Library Collection Development for Professional Programs: Trends and Best Practices

Collection development is a challenging part of a librarian's job and one that tends to be very situation-specific, making it difficult to teach it effectively (most, if not all, practical skills in this area are learned on the job). The purpose of this collection is to provide practicing librarians and students preparing to enter the profession with advice and strategies on how best to navigate the complex processes involved in creating and managing library collections. It will also showcase strategies, projects, investigations and comparisons developed and carried out across geographies and disciplines by librarians in the field. The volume is intended for use by practicing librarians in a wide range of academic and special libraries who have collection development responsibilities in one or more of the applied disciplines for whom it will provide practical advice from fellow practitioners as well as a comparative overview of collection development policies and practices in use at peer institutions. In addition, it is meant for use by professors in library science programs as a course or supplementary text for classes on collection development and academic librarianship as well as by students performing their own investigations and research.

Sara Holder of McGill University in Canada has compiled a valuable reference resource for students entering library science, for practicing librarians, and for professors of library science who must keep up with the latest trends and practices in the area of collection development (management). [...] This volume is highly recommended for community college and academic libraries, and any institution that has undergraduate and graduate programs in library and information science.

North American academic and public librarians describe approaches to collection development carried out in support of professional and/or applied academic programs such as law, teacher education, medicine, business, architecture, or even library science itself. They cover creating plans for budgeting and buying; how discipline shapes practice; collecting for the professional subfields; and case studies, projects, and surveys. Among the topics are approval profiles from a vendor's perspective, information sources and collection planning for engineering, developing a juvenile literature collection in an academic library, supporting the College of Health Sciences and Human Services and the School of Nursing at Murray State University, and collaborating with faculty to weed an entire science and engineering book collection.

This book addresses the needs of librarians who have collection development responsibilities in general professional programs such as law, business, engineering, and allied health as well as specialized subject disciplines in their academic institutions. It is also geared toward professors in library science programs as supplemental material for their collection development courses.[...] One comes away from this book with a better understanding of how complicated and multi-faceted collection development is and how sometimes a librarian is not adequately prepared or even trained for this responsibility.

The overall quality of the volume is excellent. Each chapter has been well researched, well organized and includes an extensive bibliography. The volume concludes with a comprehensive listing of references and an index. It is a recommended addition to library science collections and as a collection development tool for librarians and staff in academic libraries. New subject selectors in the library profession as well as selectors with many years of service would benefit from the content provided in this volume.