Collection development as a social process

Journal of Academic Librarianship

Volumn 29, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 23-31

  Lee, Hur Li ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MILWAUKEE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0037231307     PISSN: 00991333     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/S0099-1333(02)00401-9     Document Type: Article

References (39)

1. Beth J. Shapiro & John Whaley, editors, Selection of Library Materials in Applied and Interdisciplinary Fields . Chicago: American Library Association, 1987
2. Julie M. Hurd, “The Future of University Science and Technology Libraries: Implications of Increasing Interdisciplinarity,” Science & Technology Libraries 13 (1992);17-32; Julie Thompson Klein, Crossing Boundaries: Knowledge, Disciplinarities, and Interdisciplinarities (Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1996)
3. Hugh F. Cline & Loraine T. Sinnott, Building Library Collections: Policies and Practices in Academic Libraries (Lexington, MA: Heath, 1981)
4. Beatrice Kovacs The Decision-Making Process for Library Collections Case Studies in Four Types of Libraries 1990 Greenwood Press New York
5. Michael Buckland Redesigning Library Services A Manifesto 1992 American Library Association Chicago
6. James J. Kopp, “The Politics of the Virtual Collection,” Collection Management 22 (1/2) (1997);81–100; Marlene Manoff, “Revolutionary or Regressive?: The Politics of Electronic Collection Development,” in Scholarly Publishing: The Electronic Frontier , edited by Robin P. Peek & Gregory B. Newby (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996), pp. 215–229
7. K. Suzanne Johnson & Joel S. Rutstein, “The Politics of Book Fund Allocations: A Case Study,” in New Horizons for Academic Libraries: Papers Presented at the First National Conference of the Association of College and Research Libraries , edited by Robert D. Stueart & Richard D. Johnson (New York: K.G. Saur, 1979), pp. 330–340
8. John J. Doherty The Academic Librarian and the Hegemony of the Canon Journal of Academic Librarianship 24 1998 403 406
9. William C. Welburn, “The Organizational Context of Budgeting for Collection Development in Academic Libraries: A Study of Power and Resource Allocation in Three Universities” (Ph.D., Indiana University, 1991)
10. For examples of feminist contributions to women’s studies librarianship, see Joan K. Marshall, comp., On Equal Terms: A Thesaurus for Nonsexist Indexing and Cataloging (New York: Neal-Schuman, 1977); Sarah M. Pritchard, “Linking Research, Policy, and Activism: Library Services in Women’s Studies,” The Reference Librarian 20 (1987);89-103; Susan E. Searing, “How Libraries Cope with Interdisciplinarity: The Case of Women’s Studies,” Integrative Studies 10 (1992);7–25
11. Herbert Blumer Critiques of Research in the Social Sciences An Appraisal of Thomas and Znaniecki’s the Polish Peasant in Europe and America 1979 Transaction Books New Brunswick, NJ
12. Cline & Sinnott, Building Library Collections
13. Data from personal interviews of several librarians and faculty members
14. A memorandum written later by a history professor did make the same argument opposing the separation of the collections
15. Both expressed this opinion in their interviews with the author
16. Elizabeth Futas, “Communication and Information Patterns in the Emerging, Interdisciplinary Area of Women’s Studies” (Ph.D., Rutgers University, 1980)
17. “In the 1970s antagonism to women’s studies was expressed through tenure and budget decisions, There was a marked reluctance to give tenure to people who specialized in women’s studies,” Catharine R. Stimpson, Women’s Studies in the United States (New York: Ford Foundation, 1986), p. 48
18. The university bibliographer emphasized this philosophy in his written reflection on his twenty-year service as the chief collection development officer in the system
19. Quote taken from a library annual report
20. A document written in 1987 or 1988 by three librarians about women’s studies collection development in the system
21. Although the documents appeared to say otherwise, a number of librarians and archivists expressed their opposition to a women’s studies collection in their interviews with the author
22. Many interviewed individuals, librarians and professors, indicated the faculty’s lack of involvement
23. For example, the dean of the women’s college and the dean of the graduate school who used to head a women’s institute
24. Marcia J. Bates Learning about the Information Seeking of Interdisciplinary Scholars and Students Library Trends 45 1996 155 164
25. Lynn Westbrook Interdisciplinary Information Seeking in Women’s Studies 1999 McFarland Jefferson, NC
26. In the 1990 collection development plan for the system, the library administrator for collection development specifically used the term “selector” for all collection development librarians, In his terminology, there were three types of selectors: basic undergraduate selector, subject selector, and primary selector. He also declared in an interdepartmental memorandum that the new reference librarian at the women’s college library was to be “the primary selector for women’s studies.”
27. Personal interview with the author
28. In a 1979 self-study, the investigating librarian listed a number of subject areas that had a higher number of graduate faculty in the women’s college but lower percentage of library holdings as compared to the research library for the social sciences and humanities, For example, 25% of the graduate faculty in anthropology were located in the women’s college and its library only held eighteen percent of the books in this area. The research library for the social sciences and humanities held about 59% of the books and only 19% of the anthropology graduate faculty were located on its campus. Further, the librarian called for a reaffirmation of the system’s long-term commitment to “concentrate… research holdings in as few places as possible.”
29. The data were mostly from personal interviews of librarians, Very few materials budget allocations by acquisitions code were uncovered. The library was unwilling to provide the figures. One document indicated $2,000 allocated for women’s studies at the women’s college library in the 1974/75 academic year
30. A document indicated that this assessment used the Research Library Group’s Conspectus method
31. This vision was recorded in several proposals and memorandums, Several informants also confirmed it in their interviews with the author
32. Personal interviews of a number of librarians
33. A number of internal documents repeatedly mentioned the insufficiency of acquisitions funds
34. Personal interviews with the author
35. Personal interviews with the author
36. Elizabeth Futas Issues in Collection Development Wanted–Collection Development Officer Collection Building 4 2 1992 55 56
37. A 1988(?) internal document authored by three librarians
38. The “symbolic” role of library collections, according to Michael Buckland, Redesigning Library Services
39. Ibid. There are four major roles of collections: preservation, dispensing, bibliographic, and symbolic