GREENSHEET
Course Description:
Study of collection management in all types of libraries and information
centers. Includes analysis of information needs, criteria for selection,
collection use evaluation, and resources for collection development.
Course Objectives:
At the conclusion of the course, students will be able to:
• describe the contemporary concept of collection management
in libraries and information agencies.
• identify possible evolving futures of the collection.
• develop a rationale for planning the management of a library
or information agency collection and its growth and development.
• identify the challenges of collection management facing information
professionals in various types of library and information agencies.
• evaluate issues surrounding ownership and access to information
and materials.
• identify cultural issues related to collection management.
• create and evaluate collection policies.
The course supports the following SLIS objectives:
Textbook (Required)
Evans, G. Edward. Developing Library and Information Center Collections.
4th ed. Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 2000.
Office Hours
I will be holding office hours in the VC on Wednesday from 6-8pm PST each
week, and anyone is invited to drop by with comments or questions if you
need anything clarified. Attendance is not required. If you have group
questions, I suggest everyone in the group should be in the VC if possible,
to make sure we are all on the same page.
I will answer email on a daily basis or as quickly as I can. I will
also be posting to the FAQs section of the discussion board when questions
are asked that are of interest to the whole class.
If you need to speak to me by phone, I will do all I can to be available
to you, but we will need to schedule that call in advance to make it convenient
for both of us. Please note that I work for DPL on Mondays, Tuesdays,
and alternate Thursdays and Saturdays, and may be less available on those
days.
REQUIRED FACE TO FACE CLASS MEETINGS
The Blackboard Site
Please check the site regularly for announcements, discussion board questions,
and so on. As soon as you sign up on BB, go to the discussion board and
introduce yourself, and post your expectations. Copies of the text highlights
will be posted under Course Documents/Lectures. The first few are there,
the other will be posted later, as well as other information I think might
be helpful to you, such as resources and links to sites you will find
useful. Assignment due dates are also posted there, as well as below.
Group sites will be available asap after your f2f class. Please use
them as much or little as you want to, for your own convenience.
Please let me know right away if you have problems with anything.
Course Outline
Week 1 Chapters 1,2,5
What, why, and how is collection management?
The Publishing Industry
Week 2 Chapter 3
Selection policies
What are they?
Why are they important?
Components
Week 3 Chapter 4
Review sources
Characteristics
Variation by type of library
Week 4 Chapters 11,12
Acquisitions
What is it?
Procedures
Week 5 Chapter 13
Budgets
Where does the money come from?
Where does it go?
How should it be apportioned?
Week 6 Chapters 14, 15
Weeding and evaluation
Methods and criteria
Budgetary concerns
Variations by type of library
Week 7 Chapter 16
Resource Sharing
Methods
Issues
Week 8 Chapter 17
Maintaining Collections
Fragile or rare materials
Conservation
Availability
Weeks 9 Chapters 18,19
Censorship
Psychology of censors
Issues
Print, nonprint, and electronic censorship
Self censorship
Reconsideration Policies
What to include
Forms
Procedures
Week 10 Chapters 6, 7
Printed serials
What’s a serial?
Choosing serials
Budgetary concerns
Usage of serials
Policy variations by type of library
Electronic serials
Paper or virtual?
Choosing formats
Usage policies
Budgetary concerns
Policy variation by type of library
Week 11 Chapter 8
Electronic materials
Ebooks
Databases
Websites
Electronic collections
Usage policies
Policy variation by type of library
Evaluating formats
Budgetary concerns
Week 12 Chapters 9, 10
Government documents
Types
Acquiring
Archiving
Federal depository libraries
What’s important? In what format?
Policy variation by type of library
Audiovisual materials
Types
Importance
Acquiring
Previewing
Evaluating
Policy variation by type of library
Class Requirements
1. CLASS PARTICIPATION
Read text, attend the two day f2f meetings, and participate in class discussions
on discussion boards. Participate is defined as posting 3-4 times weekly,
both in response to the questions I post and to others’ reactions
to them. Comments should be thoughtful and insightful, adding to our mutual
learning process. Questions will be posted on a weekly basis. Since I
will be archiving past topics when I post new ones, you will need to post
promptly.
