User:Ballagere

Collection Development

Introduction Collection is a group of things. Library collection is nothing but group of information resources. Even though collection is a term generally seems to us as increase in numbers but actually collection development in libraries is depends on quality aspects and user needs in many a times. One of the most important responsibilities of the documents coordinator is to build the depository collection.

Definitions

Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science “Library collection is the sum total of library materials -- Books, manuscripts, serials, government documents, translates, catalogs, reports, recordings, microfilm reels, microcards and microfiche, punched card, computer tapes, etc.-- that make up the holdings of a particular libraries” Harrod’s Librarians Glossary (6th edition) ◦ “The process of planning a stock acquisition programme not simply to cater for immediate needs but to build a coherent and reliable collection over a number of years, to meet the objectives of the services.” Purpose • Fulfill the library’s obligation to the user community to provide relevant and nascent information • Find out the user information/document needs • Select and acquire documents that are really useful to the clientele • Adopt systematic and judicious spending on document collection, keeping the objectives of the service in the mind • Periodically review the collection for weeding out unwanted and outdated documents from it • In order to see that both print and non-print materials that are available in library are really useful to the users

Pre-requisites According to Bloomfield o Identification of the purpose and mission of the library/parent organization o Formulation of library’s collection development policy by library committees or by library staff o Matching between users requirements and institutions aims and objectives o Budgetary provisions and contingent problems o Working out the strategies for implementing the policies and programmes o Maintaining, revising and updating policy statement

Types of Information resources in Libraries • Printed Information resources • Electronic Information resources

Primary information resources: Primary Secondary Tertiary Periodicals Bibliographies Yearbooks Research/Technical reports Indexing and abstracting services Directories Conference proceedings Reviews, State-of-The art reports Bibliography of bibliographies Official publications List of research in progress Patents Progresses advances monographs Guides to information sources, organizations Standards Reference books Encyclopaedias Handbooks Tables Formulation Trade literature Theses and dissertations Text books

Electronic Information resources • Micro film reels • Micro cards • Micro fiche • CD-Rom • E-Journals • E-Books

Dr. S.R. Ranganathan classified the documents in four types • Conventional documents – Books and periodicals • Neo—conventional documents – Standards, specifications, data and the like: • Non– Conventional documents – Microscopy, audio, visual and audio-visual documents: and • Meta documents – record of national or social phenomenon got through instrumental and mechanical devices – unmitigated by human brain

Criteria for selection of Information resources • For printed documents • For electronic resources

Criteria for for Printed resources Books 1. Authorship 2. Publisher 3. Content 4. Accuracy 5. Quality 6. Current/Permanent value 7. Scarcity of materials on subject 8. Relationship to other materials 9. Price 10. Format

Periodicals • Accuracy. How accurate is the material in the periodical? It should be factually correct and relatively objective. This can be determined by evaluating the writers, the publisher, and the subject matter. • Local Interest. Does the title have some interest to the local community?

• Format Issues. What is the quality of the printing and the paper? Are illustrations of good quality? Do there seem to be more ads than text?. • Cost. How much does the subscription cost? • Demand. Will the title likely be used enough to justify subscription?

• Availability Is the title already available and indexed in a database to which your users have access? Does the demand for browsing this title justify the expense? How long will you keep paper issues? Is the title readily available through interlibrary loan if you decide not to buy it and it is not in the periodical database used at your library?

For Electronic resources 1. Scope What items are included in the resource? What subject area, time period, formats or types of material are covered? Is the scope stated, e.g through meta information such as an introduction, or only implied? Does the actual scope of the resource match expectations? Aspects of the scope include: a. Breadth Are all aspects of the subject covered?

   b. Depth

To what level of detail in the subject does the resource go?

   c. Time

Is the information in the resource limited to certain time periods?

    d. Format

Are certain kinds of Internet resources (for example PDF, FTP) excluded? 2. Content Is the information factual, or opinion? Does the site contain original information, or simply links? Sites can be useful both as information resources in themselves, and as links to other information. However users can be frustrated by lists of resources which look promising, but turn out to simply contain more links. Is the resource an integral resource, or has it been abstracted from another source, perhaps losing meaning or links in the process? Specific aspects related to the content include the accuracy, authority, currency and uniqueness of a resource.

