COLLECTION

DEVELOPMENT
DIL 209
MR. ERIC KWADZO GOTAH
LECTURER
CAPE COAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY
1
 INTRODUCTION

• The use of library or any information center depends on the

availability of materials and sources.
• Therefore arbitrary provision of irrelevant resources can turn
patrons away from using the library or information center.
• A non arbitrary way of providing relevant information materials to
patrons of an information center is what leads us to the concerns
of this course .i. e. collection development.

2
 UNDERSTANDING COLLECTION
DEVELOPMENT

• BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE
• Collection development came into wild use in the late 1960s to
replace selection as a more encompassing term reflecting the
thoughtful process of developing a library collection in respond to
institutional priorities and community or user needs and
interests(Johnson,2009)

3
WHAT IS COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT?

• COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT: Is a term presenting the

process of systematically building library collection to serve
study, research, recreational, and other needs of library users.

• (the online dictionary of library and information science,2008)

4
 STEPS IN COLLECTION
DEVELOPMENT
P

• STEP 1;Community analysis.

• STEP 2; Policy creation and revision.
• STEP 3; Developing selective materials.
• STEP 4; Selecting and acquiring the best items.
• STEP 5: Making them available for use.

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 FUNCTIONS OF COLLECTION
DEVELOPMENT
• Securing and allocating financial resources.
• Managing the issues associated with digital rights management for leased
digital databases and digital collections.
• Making the collection visible to potential users
• Evaluating the collections.
• Preserving and maintaining intellectual content; this includes weeding in
order to ensure that items are useful and useable
• Conserving or extending the life of the physical item.
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 OBJECTIVES OF
COLLECTIONDEVELOPMENT
• EDUCATIONAL
• RECREATIONAL
• INFORMATION

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 F
FACTORS AFFECTING COLLECTION
DEVELOPMENT

• EXTERNAL FACTORS
• INTERNAL FACTORS

• EXTERNAL FACTORS INCLUDES;

• Copyright
• Economic conditions
• Government policies
8
 FACTORS AFFECTING COLLECTION
DEVELOPMENT
INTERNAL FACTORS INCLUDES;
• The community,
• The purpose of the library,
• The library users,
• Current or present collection,
• Available resources,

9
 WHAT IS A COLLECTION
• A selection of appropriate items or materials to serve an identifiable need
of a particular audience

• OR

A set of resources brought together for a particular audience or to serve a

particular function.
10
 IS A COLLECTION DIGITAL OR
PHYSICAL?
• Items in a collection may be
• PHYSICAL(e.g., books ,objects ,paintings) or
• DIGITAL(e.g., e-books ,digital images ,databases).

• NOTE: It is also possible for collections to be hybrids

and contain both physical and digital.

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 TYPES OF COLLECTION

• Core Collections
• Subject Collection
• Special Collection
• Distant Collection
• Comprehensive Collection
• Selective Collection
• Centralized Collection
• Decentralized Collection
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ROLE OF THE COLLECTION AND THE
USER
• ROLES OF THE COLLECTION
• They are influenced by informed judgment.
• They must relate or complement the existing collection in the library.
• They must match the needs and the interests of users.
• They are made up of mixture of materials e.g. books, periodicals,
audio-visuals, computers, etc.
• They are also dynamic-they can change according to time.
• They must be improved(updated)as they get older.
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 THE ROLE OF THE USER

1. The collection exists to serve user needs.

2. Collection must be in good physical condition for users
3. Collection should be properly arranged to enable easy access by
users.
4. Librarians must be ready to assist users.
5. Librarians should be able to interpret users’ needs and interests.
6 Librarians must respond to users’ interests.
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 LECTURE TWO(2)
SELECTION

• INTRODUCTION
• The selection process is one of the essential parts of the librarian’s
job and perhaps the most creative and interesting.
• This is because one of the criteria on which a librarian is judged is
undoubtedly the quality of the resulting collection from his/her
selection activities.

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 WHAT IS SELECTION?

• In the library environment, selection is defined as the ability to

decide which material to add to the library stock and in what
quantities.
• OR
• The process of deciding which materials to add to the stock and in
what quantity through the evaluation of individual titles.
• It involves the identification of the various sources of information of
each book.
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 STEPS IN THE SELECTION
PROCESS
• Identification of collection needs in terms of subjects and types of
materials.
• Determine how much money is available for collection development.
• Developing a plan for identifying the material.
• Conducting a search for desired materials.

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 SELECTION PHILOSOPHIES

• There are two schools of thought in the process of selecting library

materials . These are;
• Selection By Quality
• Selection By Quantity

• SELECTION BY QUALITY ; This school of thought argues that library

materials should be selected base on their quality. Thus, only materials
that will improve the cognitive levels of users should be selected.

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 SELECTION PHILOSOPHIES

• SELECTION BY QUANTITY
• This school of thought argues that libraries are funded by public tax.
Therefore, what the taxpayer wants is what should be provided; this
is also referred to as the selection by demand.

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 RANGANATHAN’S FIVE LAWS
• Books are for use.
• Every book, its reader
• Every reader, his book.
• Save the readers’ time.
• A library is a growing organism

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 FACTORS AFFECTING SELECTION
(cont’d)
• Subject matter
• Relation to the collection
• Bibliographic consideration
• Special features
• Cost/price
• Date of publication

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 FACTORS AFFECTING SELECTION
(cont’d)
• SUBJECT MATTER
• The subject matter in a book should relate to the needs of the
library's users. For example, Academic libraries serve
universities that teach specialized subjects.
• This library must, therefore provide materials suitable for the
academic community

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 FACTORS AFFECTING SELECTION
(cont’d)
• RELATION TO COLLECTION
• Each material that is selected has a role to play the general
collection.

• It should be able to fill a gap in the collection or complement what is

already in the collection.

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 FACTORS AFFECTING SELCTION
(cont’d)
• BIBLIOGRAPHIC CONSIDERATION
• This has to do with the author's or publisher's popularity or
otherwise.
• If an author is an expert in his field, libraries are likelier to select his
materials than an unknown author.
• Similarly, materials from a popular publishing house are more likely
to be selected than the less popular houses

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 FACTORS AFFECTING SELECTION
(cont’d)
• SPECIAL FEATURES
• This refers to indexes and bibliographies. An index directs the
reader to names, terms and topics used in the book.
• A bibliography, on the other hand, tells the reader the source of the
materials used to write the book.
• Apart from fiction, any good book should have an index and
bibliography.

25
 FACTORS AFFECTING SELECTION
(cont’d)
• COST/PRICE
• This is a major consideration for a librarian in the selection of
materials.
• Price is also important because it can determine the number of
copies to be bought.
• However there are some reference materials such as
encyclopedias and some scientific materials that must be purchase
despite the cost.
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 FACTORS AFFECTING SELECTION
(cont’d)
• DATE OF PUBLICATION
• Libraries depend very much on the currency of materials. Therefore,
librarians prefer new editions of books to older editions. however,
care must be taken not to confuse an edition with an impression.
• A new edition of a book means that the book has been revised and
new materials has been added.
• On the other hand ,an impression means a book has been reissued
without any change of the original material.
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 UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
• They are set up to support the curriculum and research needs of an
institution.
• Selection is based on academic programs that the institution offers

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 PUBLIC LIBRARIES
• They are established to serve the larger community.

• Diversity is, therefore, a basic characteristic of public library

collection.

We have people from different ethnic backgrounds, different ages,

different educational backgrounds and levels of skills and knowledge.
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 PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Selection in public libraries, therefore, cut across race, tribe, sex, age,
religion and colour

Community need is the main determining factor in the selection. Selection is

broader since everybody in the community has to be catered for.

