COURSE DESCRIPTION
Explores current
topics and problems related to the development and management of library
collections, focusing on issues related to evaluation, diversity, selection
practices, and advancing digital collecting. Examines changes in scholarly
communication and the production and distribution of information resources that
impact planning and policy for building, budgeting, and providing access to
collections.
The class will be conducted
as a seminar and will revolve around discussion of readings and case material
collected by students. Class sessions will focus on contemporary problems and
trends in the field. Students will help guide the direction of the course
through commentaries on the weekly readings and by presenting highlights from
their projects. The assignments will complement the readings by allowing
students to learn about collection practices and problems of interest and by
familiarizing students with new developments and initiatives that affect the
content and function of collections.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
1. Provide a general overview
of the internal and external factors that impact collection development and
collection management decisions.
2. Understand contemporary
collection building issues, trends, and practices, especially as they relate to
changes in scholarly communication, new document formats and configurations,
and enhanced access capabilities.
3. Explore the collection
problems professionals are currently facing in the field and concurrent digital
library developments.
COURSE MATERIALS
There are no
required textbooks for the course. Syllabus readings are available online as
UIUC Library e-journals or on e-reserve.
REQUIREMENTS
Written work will be evaluated on evidence that
·
the
relevant literature and sources have been read or consulted and applied,
·
key
concepts and issues are understood, and
·
substantive thought and
analysis have been given to the assignment.
Organization and articulation of content will also be assessed. Late
assignments will not be accepted without prior approval, and incomplete
assignments will receive partial credit.
You may submit your assignments in paper, as an electronic document via
e-mail, or as a web page.
1. General
Participation
15
points
Students are expected to complete syllabus readings
and participate in weekly class discussions.
2. Reading Commentaries
15
points total
Select 5 weeks.
Due via e-mail by
Beginning the third week of the course, students will
·
submit a brief commentary
on one or two key ideas from the readings for the week.
Each student should submit commentaries for at
least five units during the semester. The day of class, send me a substantial
paragraph (two at the most) elaborating on an issue, problem, or concept
that you consider especially important in terms of the topic for the week.
State your selected theme, why you selected it, and explain its particular
significance for collection development or management. I will draw on your
commentaries during class discussion, therefore you
should be prepared to talk about your comments in class. The weekly submissions
will not be graded individually; they will be assessed at the end of the course
based on how well they show your comprehension of the material and on their
analytical contribution to the class discussions.
3. Collection
Assessment and Evaluation Plan
25
points
Due on October 3rd
Select a collection at a local library or a digital collection
for assessment, and determine the objectives to be achieved through an
evaluation process. For instance, you may want to examine the business
reference section at your local public library in terms of providing service
for the start-up of local small businesses. Or you could choose a specific
subject area within the university collection to consider in terms of
curriculum or research support. Perform a preliminary assessment of the
collection, and then develop a comprehensive evaluation plan. The paper should
include a write-up of the assessment and a detailed plan for further
evaluation.
The assessment should describe the subjects and
formats contained in the collection, as well as the size, scope, depth, recency, and significance of the collection. If possible,
consider circulation activity and condition of physical materials, and be
sure to account for access to electronic materials provided by the library.
Propose an evaluation plan that fits the collection
and its objectives. Discuss the methods to be used and why they are the most
suitable for the task. Outline basic procedures, staffing, and timeline for the
proposed evaluation project.
Papers should be about 5 pages or 1250 words.
Related resources:
Collection Assessment / Collection Development
Training for
Australian Libraries Gateway.
Collection Assessment: Tools and References. http://www.nla.gov.au/libraries/help/catr.html
A Guide to the Collection Assessment Process. Australian Collection
Assessment Manual: a collection assessment guide, compiled by Margaret Henty, National Library of Australia, 1992.
http://www.nla.gov.au/libraries/help/guide.html
4.
