New Horizons for Academic Library Collection Development: Creating a Community-Curated Collection Through Student Empowerment

 

MacRae, Alisdair

Heisserer-Miller, R., & McAlister, L. R. (2023). New horizons for academic library collection development: Creating a community curated collection through student empowerment. Journal of Library Outreach & Engagement, 3, 119–135. https://doi.org/10.21900/j.jloe.v3.1157

Summary

This article offered two interesting solutions for academic libraries to engage student, faculty, and staff users in the form of student selection projects and grants awarded for purchasing materials related to their given area of focus. Responding to declining enrollment, shrinking budgets, and the needs of marginalized users, these programs enhanced services for users while also maintaining collection development. The Kent Library at Southeast Missouri State University is not large, with five staff for every 1,000 students, and consisting of twelve librarians and eight staff. The library had operated under a collection development model driven by faculty, so librarians had very little involvement. Equating student engagement with student success, the decision was made to establish opportunities to participate in collection development. The students gladly accepted the invitation, and while faculty might not necessarily approve materials selected by students in some cases, the solutions showed how vital student participation is for academic libraries, as well as the increasing opportunities for diversity equity, inclusion, social justice, outreach, and partnerships.

Evaluation

I found this article really exciting in terms of academic library collection development. While the university at the centre of the project might seem small and perhaps not well funded, I believe these solutions could be applied at institutions of any size, and even in non-academic library settings. The literature review supported the idea of student success through engagement, but also the potential pitfalls due to inconsistent and complex methods used to engage students, and how the student collection development process was eventually selected. The authors provided data and analysis around the engagement with each opportunity for collaborative collection development. While they noted the limits of the programs due to COVID ,they were also very honest about how interest may have been bolstered through signage, posters, free candy and coffee shop gift cards, and promotional writings in the student newspaper. Promotion may be seen as critical to making the collection development projects successful rather than imparting bias given how students are busy, and may have been under the impression that they may have little input into library operations. Overall, the project did not have exorbitant costs, with $4,000 devoted to the purchase of student nominated resources between 2019 and 2020, and $7,000 for the student group grant program between 2019 and 2021. I believe the article offers a good example of connection development through its collaborative aspects, and it would be interesting to try a similar project at another library.

Brewster Kahle on the History of the Internet Archive

Photo of Kahle via Wikipedia

Folsom, Jake.

Swisher, K. (2017, March 8). Full transcript: Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle on Recode Decode [podcast transcript]. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2017/3/8/14843408/transcript-internet-archive-founder-    brewster-kahle-wayback-machine-recode-decode

This reading was an episode of the podcast Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher, in which Swisher interviews Brewster Kahle founder of the Internet Archive (IA), covering his career, the archive, as well as industry trends and outlook. 

Kahle and Swisher had known each other professionally for some time at the time of recording, and they seem to be sympathetic with one anothers' positions on several issues surrounding tech and information science, leading to a congenial and freewheeling conversation. I came to the episode as a listener of Swisher's podcasts, and found her conversational style to be a natural fit with this interview. As it happens, I actually found the interview through an information search for interviews with Kahle after working on a project about the Internet Archive during r my metadata course.

I found Kahle's work so interesting within the context of this course, because the IA is a great example of a resource available to any library with computers as an addition to its collection. Librarians who recommend its services are also contributing to the connection development within their institutions.

Kahle is an interesting and idiosyncratic thinker, describing 501(c)(3) organizations as great American innovations and a kind of "secular church." Kahle is also an interesting and relevant figure for his prescient recognition of trends in society and economy (he is talking about OpenAI in this podcast from all the way back in 2017!) 

Over Thanksgiving weekend, a family member recommended Ian McEwan's "What We Can Know" to me, and what she told me about the book had unmistakable thematic parallels to Kahle's work, and in particular his oft-cited analogy between the Library of Alexandria, and the risk of disappearing digital items, and the importance of an archive to preserve them. As McEwan's book tops year-end lists for 2025, we can see Kahle's ideas remain relevant and captivating to readers and thinkers.

