Dr. Loertscher Article on Collection Development

Terry Funk

CA

Loertscher, D. V. (2014). The Library Learning Commons Collection Is Core--Or Is It. Teacher Librarian, 41(4), 48.

Summary: The author identifies 18 shifts in collection development from traditional practices to what can be achieved in a Learning Commons. These are:

·         From ownership to “access to”
·         From balanced collections to focused collections
·         From what the critics prefer to what users prefer and will use
·         From librarian selected to collaboratively selected
·         From tight budgeting to focused budgeting by curricular need
·         From an isolated collection to a networked collection
·         From static holding to elastic responsive collections
·         From availability from a central place to access 24/7/365
·         From single format to multiple formats on preferred devices
·         From controlled cataloging to curated crowd tagging
·         From central storage to distributed storage and retrieval
·         From only commercially published to student and teacher created
·         From down the hall to the hand held device
·         From classified collections to tagged and mobile collections
·         From general collections to chunked collections supporting specific curricular targets
·         From book budgets to collection chunks supported by a variety of sources
·         From bloated textbook budgets to well-supported information blocks where the library is the common core
·         From hoping to make a difference to measures demonstrating impact on literacy and curricular understanding

Evaluation: From my experience in a Special Collections department, I see a tradition of storing printed material versus the desire to have the collections available digitally in the future. A limited number of directories, maps and newspapers are available on library databases and the department is part of a much larger library and the San Diego Circuit.  Most of the materials must be viewed in person and cannot be checked out. Having the means to go digital – that is purchasing technology for older, fragile printed materials, plus the cost of staffing such a project seems ambitious. Libraries seem to be in some transition between the traditional and the shifts listed above.