Institutional Repository Collection Policy
15 points
Due on October 31st
Identify a kind of institution, academic or otherwise,
as a site for institutional repository (IR) collection development. Write a
cover letter and draft policy addressed to the head of that institution
outlining priorities for types of materials and criteria to be applied for
building the repository.
In your scenario, assume that an IR project has
started up and your task is to propose a formal plan for how to develop the
collection over the coming 5-years.
The cover letter should provide background on why an
IR is needed at the institution,
an explanation of
what material will be targeted and prioritized for inclusion and why, and
proposed strategies for acquiring content.
The policy should describe the scope of what the
collection should cover and specify criteria for inclusion.
Papers should be about 3 pages or 800 words.
Related resources:
SPARC Institutional Repository
Checklist & Resource Guide
See especially, sections on Securing Faculty
Participation and Repository Management and Policy Issues
http://www.arl.org/sparc/IR/IR_Guide.html
EPrints Handbook, section
on Developing a Policy
http://www.eprints.org/documentation/handbook/policy.php
5. Collection
Operations Investigation
30
points
Overview presentations on October 17th
Panel presentations of completed projects on November 28th and
December 5th
Choose a library or information center to examine as a
collection development site. It does not need to be a local site. In fact, it
would be ideal if, as a whole, the class investigated multiple types of
libraries in various locations. You should consider yourself a kind of
“investigative reporter” and collect a range of information related to the
library and its collections, using a combination of sources.
You may consult the library literature, statistical
resources, and web pages for existing information and data. For example, basic
statistics can be found in the American Library Directory, and those
compiled by the Association of Research Libraries can be accessed at http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/arl/index.html. State public library statistics can be found at http://www.lrs.org/asp_public/other.asp. Sources such as these allow you to track certain
factors over time. Some libraries also make their annual reports available on
the web, and librarians sometimes publish articles on practices and new
initiatives undertaken in their libraries.
Make contact with a professional librarian involved in
collection development at the institution to inquire about gathering existing
documentation (such as collection policies, annual reports, etc.) and perhaps
getting a tour or “inside view” of the operation. Ask the librarian to respond
to the following question either in a one-on-one conversation or via e-mail:
What do you believe will be the greatest collection
development challenges your institution will face over the next five years?
Depending on the rapport you develop with your contact
person, this may be the beginning of a longer conversation or just a lead for
further investigation about the issue(s) using other sources.
Students will give a brief overview of their projects
on Week 8, October 17th.
The final report should provide a descriptive profile
and analytical discussion of the library and its collection practices, synthesizing
the information you collected from sources within the institution and the
literature.
·
Discuss
what you found out about the user communities served, the size and scope of the
collection, collection policies, staff and resources devoted to collection
activities, access mechanisms and services, etc. Provide as much information as
possible about the acquisition and provision of electronic resources,
budgeting, and staffing issues. Highlight innovations and problem areas.
·
Based
on what you have learned about collection issues and trends, consider
-- the strengths and the weaknesses of how collections are developed and
managed
at the site, and
-- the institution’s ability to confront their stated future challenges.
Papers should be about 8 pages or 2000 word.
Presentations should run about 10 minutes and will be
presented in a panel format, to be arranged later in the course.
Panel groups will be designated for the final presentations. This format will help us identify points of similarity or difference in collection practices and problems among the range of cases covered.
CLASS SCHEDULE AND READING ASSIGNMENTS
§
Week
1 - August 29 - Course Introduction
§
Week
2 – September 5 - Collections in the Digital Age
Lee, Hur-Li.
(2000). What is a Collection? Journal of the
American Society for Information Science
51(2): 1106-1113.
Manoff, Marlene. (2000). Hybridity,
Mutability, Multiplicity: Theorizing Electronic Library Collections. Library
Trends 48(4): 857-876.
Shreeves, Edward. (2003). Selectors, Subject
Knowledge, and Digital Collections. Journal of Library Administration
39(4): 65-78.