Work at a team member with the others in your group, using email, your
group discussion board, and your group VC. You are welcome to meet f2f
if that is possible, but it is not required outside the class f2f meetings.
Your group Blackboard sites (VC, group email, discussion boards) will
be set up within two days of your first class, and you are welcome to
begin your work immediately. I will be happy to meet with groups to work
on questions/problems either during office hours or at another scheduled
time. I will be a member of all the groups, and may participate in discussions
from time to time, however, these group utilities are for your ease and
convenience, not so I can keep an eye on you. I will not be monitoring
your participation in them.
It is up to the members of each group to work out interpersonal problems.
I am available for advice and consultation, but it is ultimately up to
the group members to figure out how to work together successfully and
ensure that everyone contributes equally. You will spend a good part of
your professional life as part of one group or another, and knowing how
to be a good team player is essential. This semester will give you a chance
to practice that.
2. READING LOG AND SYNTHESIS
There are many print and online sources on collection development outside
the textbook. You will need to explore those items in order to get information
that will help you put together your policy manual, and to examine the
current and evolving collection development theory. We are moving from
a print society to one that will be partially or completely digitized
in the future. In the text and in lectures, we will be examining the role
of the librarian in collection development now. In addition to finding
materials that will help with your policy manual, use this assignment
to seek out and examine information on what may happen in this area in
the future, and how it will impact your career as an information professional.
Besides the required textbook, you should read the equivalent of 350
pages of professional reading, including:
• chapters in books about collection development in the specific
type of library you are using for your policy manual.
• professional articles about collection development from current
journals in the field.
• web sites that are particularly useful in the collection development
process. (Estimate time spent as pages read.)
Keep a log of your readings and web work, including for each item, the
bibliographic citation and a summary/evaluation, including what you did
or didn’t find useful about it. The information on each item should
be at least half a page to a maximum of one page. Organize your log into
chapters like the ones in your policy manual. At the end of the course,
write a synthesis of your interpretation of the current state of collection
development theory and your projection of how it might develop in the
future, based on the materials in your log and in your textbook.
3. COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY MANUAL
Working in groups of 2-4, based on the type of library you are interested
in, or individually if you prefer, develop a comprehensive collection
management policy, including the following sections:
• Description of the Library Building and its Collection, including
the size of both and the number and kinds of employees currently on
staff
• Community Assessment Methods and Survey Results, including a
survey of your community, the methods you used to get information, and
what the results of the survey were.
• Collection Development Statement and Rationale, stating briefly
the library’s overall policy and philosophy, including the national
guidelines and statements it supports.
• Types of Materials Available, describing the different kinds
of materials available in each department, what percentage they are
of the whole collection, and why this figure is appropriate.
• Review Sources, including a comprehensive annotated list of
sources you will use to select materials for all parts of your collection.
The annotations should be brief, yet clearly indicate why you chose
this source.
• Budget, including amounts for different departments and rationales
for your allotments.
• Selection Procedures, with specific policies for various departments
and types of materials. Include rationales for each part of the policy
and a list (not annotated) of the review sources used to select materials.
• Acquisition Procedures, describing the process of ordering,
receiving and processing all types of materials.
• Evaluation and Weeding Procedures, based on age, format, relevancy,
usage, and space available.
• Reconsideration Policy and Procedures, with detailed information
on steps to be taken from the first complaint about an item to the final
resolution of the matter.
Appropriate forms and documents will be attached for each section. These
can be ones developed by the group or ones from actual libraries. This
assignment can be done using an actual physical library or one that the
group creates. Either way, precise information about the library, its
policies, staff, and collections will be required. Be aware that including
tables, graphs and charts will help you convey information more concisely
and in formats that can be more easily understood than straight text.
Each section will contain a bibliography citing the various sources, print
and online, that you used while writing that section. When the completed
manual is turned in as a whole at the end of the semester, these chapter
bibliographies will be as the end of the manual, rather than at the end
of each chapter. (I.e., a bibliography section, with items from Chapter
1, Chapter 2, and so on.)
