Economic constraints, curriculum changes, growing student numbers and the information explosion resulting from technological developments have put a higher priority on the successful management of increasingly diverse library collections. This new edition of Collection Management in Academic Libraries, written by senior university librarians and expert commentators from both the UK and North America, provides an enlightening overview of collection management policy and practice in academic libraries today.Though recognizing the continuing importance of traditional printed holdings, the book highlights the central role now played in academic libraries by electronic information. It explores possible scenarios for the future and discusses the management of access to remote sources of information, and issues relating to infrastructure support. New chapters are included on the management of electronic information, learning support, document delivery strategies, preservation and disaster planning, and collection management for the twenty-first century. The chapters on organization of collection management, finance and budgeting, performance measurement, serials management, stock retention and relegation have been revised in the light of recent changes in collection priorities and user demand.Collection Management in Academic Libraries is chiefly aimed at library managers and students of library and information science. Those responsible for acquisitions, reader services and serials management will also find that lessons from the experience and research described in the book will help to equip them better for the challenges in their own institutions.

In this sweeping revision of a text that has become an authoritative standard, expert instructor and librarian Peggy Johnson addresses the art of controlling and updating library collections, whether located locally or accessed remotely.

By learning how to rightsize, you will ensure that both the collection and your institution's available physical spaces meet the needs of your library's users.

Honored with many accolades, including a starred review in Library Journal, the first edition of this book demonstrated the power and flexibility of “rightsizing,” an approach that applies a scalable, rule-based strategy to help academic libraries balance stewardship of spaces and the collection. In the five years since Ward’s first edition, the shared print infrastructure has grown in leaps and bounds, as has coordination among programs. With this revision, Miller addresses new options as well as the increasing urgency to protect at-risk titles as you reduce your physical collection. Readers will feel confident rightsizing their institution’s own collections with this book’s expert guidance on the concept of rightsizing, a strategic and largely automated approach that uses continuous assessment to identify the no- and low-use materials in the collection, and its five core elements; crafting a rightsizing plan, from developing withdrawal criteria and creating discard lists to managing workflow and disposing of withdrawn materials, using a project-management focus; moving toward a “facilitated collection” with a mix of local, external, and collaborative services; six discussion areas for decisions on participating in a shared print program; factors in choosing a collection decision support tool; relationships with stakeholders; how to handle print resources after your library licenses perpetual access rights to the electronic equivalent; and future directions for rightsizing

Librarians have long used data to describe their collections. Traditional measures have simply been inputs and outputs: volumes acquired, processed, owned, or circulated. With the growth since the 1990s of cultures of assessment, librarians have sought statistics that are evaluative rather than simply descriptive. More recently, exponentially increasing journal prices and an economic recession have intensified the need to make careful purchasing decisions and to justify these to administrators. A methodical evaluation of a library collection can help librarians understand and meet user needs and can help communicate to administrators that the library is a good use of the institution’s money. Collection Evaluation in Academic Libraries: A Practical Guide for Librarians equips collections managers to select and implement a method or several methods of evaluating their library collections. It includes sections on four tools for evaluation: • Comparison to peer institutions • Core lists • Usage statistics from circulation and ILL • Citation analysis Chapters on each of these approaches present the advantages and disadvantages of each method, instructions on data collection and analysis—with screenshots—and suggested action steps after completing the analysis. With a unique combination of step-by-step instructions and discussions of the purpose and role of data, this book provides an unusually thorough guide to collection evaluation. It will be indispensable for collection development librarians and anyone looking to strengthen the culture of assessment within the library.

The rapidly increasing reliance on digital rather than print-based resources has not diminished the importance of library collection management, but it has required significant modification in the thinking and the practice of collection managers, who today usually have to consider their clients' need for both print-based and digital materials. This updated edition aims to provide a concise overview of the major elements of contemporary collection management of print and digital resources - including policy formulation, selection, acquisition, evaluation, preservation, deselection, and cooperative collecting - in a way which aims to be of interest to the student and to any other reader seeking an understanding of a particularly dynamic area of librarianship.Much that has been previously published on collection management focuses on academic libraries, particularly those in North America. This book places greater emphasis on the experiences of smaller public and special libraries, and attempts to view its subject from the perspective of libraries in Australia and other countries geographically remote from North America and Western Europe. Dr John Kennedy has taught collection management at Charles Sturt University for over a decade and has produced several previous publications on the subject.