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 SCHOOL LIBRARIES
• These are often referred to as school media centers.
• As in the case of academic libraries, school libraries are
established to provide curricular support for the school.
• Selection in the school libraries is then said to be similar to
academic library

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 SCHOOL LIBRARIES
The difference between school libraries and academic libraries is that;
the school must also include materials that will expand the knowledge
of the children such that the collection will aim at providing materials
for achievement, leisure or recreational reading and devotional
reading.

Materials in school libraries will include; textbooks, reference

materials, and novels.
A school libraries have a greater number of audio-visual materials.
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 SPECIAL LIBRARIES
• These are set up for specific purposes, and they are very diverse in
their environmental settings and may be found in research
institutions, for example, CSIR
• They may be found in corporate institutions, such as the Bank of
Ghana, and in industrial and technical institutions.
• The collections are, therefore, built for immediate use and not for
future use.

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 SPECIAL LIBRARIES
• Materials in special libraries are restricted because these users
often come from the same background. This makes selection in
special libraries comparatively easier than other libraries.
• Special libraries depend on very current collections.

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 RESPONSIBILITIES FOR SELECTION
IN A UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
• This is a much more specialized process than in any other library
setting.
• The reason is that several individuals are involved in the selection
as full-time collection development officers.
• This arises because of the peculiar nature of the university system,
where faculty members are responsible for selection in their subject
area.

35
 RESPONSIBILITY FOR SELECTION IN
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
• The library staff takes responsibility for general bibliography,
reference materials, series, and retrospective buying
• .
• It is advisable to let faculty members to their own selection because
they are experts in their field and know what is best in their faculty

36
 Problems That May Arise When Faculty
Members Are Allowed To Do Their Own
Selection
• There are delays in submitting the selected list to the librarian.
These delays arise from a lack of interest in the selection process.
• Coordination or lack of coordination in large university libraries.
• Unintentional duplication.
• Missing important items-as the number of persons involve in
selection increase, the scope of each persons responsibility
decreases. As a result, important items are likely to be missing.

37
 HOW TO CURB THE PROBLEMS
• University libraries are currently employ subject specialist for
collection development work in other to solve all this problems.
• Subject specialist are people with one or more degrees in
some subjects and a graduate degree in library science.
• They combine their knowledge in particular subjects with
professional knowledge in library and information science to select
materials.
• Unfortunately subject specialist are not easy to come by in areas
like science, technology, law and medicine.
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 SELECTION RESPONSIBILITY FOR
PUBLIC LIBRARY
• Selection for public library is more complex procedure than other
library systems. This arise out of the diverse nature of public library
clientele.
• Users of public libraries includes adults, children, literates, semi-
literates, disadvantage people, people confinement especially those
in the hospitals, prisons and people with divers religious and
political persuasions.
• Responsibility foe selection normally rest with professional
librarians in the acquisition department.t 39
 GUIDELINE PRINCIPLES FOR
SELECTION IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES
• Selection kin public libraries should be carefully manage because
of lack of adequate funding in other to avoid waste of scarce fund.
Publishers strongly rely on strong public library markets.
• The librarian must be careful in other not to select not useful
materials dumped on him.
• Materials should be provided for all people who live in the
community but not for only people who are registered as borrowers
of the library. Thus , it is important to select every ,member of the 40
community.
 GUIDELINES FOR SELECTION IN A
PUBLIC LIBRARY (cont’d)
• If there are foreigners in the community, their need should be
catered for through a few foreign language materials.
• Materials for public libraries should also consider the moral and
spiritual development of the clientele in addition to their mental
development. As such, pornographic materials should be avoided.
• Preference should be given to an inferior book that would read
instead of superior book that would not be read.

