Collection Development

Javier Morales

Lehman, K.A. (2014, July). Collection development and management. Library Resources & Technical Services, 58(3). 169-177.

Summary: Libraries are often limited in the space they have available and as such, have to make the most of the space they have by making sure every item in the collection serves users’ needs. Demand-driven acquisition is one way of ensuring that items are only added to the collection to serve actual demand. Libraries are also weeding their collections more than they used to as they turn away from the idea of preserving old materials that may not even be useful anymore and place more emphasis on enabling discovery within the collection.

Evaluation: The article discusses the evolving practice of collection development and touches on the following topics: demand-driven acquisition, inter-library loan, print on demand, electronic resources, preservation considerations, open access, library consortiums as a means of expanding the collection, and collection weeding. The author does not provide any in-depth insights on any of these topics, though.