| USMAI Consortium of Libraries |
| University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions |
Why a “Community of Interest” devoted to collection development? Many commentators and library practitioners have written that collection development, like so many aspects of library administration, is in dire need of change if our institutions are to meet the needs of the 21st century research environment.
Collection development as a function has in recent years been subsumed by the tasks of buying electronic collections. To some extent that is as it should be; after all, our users expect that we will provide access to a wide range of electronic resources. However, selecting the best aggregator package for a particular environment, by way of example, is only one part of the process.
One piece that has been missing is a venue for the larger discussion of how we can, as a consortium, work collaboratively to build a collection that serves the entire system in a fiscally responsible way, while still retaining the unique aspects of our individual institutional priorities. New resources, such as OCLC’s Collection Analysis tool or YBP’s Peer Comparison function, can help USMAI to shape how we will add, retain, and discard content. Equally beneficial would be such simple tasks as sharing our various collection development and weeding policies.
This proposed COI is envisioned as a means to facilitate discussion regarding the larger issues of acquiring and shaping content (in all formats) for research libraries. It is about expanding our efforts to work together, beyond Aleph-specific functions, to focus on our shared goal of building the best collection, and the best system, that we can. The need to build collaboratively was recently summed up by Michael Stoller, Director of Collections and Research Services at NYU, in discussing the creation of digital collections in Against the Grain:
As we wrestle with how to build this mostly digital future, we can’t abandon collection development. Instead we must reinvent it. It’s not a local enterprise anymore…It’s about making sure that we have a truly national collection….
Please join us as we begin considering the exciting challenges that collection development in the 21st Century offers.
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