Readings
for Week Two: Collection Development and Management
The following readings are available for class participants through
our course
page on Oberlin's Electronic Reserve system (ERes). A password
is required.
General Introductory Reading:
Wortman, William. Collection Management: Background and Principles.
Chicago: American Library Association, 1989.
Read Chapter 1 (The Collection Management Program) and Chapter
2 (Collections), pp. 1-38.
Wortman is Humanities Librarian at Miami University
Library (Oxford, OH), and a current member of the OhioLINK CIRM
Committee. His book provides an excellent overview of the collection
development and management in libraries from the perspective of
an academic librarian. The first two chapters explain collection
management as a functional area within the library and describes
the components of a collection. Since the book was published in
1989, just before the advent of the internet, Wortman concentrates
more on a print format collection.
A Reading on the Gifts operation:
Carrico, Steven. "Gifts and Exchanges" in Understanding
the Business of Library Acquisitions. 2nd ed. Ed. by Karen
A. Schmidt. Chicago: American Library Association, 1999, pp. 205-223.
Acquisitions is a separate function from collection
development/ management in most large academic and public libraries.
Thus acquisitions is another area of specialization within librarianship.
Understanding the Business of Library Acquisitions, ed.
by the Acquisitions Librarian at Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign,
is the standard introduction to this specialty. In 19 chapters
it describes all aspects of the process of acquiring materials
for libraries, which . Materials are acquired for libraries either
as purchases or gifts, and the chapter on gifts outlines an important
area of activity for a library in a privately funded institution
such as Oberlin that depends primarily on gifts of money and materials
from alumni and friends.
Readings on books in print and electronic formats:
Zipperstein, Steven J., "Good-bye to All That," from Dissent,
Summer 2000, 76-82.
This reading is a thought provoking essay on the
future of reading and the printed book in the electronic age.
It raises issues that everyone involved with books and libraries
needs to consider. The author is a professor of Jewish Culture
and History at Stanford University.
McVeigh, Jeanette. "What's Happening to the Book - and Why You
Should Care" Library Issues, Vol. 21, No. 2 (November 2000)
1-4.
I would suggest reading the Zipperstein article
before this one. Zipperstein's thought provoking piece sets the
stage for the more practical, library related focus of this article.
Library Issues is a series of briefing papers intended for use
by Librarians to educate faculty, Deans, Provosts, and Presidents
about issues of major concern to libraries and librarians.
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