Lynch, Clifford A. (2003). Institutional Repositories:
Essential Infrastructure for Scholarship in the Digital Age. ARL
226: 1-7.
http://www.arl.org/newsltr/226/ir.html
§
Week
3 - September 12 Evaluation
Intner, Sheila S. (2003). Making Your
Collections Work for You: Collection Evaluation Myths and Realities. Library
Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services 27(3): 339-350.
Dobson,
Cynthia, Kushkowski, Jeffrey D., and Kristin H.
Gerhard. (1996). Collection
Evaluation for Interdisciplinary Fields: A Comprehensive Approach. Journal
of Academic Librarianship 22(4): 279-284.
Hickey,
David, and Shelley Arlen. (2002). Falling through the Cracks: Just How Much ‘History’ is
History? Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services
26(2): 97-106.
Dilevko, Juris and Esther Atkinson. (2002). Evaluating Academic Journals without Impact
Factors for Collection Management Decisions. College and Research Libraries
63(6): 562-577.
Website:
COUNTER: Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources.
Read "about COUNTER" section, http://www.projectcounter.org/about.html,
and review survey results, http://www.projectcounter.org/survey_results.pdf.
§
Week
4 - September 19 Diversity
Serebnick, Judith and Frank Quinn.
(1995). Measuring Diversity of Opinion in Public Library Collections. Library
Quarterly 65(1): 1-38.
Keough, Brian. (2002). Documenting Diversity: Developing
Special Collections of Underdocumented Groups. Library
Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services 26(3): 241-251.
Perrault, Anna H. (1995). The Changing Print
Resource Base of Academic Libraries in the
Review criticisms of Perrault’s study in:
Holleman, Curt. (1997). The
Study of Subject Strengths, Overlap, and National Collecting Patterns: The Uses
of the OCLC/AMIGOS Collection Analysis CD and Alternatives to It. Collection
Management 22(1/2): 57-69. [on reserve]
Gherman, Paul M. (2005). Collecting at the Edge—Transforming
Scholarship. Journal of Library Administration 42(2): 23-34.
§
Week
5 - September 26 Selection
and Development Practices
Pymm, Bob. (2006). Building Collections for All Time: The
Issue of Significance. AARL 37(1): 61-73.
Sullivan, Michael. (2000).
Giving Them What They Want in Small Public Libraries. Public Libraries
39(3): 148-155.
Corby, Katherine. (2003).
Constructing Core Journal Lists: Mixing Science and Alchemy. Portal:
Libraries and the Academy 3(2): 207-217.
Bartolo, Laura M. (2002). Border Crossing in a
Foster, Nancy Fried, and
Gibbons, Susan. (2005). Understanding Faculty to Improve
Content Recruitment for Institutional Repositories. D-Lib
Magazine 11(1).
§
Week
6 - October 3 Scholarly
Communication and Publishing Trends
Assessment and
evaluation plans due
Heath, Fred M. (2005).
Collections of Record and Scholarly Communications: The Responsibilities of the
Research Library in a Rapidly Evolving Digital World. Journal of Library
Administration 42(2): 5-21.
Atkinson, Ross. (2000). A Rationale for the Redesign of Scholarly Information Exchange.
Library Resources and Technical Services 44(2): 59-69.
Brown, Patrick O., Eisen, Michael
B., and Varmus, Harold E. (2003). Why PLoS Became a Publisher. PLoS Biology 1(1).
Kling, Rob,
and Geoff McKim. (2000). Not Just a Matter of Time: Field Differences and the Shaping
of Electronic Media in Supporting Scientific Communication. Journal of the
American Society for Information Science 51(14): 1306-1320.
Websites:
SPARC. The
Scholarly Publishing and Resource Coalition.
http://www.arl.org/sparc/
PLoS Open Access Resources
http://www.plos.org/oa/plosoa.html
and
http://www.plos.org/oa/otheroa.html
§
Week
7 - October 10
E-Journals
Montgomery, Carol Hansen.
(2003). The Evolving Electronic Journal Collection at
Frazier, Kenneth. (2001). The Librarian's Dilemma: Contemplating the Costs of the 'Big
Deal.' D-Lib Magazine 7(3).
