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Stoller, Building library collections
21 Dec 06
Stoller, Michael. “Building Library Collections: It’s Still About the User.” Collection Building 24.1 (2005): 4-8.
The title pretty much sums it up. Stoller summarizes the current state of library collections: electronic resources usually purchased in big, expensive suites eat up more and more of our acquisitions budgets; many of these are actually rented rather than bought; decisions on big ticket items tend to be made by administrators rather than liaison librarians.
In this environment, market research seems more essential than ever. We always needed to know what our users wanted. But the parameters of that knowledge are infinitely more complex now – to buy or not to buy, to buy in paper or electronic, to locate onsite or offsite. It is a maze of choices, and we need our users’ help. The complexity of the environment means we must be all the more sensitive not only to what research materials they need but also how they use them. (6)
It’s this last that intrigues me. Use. To an extent, we can only look at past use. We might argue that use over the last 2-5 years constitutes a good estimate of current use. And of course we can only guess at future use. How interesting is it that a soft cover edition seems to circulate more than a hard cover edition of the same book when they sit next to each other on the same shelf? What is the relationship between use and the decisions we make as bibliographers?
I’m getting a little off-topic as far as Stoller is concerned. What he mainly wants to do is trumpet the importance of the subject specialist librarian:
Quite frankly, when all is said and done, there is no better model for communicating with our user communities. Mind you, I am not referring to the old model of the selector, who sits in an office, pouring over review lists or sorting offer slips from vendors. I am talking about someone with a strong academic background in his or her subject on top of a librarian’s training, actively engaged in reference work, instruction and a vigorous liaison program with the faculty and students of a particular discipline. When all these functions come together in a single librarian, we have perhaps the ideal resource for knowing what our users want of us, someone who can talk their language, understand their methodologies and translate them into the information we need to build our collections with accuracy and precision. (7)
Posted by pzed on December 21, 2006 at 4.15pm
Categories: collection policies, libraries
