Collection management and the budget crunch: Are we adequately preparing library students for current practices?

Shameem Maideen

Olivia Marie Hedlund, & Andrea Copeland. (2013). Collection management and the budget crunch: Are we adequately preparing library students for current practices? Collection Building, 32(4), 128-132.

Summary : An interesting investigation to determine whether collection management practices that evolved as a result of budgetary constraints are included in the LIS curriculum. The author argues that libraries of all types have been struggling with materials budget for many years. As a result, they have begun to adopt a number of innovative methods and practices for dealing with budget constraints, for example, methods such as cooperative collection building, patron driven acquisitions and floating collections to name a few. The study examines professional standards, collection development texts and LIS literature as well as surveying current collection development educators in an effort to assess this. The author concludes that rewriting of ALA's Guide to Collection Development Policy statements and present research in this area will hopefully work to foster connections between the various stakeholders.

Evaluation: I felt that this was a very timely study. Transfer of Knowledge needs to happen in both directions. Just as much as theory informs the practice, so too does practice needs to have the feedback link back to theory in order to ensure that the literature remain relevant to the profession.