Public Library Collection Development in the Information Age discusses the increasing amounts of information that are used in collection development. Case studies, interviews, and research are the basis for this book's suggestions to improve your collection methods without straining your library's budget. It will help you acquire the most useful materials while sharing information with collaborating libraries to offer patrons the latest and largest variety of resources. Discussing a topic that is scarcely addressed in collection literature, this book explores ways in which one informational medium—the Internet—impacts materials budgets, selection tools, and alternative sources of information during the selection process. Offering methods that apply to libraries of different sizes and financial capability, Public Library Collection Development in the Information Age provides you with ideas and suggestions for the improvement of collection development methods, including: examining how libraries use information to plan and budget for collection development developing a budget method that takes several factors into consideration, such as population impact, property tax revenues, circulation, reference needs, and client needs centralizing selections in order to allocate additional staff time and to choose resources patrons want without sacrificing the utility of local collections building public library collections with the assistance of vendors and the five levels of vendor participation using the conspectus method to assess and organize the collections of small libraries for easier access researching three public libraries in the United Kingdom to determine how varying levels of automation affect patron resources and services To help you integrate the appropriate electronic resources into collection development policies and procedures, Public Library Collection Development in the Information Age discusses which formats, access methods, pricing schemes, and differences in scope will best meet your selection needs. Containing proven strategies that will target your collection priorities and criteria to evaluate the use and effectiveness of electronic resources, this book will help revise your collection development methods to satisfy the informational needs of patrons.

This topical edited collection is cross-sectoral and international in scope, drawing together the perspectives of practitioners and academics at the forefront of modern collection development. They explore how practitioners can take an active role influencing strategy in this new environment, draw on case studies that illustrate the key changes in context, and consider how collection development might evolve in the future. The collection is divided into four sections looking at the key themes: • The conceptual framework including a review of the literature • Trends in library supply such as outsourcing and managing suppliers • Trends in electronic resources including the open access movement and e-books • Making and keeping your collection effectively including engaging with the user-community and developing commercial skills. Readership: LIS students and all practitioners involved in collection development and management in academic, school, public, commercial and other special libraries.

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) is the leading international body representing the interests of library and information services and their users. It is the global voice of the information profession. The series IFLA Publications deals with many of the means through which libraries, information centres, and information professionals worldwide can formulate their goals, exert their influence as a group, protect their interests, and find solutions to global problems.

This work skeptically explores the notion that the internet will soon obviate any need for traditional print-based academic libraries. It makes a case for the library's staying power in the face of technological advancements (television, microfilm, and CD-ROM's were all once predicted as the contemporary library's heir-apparent), and devotes individual chapters to the pitfalls and prevarications of popular search engines, e-books, and the mass digitization of traditional print material.

Subject liaisons act as a bridge connecting academic departments to the library and its services, helping facilitate instruction sessions, research support, and collection development. To be at their best in these roles, subject liaisons need a working understanding of technical services functions. This book represents the first guide to speak directly to the needs and responsibilities of subject liaisons, clearing away unnecessary information and jargon to bring them up to speed on how technical services staff get things done. Clear and concise, this guide covers policy, budgets and funding, submitting orders, acquisitions ordering, processing, cataloging, deselection and weeding, and other major technical services duties; includes appropriate background information on each topic to enhance readers' understanding; provides "Questions You Should Be Asking" connected to each chapter which encourage subject liaisons to be proactive in their learning; and offers a glossary of common technical services terms. Armed with this guide's targeted information, subject liaisons will be able to better position themselves to serve both instructors and the library effectively.