An evaluation of book availability in Taiwan university libraries: A resource sharing perspective

This study is intended to answer the following questions: Have university libraries in Taiwan acquired books recommended by selection aids? Can university library collections in Taiwan sufficiently fill users' requests? Do libraries of different collection sizes process users' requests in an unbiased and efficient manner?This study employed interviews and document delivery tests. Librarians from 15 university libraries were interviewed to investigate their thoughts on ILL services. Samples from Choice and Bowker's Global Books in Print were searched for through the online catalogs of 148 university libraries. This study concludes that resource sharing will not operate in an equitable way if most user requests are only directed towards a small percentage of Taiwan's university libraries. Without an adequate quantity of volumes in the library collections of any region or country, resource sharing cannot be realized.     

Choice for cooperative collection development

Book reviews from Choice, proximity, automation, and committed personnel are the bases for a cooperative collection development project among the Tri-College University Consortium libraries at Moorhead, Minnesota, and Fargo, North Dakota. The purpose of the project is to provide more titles for users of the Consortium libraries without compromising collection quality. Librarians at each library make selections from each issue of Choice, prioritize them, compare them, and decide which library should purchase each selection. The ongoing project, in existence for 15 years, currently diverts more than $59,000 annually to additional purchases. This study concludes that when automation, close proximity, and committed personnel are available, cooperative collection development based on Choice reviews is a worthwhile project and that cooperative collection development as a part of resource sharing is the best way to serve the library needs of the Tri-College University Consortium.     

Issues in Collecting Post‐Soviet Crime Fiction in Academic Libraries

This article draws attention to a segment of the Russian literary market that is underrepresented in American research library collections, namely light popular fiction and particularly the titles that belong to the detektiv genre. The results of an informal survey of scholars and bibliographers are presented and collection patterns are briefly discussed. Following an exposition of the available collection development tools for Russian light fiction, the article concludes with a call for greater emphasis on collecting these materials in North American research libraries.     

Collection development in a multi-system cooperative: An acquisition policy and plan

Four libraries in Colorado through a cooperative agreement (Arapahoe Public Access to Libraries, or APAL) hired a contractor to produce a plan for cooperative collection development and acquisitions. The study included analysis of the collection by subject categories, collection use by reference, circulation and in-house study. This supply/demand analysis provided data for use with the ALA/RTSD Guidelines for Collection Development. The result was a plan for joint acquisition of materials and a schedule of purchases for stressed subject categories for the subsequent five-year period. A category was considered stressed if proportional demand exceeded proportional supply determined in the collection and use analyses. The model developed is applicable in any library.     

THE MUSE IN THE STACKS:

Twelve years ago, in a nationwide survey of public libraries it was found that modern American poetry collections were generally meager, unevenly developed, and of low priority to public libraries.' The nature of poetry publication in the United States present3 unique problems for the library trying to develop a collection of modem American poetry, and for the evaluator of such a collection.     

How Many Libraries Do We Need?

ABSTRACT

According to the American Library Association, there are 119,000 libraries in the United States. But how many do we need? In this vision session report, Arizona State University Librarian James J. O’Donnell addresses this question through the lenses of discovery tools, usability, and marketing strategy. He also addresses the need for a more global and collaborative approach to collection building in libraries. This deliberately provocative talk provides several different ways to think about the answer to the title question—and several answers.     

Assessing the State of Cooperative Collection Development

ABSTRACT

The working group developed its map through a web-based survey distributed internationally via listservs. Eighty-nine preponderantly North American cooperative projects responded. Almost three-quarters of them were born in the 1990s. State-based projects are prevalent, and most projects operate in compact regions. Academic libraries appear to participate much more frequently than other types. Not surprisingly, 75 percent of the projects feature the shared purchase or archiving of electronic resources. One-third engage in selection or management of print materials, most often in area studies. Collaborative electronic purchasing has generated a boom in cooperative collection development, but traditional print-based cooperation remains rare and narrowly focused.     

