Planning and Staffing for Collection Development LIBR 580

LIBR Collection Development and Management Planning Planning is a tool for dealing with rapid change: Short-term strategic plans more common Follows planning of parent organization CM policy and budget important components Environmental scans very useful – OCLC, Horizon Report, ARL, Pew Institute etc Conferences, professional activities important for staying in touch with trends Hint: when applying for a job, read the strategic planning material both for the library and parent org

LIBR Collection Development and Management Planning Types of planning models (Johnson ) master planning contingency planning democratic planning strategic planning scenario planning entrepreneurial planning incentive planning Type of approach depends on size of library and style of administration Most libraries use more than one type of planning approach to make decisions and allocate funds

LIBR Collection Development and Management Planning Good planning Reflects goals and objectives of parent org Allows the library to focus on key initiatives Defines goals and objectives by priority Includes enough flexibility to allow for change (eg budget cuts) Represents input from the entire library and not just management Includes clear direction on collection management and fiscal objectives Includes clearly defined mechanisms for evaluation and assessment

LIBR Collection Development and Management UBC Library example Place and Promise: The UBC Plan UBC Library Operations Plan 2007/2008 (includes Services and Collections Plans) New UBC Library Strategic Plan (started September 2009 – completed for January 2010)

LIBR Collection Development and Management VPL example Public Library Services Branch Public Library Services Branch – Provincial Funding for Libraries City of Vancouver budget and planning Vancouver Public Library: VPL Annual Budget VPL Vision and Plan 2015 VPL Annual Reports

IKBLC example Statement of Purpose and Charter of Principles (guides activities) Learning Centre Advisory Committee UBC Strategic Plan UBC Library Strategic Plan No strategic plan, but a set of priorities Values and guiding principles Collaborative development

Collection management planning Factors that influence CM planning: – Budget – Foreign exchange rates, economy – New formats, programs – New skills/retraining for staff – Collaborative collection development activities – Outsourcing activities – Preservation and disaster planning LIBR Collection Development and Management

Early Academic Libraries Librarians were not involved in collection development Professors often did selection Many library collections were started though donations LIBR Collection Development and Management

Early Public Libraries LIBR Collection Development and Management Most early public libraries were private “social” club libraries Members paid a fee to join, which paid for the books Focus on popular reading materials The more learned members were responsible for ordering the books

Staffing trends ACADEMIC LIBRARIES – Subject bibliographers less common – Subject or area specialists – Collection management part of larger set of duties, including reference and teaching – Reorganization around collection coordination and scholarly communications activities – Digitization support – Technical services – print to electronic LIBR Collection Development and Management

Staffing trends PUBLIC LIBRARIES – Centralized CM Faster response to collection requests Good over-all picture of entire collection – De-centralized CM Involvement of more librarians in collection building Closer connection to community – Outsourcing selection, acquisition activities – Staff reallocation, retraining LIBR Collection Development and Management

Staffing trends New positions connected to – e-resources – scholarly communications – licensing and copyright (rights management) – digital collection management – preservation (all formats) – some recent UBC examples – digital initiatives librarian, cIRcle coordinator, licensing & digital scholarship librarian, Director: digital initiatives

Resources Herzog, Susan. “Collection Development Challenges for the 21 st Century Academic Librarian”. The Acquisitions Librarian No. 31/32, 2004, pp Class notes: