Collection Management for the 21st Century: a Handbook for Librarians

Citation

Duckett, B. (1999), "Collection Management for the 21st Century: a Handbook for Librarians", Library Review, Vol. 48 No. 1, pp. 52-53. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.1999.48.1.52.10

The title of this book rather begs the question of what it is that we will be managing in the twenty‐first century. While the contributors here reflect current practice and concern, and give due emphasis to anticipated IT developments and management and funding trends, joint editor Gorman is also alive to the apprehension and misgiving [that] emerge from the sensing that the library profession has become so enamoured of the technological future ... that it has lost sight of far more important issues′′. T.S. Eliot′s point about wisdom being lost in knowledge, and know‐ledge being lost in information, is quoted to underline the point. Today′′, Gorman continues, collection development is more about access to information than about the quality of knowledge′′. The point is also made in the first contribution, Collection Development and Scholarly Communication′′, where the authors write that collection management is an intellectual activity based on our ability to comprehend what information producers are trying to communicate, to divine the needs and desires of information seekers, and to conjoin the two on the basis of the what the mind endeavours to create [that is knowledge]′′. As we stumble unsurely through the minefields of the unknown, may we be wise!

Although this book is, essentially, a handbook for the practising librarian and policy‐maker, the intention of the editors has been to draw together a group of writers who ... write with erudition and sense of practicality on topics of pressing interest to information professionals′′. This intention has been well realised: the 18 writers featured are well‐informed, realistic, and stimulating. This handsomely produced hardback is an example of professional writing at its best.

The book starts with a look to a future in which our focus will be more on the management of the intellectual content than with the management of their carriers, the artifacts. (A concern, I recall, of librarians at the close of the last century! The periodical indexes of Poole and Cotgreave, for example, and the fiction guides of Ernest Baker.) The new librarianship enhances a new technology. New technology already helps us to assess our users′ perceptions of our stock and to manage it better, while the even newer technology of the Internet impacts on collection management by way of assisting in evaluation, and also by providing new sources of information and new systems of information delivery. These new sources and formats, online and CD‐ROM as well as the Internet, themselves pose new questions and provide new problems. Developing collection policies for electronic resources, or rather sources′′, asks for a new paradigm, information′′ rather than document′′ management. In all this, the role of the librarian as selector remains critical. We are still needed to make informed judgements and intelligent management decisions.

How do we, will we, evaluate? The problem of collection measurement and evaluation will continue to dominate, but it will move up the line′′ to senior management. Professional education, staff training and library management will need to respond to new scenarios. Beyond such traditional collection development activities as selection and evaluation are the issues of document delivery and preservation in the digital age. Things are moving fast on these fronts and traditional library functions will be modified or replaced entirely as acquisition will be redefined in terms of facilitating access, and use will become redefined in terms of screenfuls consulted. The preservation of digital information is another problem we will face.

If access to, and retention of, materials is changing the face of library service, then so too must staffing and finance. Collection development officers′ span of responsibilities may be broadened and encroach on the work of subject and reference specialists, training will have to be changed. Budgeting will have to cope with issues of pricing and charging for using electronic sources; leasing and licensing; transferring, downloading and networking data; and ownership and royalties.

Beyond the library and its individual collection development and management, is the need to co‐operate and collaborate with other libraries and agencies. Complex issues are involved here, with both positive and negative aspects. There are examples of both successes and failure to illustrate the point.

As a fan of the core collection′′ scenario, I was pleased to note Helen Haines′ Living with Books 2nd ed. (1950) quarried for its emphasis on quality in literature selection; I was pleased to see the British Library′s Knowledge Warehouse Project described; and I liked the Just‐In‐Case to Just‐In‐Time′′ section, and should I feel sad for the LOANSOME DOC in the index I wonder?

This rich diet of ideas and issues ends with a survey of the literature (166 major items) and an index. The book progresses logically, the categories are sensible, and a good sprinkling of subheadings break up the text. My main quibble is the lack of a public library focus; special libraries, too. I would have liked more, too, on the wider social issues, but the practitioner and policy maker concerned with the future library collections have plenty here. Judging by the two‐year delay in getting the work published, a point illustrated by the 1997 dates in the bibliographies, and confirmed by one of the contributors, some things never change!