Japanese manga in translation and American graphic novels: A re-examination of the collections in 36 academic libraries ten years later

Ten years ago, this journal published an article comparing the collection rates of Japanese manga in English translation and American graphic novels (“American” defined as graphic novels published in North America and originally written in English) in 44 American academic libraries in 2007 and 2008 (Masuchika & Boldt, 2010). The results showed that American graphic novels were being added to American academic libraries at a faster pace than translated Japanese manga. With the growing popularity of both manga and graphic novels, it was time to revisit this phenomenon and see if any changes had occurred in collection rates within the last ten years. This study revealed that while graphic novels were being added at a significantly faster pace, manga showed no increase in the rates they were being added ten years ago.     

Providing Access and Preservation Services to Collections in Remote Storage Facilities

ABSTRACT

As libraries continue to acquire, catalog, and preserve paper-based collections, and the early promise of digital technologies to put everything online has not yet been fully realized, the need to physically retain little used analog collections has intensified. Thus a growing trend in the field of academic and public libraries is an increased awareness of the importance of remote storage facilities (RSF). A recent American Library Association meeting featured speakers who were involved with such a facility. The speakers offered tips and hints on surviving and even thriving in one successfully. The authors of this article hope that by documenting the highlights of these presentations, other librarians and staff in the planning, construction, or implementation phase of a RSF will be better prepared for the challenges and difficulties they will face when trying to provide access to and physically maintain a collection geographically distant from their main library.     

We Are All Teachers: A Collaborative Approach to Digital Collection Development

ABSTRACT

In libraries and archives, efforts to document underrepresented communities and diversify collections can be fraught with political tension. We explore an interdepartmental collaboration to create and preserve a digital collection documenting the Urban Native Relocation Program of the mid- to late-twentieth century in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Involving the Grand Valley State University Libraries, the Kutsche Office of Local History, and the university's Native American Advisory Board, the project serves as a model not just for collaborative collection development but also for community engagement and outreach. We find that process is as important as product in developing collaborative digital collections.     

Library support for emergency management during the time of natural disasters: Through the lens of public library Twitter data

The public libraries in the Carolinas engaged with their communities using Twitter throughout the phases of Hurricane Florence in 2018. A total of 161 libraries in Carolinas were examined. The framework of crisis informatics, content analysis, and network analysis were applied to 738 Twitter posts from 17 libraries, which had Twitter presence, to understand interaction details between the libraries and communities that they serve. Findings include that the libraries shared a mixture of both disaster- and non-disaster-related information via their Twitter pages. The disaster-related tweets were mostly shared in the During (291 out of 349) and After (56 out of 349) phases. The number of general library-related tweets in the During phase dropped drastically compared to those in the Before or After phases. The libraries were also retweeting disaster-related tweets from various governmental agencies and NGOs to the community members in their social network. These findings indicate that the libraries switched their roles from a general services institution to an emergency information hub as the threat from the hurricane began affecting the communities. The knowledge gained from our study could be used to improve community resilience by further illuminating the role of public libraries as public infrastructures that host and facilitate the development of social capital during and after disaster events by becoming information and communication hubs.     

Stacks Management: An Organic Approach to Growing Space

ABSTRACT

Most library buildings were built thirty or more years ago. As a result libraries are sharing a common situation. There is little or no room to add more books onto the shelves, and there are odd spaces throughout the stacks which are not being used. Jackson Library, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, faced this challenge and grew space by utilizing what was available through a complete analysis of the collection and how much space is needed to house the growing collection. How this was accomplished is presented here so that other libraries might benefit from Jackson's experience.     

Information sources in library and information science doctoral research

A citation analysis of 61 library science and information science dissertations revealed some interesting publication patterns. About 80% of the citations are to single authors, and as in analyses of periodical literature, males are cited more than females overall (about 61% to 39%). In dissertations related to school or public libraries, the male/female distribution is less disparate; for studies in academic or special libraries two thirds of the authors are male, and male authorship is 75% when only information science dissertations are analyzed. Journal articles are cited more than books, book chapters, proceedings, theses, and other formats with College & Research Libraries and Journal of the American Society for Information Science used most. Library and information science is impacted by several other disciplines, primarily education, computer science, health/medicine, psychology, communications, and business. Authors cited in dissertations represent a somewhat less parochial list in terms of citing U.S. publications than authors cited in studies analyzing journal citations; over half of all works cited were published within the last 10 years.     