41
 GUIDELINES FOR SELECTION IN
SCHOOL LIBRARY
• Like academic libraries, school libraries also have the
responsibilities of catering for students and teaching staff.
• Selection therefore should be related to school curricular.
• Selection in school libraries tend to have greater patron
participation alongside the school.
• In other words, apart from the school libraries, teachers and
students form part of selection process.

42
 SCHOOL LIBRARIES
(cont’d)
• Usually there is a committee headed by he head teacher and it
comprises the librarian, some teachers and a few students.
• The committee meets periodically to decide on materials for the
library.
• In some schools, such committee exist but selection is done by few
teachers who are interested in the library.
• Whatever selection procedure is adopted , the principles the
governs the selection in public libraries apply to school libraries.
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 GUIDLINES FOR SELECTION IN
SPECIAL LIBRARIES
• This have the most restricted clientele and their collections are also
very technical.
• Selection responsibility in a special library is best left to a
committee made up of the librarian and specialist in the field that
the library serves.
• A committee is very necessary, because the librarian may not have
adequate knowledge of the special in which the library operates.
• EXAMPLE ; In the area of medicine, law or technology, thus the
professional knowledge of the librarian and the specialist ma be
combined to select materials for the library. 44
 SPECIAL LIBRARIES
( cont’d)
• Special libraries place emphases on research reports, pamphlets,
and government publication. This can not be found in reviews and
bibliographies.
• The librarian in a special library should be knowledgeable of what
is going on in the special area.
He/she will have to actively contact people and rely on
recommendations of his clientele and decide what to buy.

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 SPECIAL LIBRARY
cont’d
• The librarian should always be abreast with current issues
pertaining his/her area by attaining conferences, seminars,
meetings, and congress pertaining to his/her area.
• Currency is a key element in special library selection because,
scientific information becomes outdated in a matter of a day.

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 SELECTIPON OF INFORMATION
RESOURCES
• Selection Aids/Tools
• Booklist
• Core list
• Bibliographies
• Indexes
• Abstracts
• Publisher’s catalogues
• Electronic catalogue
• Book Reviews 47
 Selection Aids/Tools
BOOKLIST
A booklist is a journal listing recent books with brief notes
design to assist the librarians in selection.
A booklist contains only the list of a recommended and best books of
purchase.

48
 Selection Aids/Tools
(cont’d)
• CORE LIST
• A list of the best books, periodicals, etc., on a subject or in a
discipline, is usually compiled as a selection aid for librarians whose
responsibility includes collection development.
• Example: Core list of best books and journals in education by
Nancy O’Brien and Emily Fabiano.
• Although useful when first purchase, such list become outdated
within a few years.
49
 Selection Aids/Tools
(cont’d)
• BIBLIOGRAPHIES
• A bibliography is a list of books and periodicals of a specific author or
publisher, or on a specific subject.
• It may be use by a publisher, eg., Longman’s, Whitaker’s publishers.
• It may also be use issued by a country by which is called a national
bibliography, or it may be by language for e.g, French, Germen.

• Bibliography may be current or retrospective.

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 Current Bibliographies
• Current bibliography list books that have been published within the
week, month, or within the year.
• The yearly ones are the weekly and monthly accumulated, eg.,R.R.
Bowker’s publishers records and Whitaker’s the bookseller.
• Information provided by bibliography generally include the;
• Name of the author
• The publisher
• Place of publication
• Date of publication and price of the book.
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 Current Bibliography
• In addition to these basic information, there may be information
about the;
• Length of the book,
• Special features,
• Series information,
• ISBN,
• Sometimes cataloguing information including subject headings.
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 Advantages/Disadvantages Of Current
Bibliographies
• Advantages Of Current Bibliographies
• They identifies new materials as they becomes available
• They are particularly use for large libraries attempting to achieve broader
coverage of materials

Disadvantages Of Current Bibliographies

1. They only provide author searches.
2. Subject searches are time consuming.
They do not provide a review of the subject content of the document.
53
 Retrospective Bibliographies
• A bibliography whose scope is restricted to materials published in the past,
sometimes within a specific period of the past.