Hahn, Karla. (2006). The State of the Large Publisher Bundle: Findings from an
ARL Member Survey. ARL 245: 1-6.
Hahn, Karla
L. and Lila A. Faulkner. (2002). Evaluative Usage-based Metrics for the Selection of
E-journals. College and Research Libraries 63(3): 215-227.
Okerson, Ann. (2004). On Being Scientific
about Science Publishing. Nature. Web Focus. Access to the Literature.
http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/accessdebate/9.html
Website:
LOCKSS. Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe.
http://www.lockss.org/lockss/Home
§
Week
8 - October 17 - Conversion and Description
Overviews of operation investigations
Hazen, Dan,
and Jeffrey Horrell, and Jan Merrill-Oldham. (1998). Selecting Research
Collections for Digitization.
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/hazen/pub74.html
Litzer, Don and Andy Barnett. (2004). Local History in E-Books and on the Web. Reference
and User Services Quarterly 43(3): 248-257.
Hill, Linda L., et al. (1999).
Collection Metadata Solutions for Digital Library
Applications. Journal of the American Society for Information Science
50(13): 1169-1181.
Websites:
Collaborative Digitization
Program. http://www.cdpheritage.org/
Copyright, Intellectual Property
Rights and Licensing Issues. Sunsite.
§
Week
9 -October 24 - Dynamics of Digital Collections
Lougee, Wendy Pradt. (2002). Diffuse Libraries:
Emergent Roles for the Research Library in the Digital Age.
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub108/contents.html
Besser, Howard. (2002). The Next
Stage: Moving from Isolated Digital Collections to Interoperable Digital
Libraries. First Monday 7(6).
Palmer, Carole L., Knutson,
Ellen, Twidale, Michael, and Zavalina,
Oksana. (In press). Collection Definition in Federated Digital Resource Development. Proceedings of the 69th ASIS&T Annual Meeting, 3-8 November 2006,
Cole, T.W. & Shreeves,
S.L. (2004). Search and discovery
across collections: The IMLS Digital Collections and Content Project. Library
Hi Tech 22(3): 307-322.
Website:
IMLS Digital Collections and
Content Project.
http://imlsdcc.grainger.uiuc.edu/
§
Week
10 - October 31 - Trends in Cooperation
Institutional
Repository Collection Policy due
Atkinson, Ross. (2003). Uses and Abuses of Cooperation in a Digital Age. Collection
Management 28(1/2): 3-20.
Gammon, Julia A. and Michael Zeoli.
(2003). Practical Cooperative Collecting for Consortia: Books-Not-Bought in
Hazen, Dan. (2005). Better Mousetraps in Turbulent Times?
The Global Resources Network as a Vehicle for Library
Cooperation. Journal of Library Administration 42(2): 35-55.
Websites:
Infomine: Scholarly Internet Resource
Collections. Read “Welcome” section and review website, including Research
and Development section.
http://infomine.ucr.edu/about/
AAU/ARL Global
Resources Network.
http://www.arl.org/collect/grp/
Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC). Center for Library Initiatives (CLI).
http://www.cic.uiuc.edu/programs/CenterForLibraryInitiatives/index.shtml
Libraries on
the Web. USA Consortia. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb/usa-consortia.html
§
Week
11 - November 7 – No class this week
due to ASIST conference
§
Week
12 - November 14 - Outsourcing
Knuth,
Rebecca, and Donna G. Bair-Mundy.
Revolt over Outsourcing:
Martin, Robert S., et al. The
Impact of Outsourcing and Privatization of Library Services and Management.
American Library Association, June 2000.
Read Section II - collections segment, pp. 15-17, all of Section IV, and
Section V, the
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/iftoolkits/outsourcing/outsourcing_doc.pdf
**** Fall Break
****
§
Week
13 - November 28 - Project presentations
§
Week
14 - December 5 – Project presentations
Collection Operations Investigation
papers due