Collection Development and Assessment in Health Sciences Libraries

Citation

Gorman, G.E. (1998), "Collection Development and Assessment in Health Sciences Libraries", Asian Libraries, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 61-62. https://doi.org/10.1108/al.1998.7.2.61.5

These two monographs are part of an integrated, eight‐volume series that replaces that venerable multi‐volume work, Handbook of Medical Library Practice, and as such should be in the professional library of anyone involved in medical or health sciences librarianship. Although each is rather different in conception and execution, both succeed in presenting basic professional practice in a straightforward manner.

The volume on collection development and assessment is a jointly authored work yet appears almost seamless. The twelve chapters open with chapter‐length discussions on the collection development context and roles and relationships in collection development; these set the stage for more practical matters by discussing the place of collection development in library work, the various tasks involved and organisational matters. The third chapter, on education and training, is largely out of place because it focuses principally on first level professional training and only secondarily on continuing professional education ‐ it may be of interest to us educators, but probably not to practitioners.

In Chapters 4 to 11 the authors get down to brass tacks, with discussion of policies and selection criteria, of selection itself (three chapters on journals and books, electronic resources, special types of material), budgeting, collection assessment, cooperative collection development, and preservation. This is the core of the work, and in it the authors offer sound, no‐nonsense, practical advice that is both generic yet specific to the health sector (the many examples are particularly appropriate in this regard). Some may prefer a more discursive, reflective approach, but there are alternative resources taking this tack ‐ the unabashedly ‘sleeves rolled up’ approach in this volume will appeal to those who ask the most basic question, How is it done?

Only rarely do Richards and Eakin fail to answer this to my satisfaction; the budgeting chapter is one such case, for here there is less on how to do it and more on the advantages/disadvantages of various approaches. For a more practice‐oriented discussion, one will need to consult Murray Martin’s Collection Development and Finance: A Guide to Strategic Library‐Materials Budgeting. The chapter on collection assessment is similarly general, so again one will need to look elsewhere for practical advice. The concluding chapter on “research questions” and future developments is a curious amalgam of ideas for research projects and crystal ball gazing; it will not be of much interest to hard‐headed practitioners, but students looking for research topics may find some starting points here. The concluding appendixes (sample policies), bibliography, glossary and index are all entirely appropriate.

The second volume here reviewed is an edited collection on acquisitions with five contributions from seven authors, and the editor correctly states that, because of the very practical and technology‐driven nature of acquisitions work, the contributors have faced a “…uniquely difficult challenge in summarizing the state of ‘current practice’ in biomedical libraries in a way that is both broadly applicable and yet specific enough to offer practical assistance” (p. xvii). To a large degree the authors in fact have plumped for “broadly applicable” and thus offer a series of chapters that, save for specific examples, could be used by acquisitions workers in almost any scientific and technical library. More appropriate would have been a less expensively mounted electronic manual of detailed acquisitions practices in health science libraries that could be updated as changes occur.

The five chapters in Morse consist of a lengthy overview of acquisitions, separate discussions of monograph and serials acquisitions, serials management issues, and acquisition of audiovisual and digital media. A useful glossary precedes the excellent index, but there is no consolidated bibliography. The overview chapter by Pat Walter is a masterful compression of the essentials of acquisitions which, with its 160 references, is remarkably comprehensive and might serve as an introduction to acquisitions work in any context. The chapter on monograph acquisitions is rather a disappointment, covering in about 50 pages the acquisitions process, sources of materials, acquiring special materials, donations, and management issues. Vendor selection and evaluation, fund management, evaluation of automated systems and a few other topics are treated too superficially to be of much benefit to the less experienced practitioners at whom the volume is aimed.

The treatment of serial acquisitions, consisting of two chapters in some 90 pages, is rather more satisfactory. Most useful is the clear division into procedures (chapter 3) and management issues (chapter 4), reflecting the fact that one tends to be paraprofessional and the other professional. The detail on such procedures as claiming and vendor evaluation is at about the right level to enable one to see the forest for the trees, with ample references to other works that might provide more information. The fifth chapter, on acquiring audiovisual and digital media, should have been two discrete chapters, as both formats are of particular importance in the health sciences. As it stands, this chapter is inadequately detailed, with digital journals receiving notably scant treatment ‐ unfortunate when this issue is affecting all scientific collections with breathtaking speed.

While Morse’s volume has a number of weaknesses, it is still recommended as a worthy compendium for anyone new to health sciences acquisitions or scientific and technical libraries generally. The volume by Richards and Eakin probably displays fewer weaknesses and for this reason is more strongly recommended to the same cadre.