Collection Development and Management for the 21st Century Library Collections

Citation

Katsirikou, A. (2012), "Collection Development and Management for the 21st Century Library Collections", Library Management, Vol. 33 No. 8/9, pp. 570-571. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435121211279911

The handbook is innovative in this point: the author faces the library collection as a whole and describes every operation (selection, acquisition, collection, maintenance, preservation, budgeting etc.) including every type of material, printed and no‐printed. Such an approach is important because it corresponds to the contemporary structure of the library in which the collections include alternative information resources.

The book is divided in 12 chapters that examine how the new technologies effect the collection development and management and reflects the changes. It seeks the users' point of view and examines themes about users' data collection and marketing issues. The third chapter focuses on the collection development policies and the fourth on the selection sources and processes, analyzing in detail the selection criteria and methods. The acquisitions and the fiscal management, the budget scenarios and the consortium purchases are discussed in next chapters. The assessment and evaluation of the collection, the deselection (weeding) and the preservation follow. The cooperative collection development and resource sharing, the legal issues in collection development, the professional ethics and intellectual freedom and the future of collection development and management are the last chapters.

Chapters begin with concise information, continue to the advanced topics of chapter and conclude to the vocabulary, case studies, exercises and extensive bibliography.

The book describes in detail and explains what you need to know to be a good collection development specialist and what pitfalls you should avoid. It is ideal for the professional who undertakes the task of collection management without any prior knowledge or experience in the profession. Other uses for this book could be as a textbook for library and information science students (MLS) and for librarians as a professional development resource. One of the strengths of this book are the chapters' endings which include vocabulary, discussion questions between students and teacher and also exercises in the form of activities.

Gregory also provides a CD‐ROM with examples of collection development policies of a variety of libraries: public, university, college, special, school libraries. The policies reflect the similarities and the differences between the various kinds of libraries and it is worth for students and professionals to realize the target group and the operation of every kind of library.

The book presents complicated matters, such as budgeting in a rather easy way, in tables and supports the continuing learning by a long “further reading” list. The index of terms completes the edition.

Vicki L. Gregory is professor at the School of Information at the University of South Florida, but she has a rich experience on collection development and technical services management. This book is a clear demonstration of her knowledge and experience in the field. The book is the perfect resource for librarians who work with collection policy and development, for library students, for professors who teach collection management and development and for every librarian and non‐librarian who is interested in the topic.