Collection Creation as Collection Management: Libraries as Publishers and Implications for Collection Development

Corley, Jennifer

Gwynn, D., Henry, T., & Craft, A.R., (2019). Collection Creation as Collection Management: Libraries as Publishers and Implications for Collection Development. Collection Management, 44(2-4), 206-220.

In this article, Gwynn, Henry, and Craft examine the activities at the University of North Carolina - Greensboro's library in creating open education resources, establishing digital archives, publishing journals and acting as an institutional repository for collaborative scholarly projects. The authors contend that by creating content and facilitating the publication of digital items that libraries are acting as outlets for spreading scholarly content and creating their own collections as needed by their community. The article also examines how the addition of metadata from the library leads to improved access for users and supports the dissemination of published information.

While the article claims to examine libraries acting as publishers across the spectrum of academic libraries, the authors mainly focused on UNC Greensboro, an institution which is not necessarily representative of the majority of academic libraries in the nation, as the university itself has over 1,000 faculty members and much more financial support in the terms of digital infrastructure and full-time staffing for their digital publication initiative. The primary challenge for other universities and college libraries to act as a publisher of open educational resources, open textbooks, and digital journals will be both funding and staffing. As current technology and digital resources allow for libraries to find more and more open resources to meet the needs of their patrons, being a publisher will become a more viable option for academic libraries seeking to enhance their collection.

Reference's Longstanding Relationship to Collections

Murray, D. C. (2016, Fall). A thirty-year reflection on the value of reference. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 56(1), 2–5. https://doi.org.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/10.5860/rusq.56n1.2

Article reviewed by Lindsey Memory

I'm taking INFO 210 (Reference in the 21st Century) this semester in addition to this class, and I've been struck by the way that reference service intersects with collection development. In fact, the first two weeks of that class were simply about "collection development," albeit the focus was on developing a reference collection specifically. Later, we learned how we can use reference data (obtained through surveys, reports, or information-seeking behavior studies) to inform wider collection development decisions.*

In his reflection on the history and trajectory of reference work, Murray (2016) responds to an ARL report that posited that reference services are librarian-centered rather than patron-centered. He points out how often reference services have changed based on patron needs. He then discusses how reference services are changing yet again.

Most interestingly (for OUR class's purposes), he discusses new roles for reference librarians that include "supporting interdisciplinary research, implementing 'expertise databases' to enhance collaboration, assisting in the management of the data lifecycle, [and] identifying repositories of available research data" (p. 4). Direct reference consultations are not being replaced, but rather added upon, by these new roles.

Photo by Martin Adams on Unsplash

In my academic library, I know that these roles are on the forefront of the administration's minds. Interdisciplinary research, by definition, requires a collection that sufficiently informs students and faculty on the landscapes of multiple disciplines quickly and comprehensively. This enables them to engage with several disciplines at a time, often including disciplines in which they have very little methodological or theoretical experience.

Our university librarian is very interested-- and has authored several articles-- about academic libraries' capacity to contribute to the other three goals through the concept of open access publishing. If you aren't familiar with this growing movement, it is a push by researchers, university faculty, university IT professionals, and academic libraries to establish open access repositories for research (both article research as well as data sets) in order to counter the spiralling costs of journal subscriptions. Over the last few decades, subscription costs have ballooned to the point that many libraries have had to cut all but their most essential subscriptions, which have in turn driven the price of those subscriptions higher. There are many researchers who do not want their work hidden behind expensive paywalls, but rather out where their research can be used, verified, and cited. University faculty in particular have sought open access publication possibilities, and academic libraries have supplied the much-needed frameworks, expertise, and often the hosting of open access databases and/or repositories. There is a lot left to be determined about how to manage these new digital collections: are they part of a library's digital collection? Are they part of an institutional repository? Being open access, are there any types of access restrictions the library can or should put on them? How do we market our open access repositories? A good grounding in collection development principles will no doubt help contribute to reference librarians' exploration of these new roles.





* It must be pointed out that, even though understanding what resources are actually being used is important to collection development, there will always be a tension, or a challenge, for librarians to find a middle ground between buying what people want and maintaining the library's status as a receptacle of ALL types of knowledge... even unpopular or unused types.

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.