a. Accuracy Is the information in the resource accurate? You may wish to check this against other resources, or by checking some information about which you have special knowledge. Are there political or ideological biases? The Internet has become a prime marketing and advertising tool, and it is advisable to ask "what motivation does the author have for placing this information on the Net". Frequently the answer is that the information is placed to advertise, or support a particular point of view. 3. Authority Does the resource have some reputable organization or expert behind it? Does the author have standing in the field? Are sources of information stated? Is the information verifiable? Can the author be contacted for clarification or to be informed of new information? Examine the URL can give clues to the authority of a source. For instance a tilde "~" usually indicates a personal web directory, rather than part of the organization’s official web site. It can also be useful to use a WHOIS service to check the ownership of the domain name. 4. Currency How frequently is the resource updated, or is it a static resource? Are dates of update stated, and do these correspond to the information in the resource? Does the organization or person hosting the resource appear to have a commitment to ongoing maintenance and stability of the resource? 5. Uniqueness Is the information in this resource available in other forms (for example other sites, WWW, print, CD-ROM)? What advantages does this particular resource have? If the resource is derived from another format, for example print, does it have all the features of the original? Have extra features been added? Does it complement another resource, for instance by providing updates to a print source? On the Internet, redundancy may be valuable - a particular site may not be available when required, and an alternative or mirror site may have to be used. Also, some users may not be able to access certain types of resource, for example telnet or image-based web sites. 6. Links made to other resources If the value of the site lies in its links to other resources, are the links kept up to date, and made to appropriate resources? Are the links made in such a way that it is clear that an external site is being referred to. There are potential copyright issues with sites that, for instance, enclose an external link in frames so that the source of the information is unclear.

7. Quality of writing Is the text well written? While hypertext linking and multimedia are important elements of the Web, the bulk of the information content on the Web still lies in text, and quality of writing is important for the content to be communicated clearly. 8. Graphic and multimedia design Is the resource interesting to look at? Do the visual effects enhance the resource, distract from the content, or substitute for content? If audio, video, virtual reality modeling, etc are used, are they appropriate to the purpose of the source? A related criteria to graphic design is navigational design, mentioned below in the context of brows ability and organization. 9. Purpose What is the purpose of the resource? Is this clearly stated? Does the resource fulfill the stated purpose? 10. Audience Who are the intended users of this resource? At what level is the resource pitched: a subject expert, a layperson, or a school student? Will the resource satisfy the needs of the intended users? Does the user group have the connectivity to access the resource? Does your user group correspond to the intended audience? 11. Reviews What do other reviewing services say about the site? The use of reviewing journals has been a mainstay of collection development in print collections; librarians in the Internet environment will need to become familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of the range of sources reviewing Internet resources. 12. Workability Is the resource convenient and effective to use? This is the area where criteria for Internet resources differ most from print sources. An issue in providing access to electronic documents is whether a library should just provide links to the originating site, or "acquire" the publication for local access. Poor workability may indicate that the library should store the data locally, if intellectual property considerations allow this.

13. User friendliness Are any special commands clear? Is help information available? Have user interface issues been addressed, such as menu design, readability of screens, etc.

14. Required computing environment Can the resource be accessed with standard equipment and software, or are there special software, password, or network requirements? Has the resource been designed to work well with one software and user interface (for example the latest Firefox release on a broadband connection) but be difficult to use with others (for example Lynx at 2400bps)? It is useful to test resources with a variety of browsers and connections. Telnet resources may pose problems to users who have not installed a telnet client. Images and other multimedia may create problems if users have not installed the correct viewer. While the extent to which older browsers are still used is a source of argument, there are still Lynx only users, frames challenged users, visually impaired users out there, and sites should attempt to cater for them. This criteria is less important where users are in a defined computing environment, such as a library's in house terminals. 15. Searching How effectively can information be retrieved from the resource? Is the resource organized in a logical manner to facilitate the location of resources? Is the organizational scheme appropriate, for example chronological for an historical source, or geographical for a regional resource? Is a useful search engine provided? What operators and ranking features are available? Is the search engine interface intuitive? Does the search engine index the whole resource? 16. Browsability and organization Is the resource organized in a logical manner to facilitate the location of resources? Is the organizational scheme appropriate, for example chronological for an historical source, or geographical for a regional resource? 17. Interactivity Where interactive features such as forms, cgi scripts etc are provided, do these works? Do they add value to the site? 18. Connectivity Can the resource be accessed with standard equipment and software, or are there special software, password, or network requirements? Can the resource be accessed reliably, or is it frequently overloaded or offline? Is a local mirror site available, or do international traffic charges have to be incurred?

19. Cost Currently Internet information resources are perceived as being "free". However costs do exist, and are likely to become more important. Costs can be divided into (a) costs of connecting to the resource and (b) costs associated with the use of the intellectual property contained in the resource. In terms of (a), users paying traffic charges are already having to consider the costs of connection, and may want include this in criteria for selection, for instance to favour text based rather than image intensive sites, if the image content is the same. Increasingly we will see sites where (b) is a consideration, and a charge is made for the intellectual content of the site. Of course, libraries have been dealing with charged online services such as Dialog for many years, but the Internet has created an expectation and an opportunity to make charged services available to end users. Libraries have a role in negotiating subscriptions and site licenses for organizational access to charged services. If online transactions are used to pay for information, the security of these transactions at a site may become important. Charged services may be available with limited functionality, or for trial periods, for free; librarians will need to decide whether to provide the enhanced or the limited version.

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