Book Review: Rethinking Collection Development and Management

Rethinking Collection Development and Management. Eds. Becky Albitz, Christine Avery, and Diane Zabel. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited, 2014. 402 p. $60 softcover (ISBN: 978-1-61069-305-9); e-book (ISBN: 978-1-61069-306-6).

Rethinking Collection Development and Management is an anthology of essays authored by professionals active in the field, broadly conceived. The treatment of each topic is highly contemporary and carries with it the distinct perspective of personal experience. This pronounced subjectivity distinguishes this volume from more directly instructive texts such as Peggy Johnson’s Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management, 3rd ed. (ALA Editions, 2014). Indeed, the publisher recommends the volume as a supplement to its more traditional textbook counterparts.1 Taken as a whole the volume seeks to situate contemporary collection development and management as a field evolving in many directions at once.

The volume is divided into four parts, beginning with “Selection and Assessment.” This section opens with a chapter aptly titled “Forces Shaping Scholarly Publishing,” written by Robert Boissy. The chapter serves to position the twin topics of selection and assessment within the dramatically shifting landscape of scholarly publishing. Following is a chapter by Mark Sandler, which problematizes the historical practice of collecting and collection management. Sandler strongly states that large research libraries function, or attempt to function, under the tyranny of an outmoded specter of assessment, which conflate collection size with depth and comprehensiveness. The book then moves from this long view to drill down to a discussion of process, with chapters covering subscription databases, weeding in academic and public libraries, as well as trends in MLIS course requirements.

Part two, “Acquisitions,” explores specific trends in the acquisition of both print and digital material. It surveys the current acquisitions landscape by first describing the tectonic shift of the “big deal” that continues to impact the focus and buying power of academic libraries. In “The Big Deal and the Future of Journal Licensing in Academic Libraries,” Jeffrey Carroll provides a lens through which the reader might better understand the direct impact of large-scale decision making on individual processes we take for granted. The following chapter, “Collection Development between Teaching Mission and Resource Management: The Case of Carleton College,” serves to reinforce that, in the implementation of the library’s mission, scale is everything. Coauthored by Victoria Morse and Kathy Tezla, the chapter discusses the high level of teaching faculty responsibility for materials selection made within this small private institution. Other highlights of part two include James LaRue’s examination of the potential role of self-publishing in the public library, as well as chapters on lease services in public and academic libraries by Kathleen Sullivan and Anne Behler, respectively.

Part three, “Access, Cooperative Efforts, Shared Collections,” discusses the current innovative ways libraries have sought to maintain access with the competing concerns of space and budget. In the opening chapter, “Cataloging for Collection Management,” Linda Musser and Christopher Walker argue for increased awareness and collaboration in metadata creation across library staff, especially as cataloging departments thin and purchase of shelf-ready materials becomes more prominent. This approach becomes particularly relevant when considering a subsequent chapter, “Rethinking Access to Collections in the Discovery Age” by Jody Condit Fagan and Meris Mandernach, which describes the reliance on metadata for discoverability within these increasingly facile systems. This treatment of access through discovery makes way for a discussion of access through consortial agreements, shared print initiatives, and floating collections. Together these chapters illustrate how traditional sharing by branch or interlibrary loan has evolved to effectively increase a library’s purchasing power by changing the vision, and practical definition, of “ownership.” The chapter by Karen Greever illustrates how an institution might implement multiple strategies at once. “Floating Collections: Perspectives from an Academic Library” describes how Kenyon College and Denison University, members of the Five Colleges of Ohio Consortia as well as OhioLINK, developed a floating collection. Greever details the impact floating has had on collection management between the two schools.

Part four, “Preservation and Special Collections,” receives the briefest treatment and seems to focus primarily on academic libraries. The topics, however, are given thoughtful treatment. “Thinking About Collection Development in Special Collections” by Stephen Galbraith is an introductory yet thorough discussion of the unique considerations brought to special collections material. Galbraith focuses on the goal of keeping stand-alone special collections viable as libraries continue to balance print and digital materials. Susanne Kellerman’s chapter, “Digitization Projects,” takes the reader though the logical steps of a digitization workflow, making straightforward that which the layman might find overwhelming. The volume closes with a discussion on digital and print preservation by Jacob Nadal. Using the FRBR hierarchy as a framework, Nadal asks the reader to consider the ambiguities in defining what we seek to preserve. Nadal argues for complementary roles for print and digital preservation in which adequate access to, and comprehensive preservation of, the work is achieved by strategically maintaining multiple manifestations in a collaborative environment.

Rethinking Collection Development and Management seeks to cover a lot of ground, and the chapters range from editorial to prescriptive in tone. The unifying thread, however, is the described subjective experiences. Indeed, as an anthology this is not unusual, and the stand-alone quality of each chapter lends the text the supplementary facility advertised. While articles of comparable tone and quality are frequently published in the professional literature, this volume juxtaposes the perspective of the public librarian alongside that of the academic and that of one working in a large research university alongside the small liberal arts college. In this way the reader is given the opportunity to rethink, as it were, his or her own experience of collection development and management in the larger context of an evolving field.—Miriam Nelson (nelsonm1@ohio.edu), Ohio University, Athens, Ohio

Reference

1. See the description section of the book’s page in the ABC-CLIO online store. “Rethinking Collection Development and Management,” ABC-CLIO, accessed June 8, 2014, www.abc-clio.com/product.aspx?id=2147554320.