Toys at Chicago public library teach building blocks of code - without a computer.

Parnell, Jacqueline 

Jackson, C. V. (2017). Toys at Chicago public library teach building blocks of code - without a computer.

Learning Beautiful is a startup up company that specializes in creating Research-driven and Montessori-tested toys for young children. These toys are made of natural materials to preserve simplicity and craft that goes into their design. The Chicago Public Library system is Learning Beautiful’s first library customer and will have these toys available for use at their newly redesigned Thomas Hughes Children's Library at the Harold Washington Library Center.

What makes these toys so special is that they help teach children, as young as 3-years-old about the fundamentals of computer science. The toys are designed with concepts in mind such as binary numbers and pixels. The Chicago Public Library is already using toys such as BeeBots, Finch Robots, Cubetto, and Lego WeDo robotics kits to encourage computational thinking, design, and mindfulness. The idea behind bringing these toys to the library is that we don’t need high-tech toys or gadgets in order to teach children how to code. This is also an effort to match local schools in bringing more technology into early childhood learning. Chicago Public Library Commissioner Brian Bannon stated,

"We thought if our education system sees this, then we should be making the same kinds of things available, at scale, through our neighborhood libraries, and in our programs," Bannon said. "These kinds of programs are linked back to what we're trying to do as a city, which is building … curiosity in the children that we have in our city today in the careers that will drive our economy.”

The Learning Beautiful company has plans in the future to distribute their toys to other libraries and museums before making them available to homes.

This is a great collaborative effort and will allow so many children access to learning tools and building blocks in their educational endeavors. It would be wonderful to see these types of toys in every library.

How to destroy special collections with social media in 3 easy steps: A guide for researchers and librarians.

Leslie Fox
INFO 266

Werner, S. (July 31, 2015). How to destroy special collections with social media in 3 easy steps: A guide for researchers and librarians. Wynken de Worde. Retrieved from: http://sarahwerner.net/blog/2015/07/how-to-destroy-special-collections-with-social-media/


In her blog, Wynken de Worde, Sarah Werner posts her notes, amazing slides, and audio form her talk given at Rare Book School. She argues that while many Special Collections libraries are reaching out to users with social media, there are many ways this can go wrong, frustrate users and send them away. She uses humor to give examples of how keeping images locked up tight, treating everything as a joke or pretty picture and by relying too heavily on analytics for engagement by users can send researchers away and undermine the purpose of special collections.

The author then points out ways that social media can be used without damaging your special collection or stifling research and perpetuating misunderstandings. Werner asserts that special collections can grow using social media if you digitize with open access licenses; teach your audience to think about the past rather than laughing at it, and choose your aims carefully. Don't confuse popularity with engagement.

This presentation uses humor to engage the reader, but it is the detail and professionalism in the images presented as examples that I took special note of. A helpful resource for any special collections library wanting to utilize social media.

Open textbooks at Oregon State University: A case study of new opportunities for academic libraries and university presses.

Guzman, Laura

Sutton, S. C., & Chadwell, F. A. (2014). Open textbooks at Oregon State University: A case study of new opportunities for academic libraries and university presses. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, 2(4), 4.

Descriptive Summary:

In this article, Sutton and Chadwell (2014) evaluate how open textbooks fit into the developing library publishing movement.   Academic libraries have always dealt with textbook issues.  Students continually ask the library to provide textbooks as prices continue to rise and many students cannot afford to purchase them. 

The idea of open textbooks is an emerging trend that the larger Open Educational Resources (OER) supports.  Many state governments are funding open textbook publishing programs for higher education.  There are important opportunities for libraries to be involved in this movement.  It should be in the mission of the library to remove barriers to the free flow of information in support of teaching and learning. 

In general, the role of library publishing typically involves providing access to monographs, open access journals, technical reports, conference proceedings, and electronic theses and dissertations in their institutional repositories.  In order to publish open textbooks, there is a need to collaborate with faculty and often university presses.  An extension of this collaboration would be reaching out to other universities in order to maximize the scope and impact of open textbook publishing.  Publishing open textbooks is a potential area for growth in the library field that can have a global impact.  