• A retrospective listing of materials are found in national bibliographies, so

they are reliable source of retrospective materials.
• Most countries with the book trade have some form of National
Bibliography.
• Frequency of publication of national bibliography varies from weekly to
yearly. 54
 Selection Aids/Tools
(cont’d)
• INDEXES
• An alphabetically arranged list of headings consisting of the personal names,
place and subject treated in written work, with page number to refer the reader to
the point in the text at which information pertaining to the heading is found (reitz
2002) .
• An index directs a user to sources of materials and therefore serves ass good
source of selection.
• They are arrange alphabetically.
• Indexes may be by author, subject or language.
• They are usually use for selection of periodicals in index medicus.
55
 Selection Aids/Tools
(cont’d)
• ABSTRACTS
• A brief objective statement of the content of a written work to
enable the researchers to quickly determine whether reading the
entire text might satisfy the information need.
• They give a summary of the contents of the published material.
• Abstracts are use very much in selection of scientific materials in information
centers and special libraries..
• They are reliable because some provides the contents ands conclusions on the
subject.
56
 Selection Aids/Tools
(cont’d)
• PUBLISHER’S CATALOGUES
• This are list of books and other materials issued for safe by a
publisher for a particular year , eg.,Longmans, H.W Wilson, etc.
• The difference between a publisher’s catalogues and a bibliography
is that, a bibliography may be restricted by language or subject
whereas publisher’s catalogues list everything issued by the
publisher irrespective of language or subject.

57
 PUBLISHER’S CATALOGUE
(cont’d)
• Publisher’s catalogue provides all the necessary bibliographic
details as where as the price.
• Some of them provide abstracts of the materials while some also
provide statement of reviews on the material.

58
 SELECTION AIDS/TOOLS
(cont’d)
ELECTRONIC CATALOGUE
Electronic catalogue are now a popular source of acquisition of
library materials.
Most of the booksellers such as [Link] and [Link] can be
search and acquired through the webpage.

59
 Selection Aids/Tools
(cont’d)
• BOOK REWIEWS
• A book review is a form of criticism in which a book is analyzed
base on content style and merit .
A book review is an analysis of book which includes its subjects,
strengths and weakness and context.
Where there is a buoyant/vibrant publishing industry, you are likely to
find an equally strong review system.

60
 BOOK REVIEWS
(cont’d)
Book reviews can be categorized into three general areas:
• Reviews for persons who make their living by buying book ,eg.,
trade and professional booksellers and libraries.
• Reviews for subject specialists.
• Reviews for general public.

61
 BOOK REVIEWS
(cont’d)
• Booksellers will use three types but the greatest use is of the first
category.
• Special libraries make the least use of reviews but when reviews
are required, the first two categories are used in special libraries.

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 Problems Of Selection In Ghana
1. Lack of selection tools: This is one of the major problems of selections
for libraries in Ghana. It is often difficult to have access to bibliographies ,
abstracts, indexes, book reviews, and other tools that can assist in the
selection process.
Even in areas where tools are available, they are not often current ,thereby
making it difficult for librarians to get the right information regarding the cost
of materials, the currency of materials, and the place of publication.
[Link]:most librarians in Ghana are operating on limited
budgets, therefore librarians have to be careful in taking
decisions on how to allocate funds for the acquisition of their
materials. 63
 Solutions To The Problems
• Sometimes the sheer lack of finance discourages the acquisition librarian
from going through the selection process.
• Librarians in Ghana must find innovative ways of getting their materials
after they have been selected.
• Visits to other libraries can also assist the librarian to know what is
available on various subjects and this can also enhance the selection.
• In case of bibliographic tools, where the librarian does not have access to
correct publisher’s catalogues, book reviews, abstracts etc., he/she has to
use their own professional judgement or that of a professional colleague.
64
[Link] GOTAH

THANK YOU

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