Federal publications cutbacks: Implications for libraries

Since President Reagan's April 1981 moratorium on new government publications and audiovisual products, the restrictions this administration has imposed on executive agency data collection and publishing activities have provoked considerable controversy both in Congress and in the media. This article attempts to characterize the impact on libraries of the restrictions. An examination of the Office of Management and Budget's List of Government Publications Terminated and Consolidated by Agency as compared with depository distribution patterns, agency publication policies established by the President's Task Force on Management Reform, and reductions in data collection activities directed by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs are reported. A pattern of neglect in federal information collection and dissemination is shown to increase libraries' dependence on private sector publishing of government information, and to reduce the availability and comparability of certain federal statistical documentation collected by libraries.     

美国高校图书馆馆藏建设制度安排及启示研究

美国高校图书馆重视馆藏建设制度安排,对我国高校图书馆开展馆藏建设具有启示借鉴意义。美国高校图书馆馆藏建设制度安排是一种政策明晰,"选"、"采"分离,多元主体参与的机制。我国高校图书馆需要尽快建立起科学、民主、高效的馆藏发展建设工作制度。     

Reference Collection Management Policies

Abstract

The literature indicates most academic libraries do not have formal reference collection policies, or that if they do, such documents are not up-to-date. Kansas provides an optimum setting to examine college and undergraduate libraries as most institutions of higher learning in the state are small to medium in size. Kansas is consistent with the trends indicated in the literature. All academic libraries in the state were asked to submit a copy of their policy. Each document was examined in light of: rationale for having a policy, defining the nature of the collection, criteria on inclusion and exclusion, input from stakeholders, managing budget costs, electronic resources, and weeding. Selection criteria and sample polices provide a practical guide for the development of a policy. All formats are considered.     

Trends in mobile and outreach services

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on results of a questionnaire distributed to North American public libraries to determine what types of services they are providing to populations experiencing barriers to using bricks-and-mortar branches. The results indicate that many are offering homebound delivery and that bookmobiles remain popular, particularly in libraries serving large geographic areas. Some libraries are exploring kiosk, or vending machine style services. Lastly, new trends are emerging, notably pop-up libraries, vans, and book bikes.     

Applications of diversity language to descriptions of collection development activities at academic libraries: An exploratory analysis of strategic plans and diversity information webpages

Diversity is commonly invoked as a goal for libraries in a variety of domains, including collections. This study explores how diversity language is used to characterize collection development efforts at a sample of large North American academic libraries, through content analysis of strategic planning documents as well as library webpages providing information about diversity efforts. The topic of collection diversity was found to be not consistently addressed in these documents. While 90 % of the institutions whose strategic plans were examined mentioned diversity in some way, less than half of these did so in relation to collections; about one-third of the libraries with diversity information pages omitted reference to collections in these documents. Strategic plans and webpages that mentioned collection diversity often did so cursorily, and in vague terms that lacked specific details about the nature and purpose of diversification. This indicates that the academic libraries still have far to go in developing a shared conceptualization of what collection diversity involves. Analysis of updated documents, retrieved two years after the initial sample, suggests that there may be increasing attention to social justice concerns in these contexts, which would potentially enable greater precision in discussions of collection diversification.     

美国大学图书馆合作书库PASCAL建设研究

自上个世纪末开始,美国部分高校图书馆在校外联合建设合作书库,有效地缓解了馆藏资源的膨胀与书库面积不断萎缩的矛盾。该文主要介绍了美国大学图书馆合作书库PASCAL的建设与发展,讨论了PASCAL合作书库产生的背景、选书的程序、财产的归属、图书借阅的流程等问题。图书馆间建立具有一定规模的合作书库,对我国的图书馆建设也具有一定的参考意义。