Win-win: When school libraries partner with local organizations, everybody benefits

Riggs, Michelle


Jacobson, L. (2015, December). Win-win: when school libraries partner with local organizations, everybody benefits. School Library Journal, 61(12), 60+. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A436437268/PROF?u=pott50179&sid=PROF&xid=f19f1cae


Jacobson provides several specific examples of successful community partnerships with school libraries. He points out that relationships should be collaborative, with all parties involved participating in discussions, planning, and brainstorming. In addition, relationships should ideally be reciprocal, with the community organization receiving something in return, whether a simple thank you note, a social media post, or the opportunity for involvement with school activities. Jacobson also states that volunteers and partnerships in no way replace school librarians; instead, they offer librarians the valuable asset of more time to spend be with their patrons.

I found several of the ideas for community collaboration to be thought-provoking and worth exploring for my own school library. We are located in an area with very active animal advocacy, so the idea of bringing in therapy dogs made me think about ways that could benefit my population. We also have a wide variety of nonprofit organizations run by families in our district, which are an untapped resource for volunteers and collaboration. Prior to this class, I did not do much in the way of connection development, so this article was valuable in getting the gears turning.

Librarians and OER: Cultivating a Community of Practice to be More Effective Advocates

Shana Hay

Smith, Brenda and Lee, Leva. (2015). Librarians and OER: Cultivating a Community of Practice to Be More Effective Advocates, Paper presented at the Distance Library Services Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, April 20, 2016. Vancouver: University of British Columbia. Retrieved from: https://bccampus.ca/files/2016/04/DLS-Conference.pdf 

   This paper discusses how a group of academic librarians working in the province of British Columbia, Canada joined forces to share best practices, ideas and tools with the aim of creating resources to support fellow academic librarians in OER-related interactions. By entering into a community of practice, the BCOER librarians were able to support each other, ensuring no librarian was left feeling overwhelmed in the face of this additional responsibility. The paper also brings up some of the reasons OER development has not been tackled more aggressively in many academic libraries- mainly faculty uncertainty as to the reliability of information obtained through OERs versus traditionally published materials. This paper highlights the role librarians in academic institutions can play in changing this attitude of resistance through promotional campaigns, the development and maintenance of relevant OERs, the provision of long-term, stable access, and by linking OER resources to the OPAC for ease of access and a sense of curation. Some of the interesting events BCOER have sponsored include hackathons and OER awareness events throughout the community. Some of the tools the BCOER librarians have collaborated to develop include an OER Repository Assessment Rubric, and OER advocacy poster for conference use, and BCOER Guides which are LibGuides for OER material sorted by type. 
   This paper did a great job of addressing the various reasons the use and development of OERs has met with resistance, both from the point of view of librarians (who have a tonne to do already) and faculty (who trust traditional texts and require reliability).  By highlighting ways this resistance can be overcome namely through cooperation between librarians and education between librarians and instructors, the authors of this paper make an excellent argument for the increased adoption of OERs in the academic world. By stressing the importance of things such as communication and building relationships across library systems, the BCOER offers a template for other libraries, encouraging them to overcome perceived obstacles and harness the power a of well-maintained network of OERs for their patrons.

"Let's Do It!' - A New Approach to Collection Development

Anna Fenerty

Citation

Loertscher, D. V., & Koechlin, C. (2016). Collection Development and Collaborative Connection Development: Or, Curation2. Teacher Librarian, 43(4), 52–53.

Summary

The authors, Loertscher and Koechlin, discuss the progress of implementing Learning Commons in the school libraries and offer a list of tools and templates to help the librarians make the transitions. In 2015, the authors conducted a survey of 900 teacher librarians, which showed some progress in connection developments since most schools were shifting from exclusively traditional book and database collections by adding online resources. On the other hand, shifting from one-way library websites to participatory virtual spaces was still in the very beginning stages in most of the schools surveyed. The authors suggest approaching collection development with a new attitude; WE, librarians, teachers, and students have a collective responsibility “to curate the very best educational resources” together. All need to pitch in at the building, district, state, and national level to develop connections to community resources and OERs that benefit everyone involved.

