Resources we should know about as students and librarians!

URL: http://discover.sjlibrary.org:50080/ebsco-w-b/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=82b01511-97b3-4fcf-85c8-f605acb3ce65%40sessionmgr103&vid=1&hid=116

Citation: Digital Collections. 2016. Library Technology Reports, 52(2), 10-16.

This is a great article! Not only does it explain some of the history regarding open-access, it also describes where librarians, particularly those in academic libraries, find the resources to build a LibGuide.

The article gets started discussing the different elements of a LibGuide and what learning need that resources would fulfill.

The part that is really helpful, besides the demonstration of connection and linking, is the many lists of free resources. The author of the article categorizes or groups different types of open-access resources often utilized by librarians in order to guide their students. The article breaks the resources down between audio, visual, ebook, images, etc.

This is one article I had picked out towards the very beginning of the semester as a "must-read," and I just recently realized it would have been a great resource throughout the semester. If you are looking for supplemental material for a presentation or paper, I would highly recommend bookmarking this page.

Collection evaluation: a foundation for collection development

Bullard, Sherrie

Agee, J. (2005). Collection evaluation: A foundation for collection development. Collection Building, 24(3), 92-95. doi:10.1108/01604950510608267

Summary: Librarians have many strategies available for evaluating collections. This article describes three major approaches to collection evaluation: user‐centered evaluation; physical assessment; and specific subject support. Each approach employs a variety of specialized evaluative techniques. The benefit of using any of these techniques is that a focus can be developed on any aspect – subject, age, quality, or use – of the collection. Evaluating the collection allows librarians to know what resources are already available, what may be needed, and whether future collection development can be filled most effectively with print or electronic resources. The results from these techniques give justification for investment of staff time and energy in evaluation projects.

Evaluation:  Without collection evaluations that provide a clear assessment of available resources, future collection management – budgeting, format consideration, selection, or deselection – may be inefficient and at risk. Librarians in large or small libraries can employ the collection evaluation methods in this article to gain meaningful information about their own holdings. Wise collection building is dependent on a foundation of current resource assessment. This article provides some tools to build such a foundation successfully.

Labels: Assessment, Collections management, Project evaluation, Information media, Resources

Collection Development Challenges for the 21st Century Acquisitions Academic Librarian.

Michelle DeFazio

Herzog, S. (2004) Collection Development Challenges for the 21^st Century Acquisitions   Academic Librarian. The Acquisitions Librarian. 16:31-32, 149-162. http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J101v16n31_14.

Summary: Susan Herzog shares helpful advice on how to hit the ground running as the new collection development librarian in an academic library. It shares suggestions about  tools  of the trade and online resources and gives advice about building relationships with the faculty.

Evaluation:  This article is slightly dated but extremely useful as it shares the basics about collection development in an academic library including whether or not there is an existing policy on the subject and how that can guide one.  It assumes that there are staff shortages and the librarian doing the job may never have taken a collection development course.