The Matrix Reloaded: New Ages in Collections Development

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The Matrix Reloaded New Ages in Collections
Development

• IFLA Preconference
• Is Digital Different? New trends and challenges
  in acquisition and collection development
• Bayerische StaatsBibliothek
• Munich, 30-31 July 2003
•  
• Ann Okerson/Yale University
• Ann.Okerson_at_yale.edu

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Outline for todays talk

• Review some long-held truisms about research
  libraries and their collections 
• Reflect upon the responsibilities of the
  selectors of library collections 
• Comment on crossover between content selection
  and access
• Preservation as the concern at the heart of all
  of our conversations 
• Resources, aka budget
• Cooperation and community areas that deserve
  our greatest attention

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What weve been sure of

• Content is selectable and librarians are best
  positioned to know what users need
• Content is collectible it can be brought into
  library space and found in a leisurely way
• Content is relatively scarce thus libraries are
  the organizations that buy and retain what is
  needed
• Content size grows incrementally it gets a
  little bigger each year for/in any given academic
  library
• Materials accessioned belong to the library and
  will exist almost forever (i.e., collecting
  preservation)

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And more certainties

• The librarys collections are forever (almost)
• The great library stands at the head of the
  line for its readers wide range of content needs
• It is at the top of the information food chain
  and the most desirable accurate, authoritative
  information source (other sources may be easier
  to use but they are recognizably of lower
  quality)
• There are numbers of great libraries around the
  world (i.e., information will be somewhere and
  users will be able somehow to get at it), i.e.,
• Many of us can build a universal collection of
  knowledge and creativity (mission statement of
  LC)

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Mr. Smiths heading our way

• Rapidly increasing amount of content
• Rapidly increasing diverse formats and media,
  electronic being the most recent
• Growing mandate for libraries to collect across
  all these media
• Growing mandate for libraries to collect
  internationally, as never before
• Rapid digitization of traditional formats
• Dynamic, wildly heterogeneous e-content we
  arent even aware of just what and how much
• Users want increasing amounts of information
  outside the boundaries of their libraries

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