Evaluation:

I work at an academic library and students always ask if we have certain textbooks available in the library.  In general, we do not have textbooks in the library because we want to support the University bookstore and due to textbook editions changing so fast.  I do see the high price of textbooks as a problem for students, especially science majors, whose average textbook cost can be way over $100.00.  I think that open textbook publishing is a great idea and I hope that the movement continues to grow.  

OA in the Library Collection

Bishop, Andrew

Bulock, C., Hosburgh, N., Mann, S. (2015). OA in the Library Collection: The Challenges of Identifying and Maintaining Open Access Resources, The Serials Librarian 68(1-4). 79-86. DOI: 10.1080/0361526X.2015.1023690

To discover why and how librarians continue to have difficulty managing Open Access (OA) resources even as they become popular with the public and are embraced by the library community, the authors conducted a survey of librarians’ experiences with them and after analysis of the stated problems and workflows in the survey, created a list of recommendations.  This article is a summary of the program session at which they reported their findings.  80% of the 150 respondents to the survey worked at institutions “supporting intensive scholarship at the Master’s level or greater” (80), but large and small institutions were almost equally represented.  Several electronic resource management systems were represented in survey answers, as was a variety of link resolvers and discovery services, including “none”.  According to the survey respondents, having to use many tools to deal with OA’s creates a lot of challenges. 

The first issue examined with OA resources was the existence of hybrid OA, that is, resources where some but not all of the articles are openly accessible.  This method of OA presents so many difficulties with finding and accessing available articles only 10% of the libraries surveyed offered these resources at all.  A possible solution to the problem of findability is article-level metadata on accessibility rather than title-level in order to differentiate between open and closed articles within the same title.  NISO has apparently issued guidelines for such a metadata standard, but it has been poorly communicated to the library and publishing communities at large, and thus has not been implemented. 

Respondents also indicated inconsistent metadata was one of their biggest and most widespread challenges in managing OA, saying lines of communication “upstream” to publishers for feedback need to be more open, and stricter metadata standards would make discovery of OA resources easier.  OA content also is subject to inconsistent branding and semiotics indicating its openness for both discovery and access.  In addition, publishers do not clearly communicate the use rights attached to OA content.  Overall, the authors concluded librarians most want consistency and clear communication throughout the entire “serials supply chain” to land in full interoperability with regards to Open Access content.  Consistent metadata is useless without it also being correct, and both survey respondents and session attendees complained of inaccurate information about OA resources hindering their discovery and use of items.

A general lack of clarity in the role of OA resources in the library also posed a problem to survey respondents.  Partially this is due to the difficulty of fitting OA resources into the general acquisitions and cataloging workflows, as well as a lack of collection development guidelines relating to OA resources and guidelines for integrating them into the larger collection.  While OA resources are a helpful supplement to a paid-for collection, they cannot completely replace resources that cost money, nor have they yet solved the serials pricing crisis.  Overall, the return on investment on OA resources is considered mixed, given the problems they present.

Evaluation

I had been wondering how and how well Open Access resources could be integrated into a general library collection, so I was happy to find this overview of some of the issues.  As it is the summary of a program session presenting the results of the survey, I feel like this article is too removed from the primary source to be of use as anything other than an overview.  However, it’s a good introduction/supplement to looking over the actual survey results.  I also thought having the session attendees’ reactions and thoughts included was valuable, providing a different perspective on the data and some useful anecdotes.  I’d like to see a transcript of the session to see all of the mentioned brainstorming that went on in the Q&A.  I think OA is or soon will be the next big issue in serials acquisitions and management as well as in reference and cataloging.

Collection Development and Management: An Overview of the Literature, 2011-12.

Bailey, Rachel

Lehman, K.A. (2014). Collection development and management: An overview of the literature, 2011-12. LRTS, 58(3), 169-177.

Summary: This article explores collection development literature from 2011-2012. Much of the literature discussed limited budgets as well as space saving issues. Also addressed were e-books as well as open access availability, demand driven acquisitions, print on demand and weeding.

Evaluation: This article reminded me that collection development is a big topic and there are a lot of subjects under this heading. After reading the overview of the literature, I was particularly intrigued by the process of demand driven acquisitions. There’s no better way to find out what patrons want than going straight to the source. This should be done in addition to the other methods that are already in place.