Evaluation

A relevant and inspiring article that shows the current state of digital collections and trends in school libraries. The authors offer “hands-on” advice, tools, and templates to help school librarians transition into a leadership role to “mentor collaborative curation” of connections and participatory resources instead of building collections of “owned” resources that are constricted by individual and finicky budgets. Everyone can benefit from connected participatory collections. So, “Let’s do it!”

Resource Provisions of a High School Library Collection

Lopez, Carrie

Collins, K.B. & Doll, Dr. C. A. (1 August 2012). “Resource Provisions of a High School Library Collection”, American Association of School Librarians. Retrieved from:

http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aaslpubsandjournals/slr/vol15/SLR_Resource_Provisions_V15.pdf

Really interesting study of a high school and how it’s teachers and students used and perceive the resources of the school library. I felt that it reflected much of my own teaching experiences and observations of the declining use of print media and increased used of digital media by both teachers and students.

How a Connecticut library became a community STEM hub

Lopez, Carrie

Rodgers, L. (9 March 2018). “How a Connecticut library became a community STEM hub” School Library Journal. Retrieved from:

https://www.slj.com/2018/03/technology/connecticut-library-became-community-stem-hub/

Inspirational article about a community library tapping into local schools and making connections with teachers and thus families. Perhaps a high school library could do something similar with a “family literacy night” using high school volunteers and bring in students and families from area feeder schools for books, classes, reading, cool activities.

Web 2.0 and the impact on libraries

Samnath, Kayla

Maness, J. (2006). "Library 2.0 Theory: Web 2.0 and Its Implications for Libraries". Webology, 3 (2), Article 25. Available at: http://www.webology.org/2006/v3n2/a25.html

Summary:  

During this course, our class was asked to fill out a survey about technology in their library of choice. One of the questions asked if the chosen library had web 2.0. After we got into small groups it was clear that we were all a little unsure of what this meant. After some research I came across author Maness’s article “Library 2.0 Theory: Web 2.0”.

Maness first discusses how the web has evolved into more than just a “collection of monologues” , rather, the web has changed into a “ more interactive, multimedia drive technological space” (2006, n.p.). Due to the ever changing nature of the web, libraries find themselves at a cross-roads in services provided. Maness explains his idea of “Library 2.0 as being the application of interactive, collaborative, and multimedia web-based technologies to web-based library services and collections” (2006, n.p.). Libraries adapting to this new user centered technology will be able to give their patrons even more information, which is easier to access.

This article includes great examples of how libraries have implemented these new changes. One example Maness used was instant messaging. Instant messaging gives patrons remote access to reference services. Another web 2.0 tool used my libraries today is flash programming, streaming audio and/or video, and even interactive quizzes.

Maness feels that social networks will have the most impact on libraries. The reason is because social networks “enable messages, blogging, streaming media, tagging” (2006, n.p.). Not only does it assist in the ease of accessing information, but it also represents the community in which it serves. Maness discusses how historically, libraries have been a place of gathering, community, and communication. This he argues resembles the social media of today, which is a possible future for libraries.

Evaluation:

Although this article is six years old, it really does a great job embodying how the evolution of technology can be adapted into library practices. Many of the items Maness lists in his article are used by libraries right now. Web 2.0 tools really connect people remotely, and give them access to information with much of ease than the library could previously. This article really clarified concepts in which myself and others were a little unsure of.

This article is also useful for citation searching. It introduces some of the forefathers of the librarian scholarship about web 2.0 capabilities. The internet represents the rapid consumption and production of information capabilities new technology offers us. Maness also exposes his readers to the change in library paradigms. Libraries of the past focused on in house collections, trying to make them as available to the public as possible, whereas now there is a shift which focuses more on collaborative systems.