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Corrigan, The collection policy reborn
21 Dec 06
Corrigan, Andy. “The Collection Policy Reborn: A Practical Application of Web-based Documentation.” Collection Building 24.2 (2005): 65-69.
Corrigan suggests that web-based collection policy documents are fundamentally different from the paper-based documents that are the subject of the literature. “These new policies reflect the advantages of the online medium in which they are presented and in some cases appear to represent significant changes in how collection policies are structured and used” (65). Corrigan is at Tulane, where a change in both library and campus leadership compelled the library to reconsider policy. A task force was established to lead the policy renewal:
The task force soon discovered that collection policies had dramatically changed from dreary summary documents attempting to broadly describe the overall scope of the collection. Instead, these newer policies were most often sets of individual working documents focused on specific disciplines covered. Most of them seem to have the practical utility of having been developed and maintained by the bibliographer assigned to the discipline at hand. (66)
This is consistent with the approach to collection policy development outline in Leddy’s Operational Strategic Plan (2005). Our plan calls for the department head to write a general policy document, after which a committee of collection librarians will develop guidelines for discipline-specific area plans. However, it’s interesting to think of this as a web-based document from the outset. Writing for the web is different from writing for paper. Writing for the web could also conceivably include commenting or even collaborative writing through something wiki-ish.
Corrigan reports that Tulane decided to make a focus on curriculum needs central to its policy development process: “the process of writing a comprehensive set of collection policies. . . began with an inventory of academic departments and programs” (67). Step two was to develop specific guidelines for use by bibliographers in developing their policies. These policies have since been transferred to a database allowing bibliographers to login and update their policies with ease.
Interestingly, Corrigan makes no mention of any systematic attempt to involve faculty or students in the process. The subject-specialist’s liaison activities will necessarily come into play to some extent, but I think user feedback needs to be an explicit part of the process.
Posted by pzed on December 21, 2006 at 4.08pm
Categories: collection policies, libraries
