New technologies are making information more fluid, but what does this mean for information providers? Without a doubt, it means that traditional roles are evolving and that the task of providing information demands greater expertise in exploiting new technologies and navigating their uncharted ebbs and flows of information. The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS), a division of the American Library Association, offers a host of well-integrated and forward-looking services to help you find your way through these changes. It is a leader in the development of principles, standards, and best practices for creating, collecting, organizing, delivering, and preserving information resources in all forms. It offers educational, research, and professional service opportunities. And it is committed to quality information, universal access, collaboration, and lifelong learning.

Skillfully acquisitions and collection development plays a key role in creating exceptional libraries. These authoritative resources provide the guidance you need to build and maintain the comprehensive, high-quality collection your customers demand. Get expert advice on: a- selecting material from serial to CD-ROMs; b- participating effectively in the budget process; and c- evaluating your existing collections and vendors. Developed by ALA's Association for Library Collections & Technical Services, this blueprint for a collection-development training program can be easily adapted to meet the collection management goals and organizational structures found in libraries of all types and sizes. Outlines for training are given in these areas, among many others: collection and development policies; selection and review processes; weeding and deselection; and navigating electronic networks. The guide divides training into three skill levels, supplies a curriculum framework matched to collection duties, and identifies competencies achievable after training.

Designed to assist librarians and others who review materials in general collections for preservation, storage, or withdrawal, this guide is based on review and study of the literature, examination of a variety of existing policies, and comments and contributions from committee members, consultants asnd professionals colleagues. It is intended for those with responsibility for collection management, preservation and library administration.

This text provides principles and methods for determining if a library collection is fulfilling the stated mission of the library. It is a clear introduction to collection evaluation for the novice collection manager, and it is also useful as a review and reference for the experienced librarian.

A classic. Topics include resource-sharing networks, the importance of nonbook formats, the greater complexity of censorship challenges, and the expansion of the library's informational role.

Every music collection has its own specific features in terms of flexibility, users, and selceting criteria, therefore a universal formula for writing collection development policies doesn't exist. This study aims to help librarians who are responsible for writing policies and refers not only to the proper process of planning a library's information resources, but also to other related activities, incorporated into or coordinated with the collection development policy: collection management activities and resource sharing programmes.