The completed manual will be detailed enough that an actual library could
use it to define, create, and implement collection development and management
policies. It will be a demonstration of the depth of your knowledge of
the subject, and should be added to your portfolio documenting your accomplishments
as a library school student.
You will turn in each section above, based on the due dates given below.
Please include a cover sheet for each chapter, giving the chapter title,
the name and type of the library, and the group number, location, and
names of group members. They will be evaluated, and returned to you. At
the end of the semester, you will be able to turn in (if you or your group
chooses to do so) a corrected final version of your entire project. This
does not mean that every section will need to be rewritten, since only
those that receive less than satisfactory grades (in the your or the group’s
opinion) will need to be rewritten. Other sections can be turned in as
is. However, the entire project will need to be reformatted to eliminate
comments attached to the individual sections. While this is not required,
it will allow you to raise the grade received for the project. (See grading
standards below.) All members of a group will receive the same grade.
Groups will be organized during the f2f meetings. If you prefer to work
individually, you may do so.
Each section of your policy manual will be submitted in document format.
When you are ready to submit a chapter, use the following procedures for
the drop box or for email:
• Scan document for viruses before sending. REQUIRED (I have
gotten them, and they are NOT fun!!)
• Go to the Blackboard Dropbox.
• In the subject line write: Chapter __ followed by your group
number and the last names of the members.
• In the text/message box, give me any information I should know
about your chapter, if necessary.
• Then, attach the chapter you wish submit to the email message.
• You may also send work to me at the email address above. Please
note that a virus scan is still required.
If minor corrections are recommended, I don’t need to see the
chapter again, until the corrections are made and the material is resubmitted
at the end of the semester, as described above.
Be sure to keep copies of all your work on floppy disks and/or on all
group members’ computers, so if one of you has a problem or a crash,
you won’t lose your work. I will be deleting your work from the
dropbox and from my computer when it is graded unless I decide to keep
it as an example for future classes.
You may use only Microsoft Word or ClarisWorks (AppleWorks) either mac
or pc versions. Your graphics should be integrated into the word processed
chapter.
I recommend sending each chapter back and forth from at least one group
member to another in the exact version you will be turning in, just to
see if you have any problems attaching or opening it. I will let you know
if I have any problems about this. For the record, I’ve never had
problems with assignments submitted via the dropbox.
ASSIGNMENT DUE DATES
Week 3
Description of the Library Building and its Collection, including
the size of both and the number and kinds of employees currently on staff
Collection Development Statement and Rationale, stating
briefly the library’s overall policy and philosophy, including the
national guidelines and statements it supports.
Community Assessment Methods and Survey Results, including
a survey of your community, the methods you used to get information, and
what the results of the survey were. (If you don’t have time to
do a real survey, create a credible faux survey and results.)
Types of Materials Available, describing the different
kinds of materials available in each department, what percentage they
are of the whole collection, and why this figure is appropriate.
Week 5
Selection Procedures, with specific policies for various departments
and types of materials. Include rationales for each part of the policy
and a list (not annotated) of the review sources used to select materials.
Week 6
Review Sources, including a comprehensive annotated list of sources
you will use to select materials for all parts of your collection. The
annotations should be brief, yet clearly indicate why you chose this source.
Week 7
Acquisition Procedures, describing the process of ordering, receiving
and processing all types of materials.
Week 8
Budget, including amounts for different departments and rationales
for your allotments.
Week 9
Evaluation and Weeding Procedures, based on age, format, relevancy,
usage, space available, and other individual factors.
Week 11
Reconsideration Policy and Procedures, with detailed information
on steps to be taken from the first complaint about an item to the final
resolution of the matter.
Week 12
Final completed and revised policy manual
Log of readings and web work
I am willing to be flexible about due dates and will always give you extra
time when you ask for it. However, any assignment that does not come in
on time when no extension has been requested will be penalized one letter
grade for lateness. When in doubt, ask for more time, just in case. You
have a huge project before you, and my due dates are designed to keep
you caught up, so you don’t have too many things to catch up on
at the end of the semester.
Grading Standards
25% Reading and web work log and synthesis
50% Individual project parts, averaged together
25% Class participation and final revised project, averaged together
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