Collection Management: Librarian Resources

In her book Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management (2nd edition), Peggy Johnson states that "collection development  and management are the meat and potatoes of libraries. If you don't have a collection, you don't have a library."

As librarians here at LCC, collection development is part and parcel of our job. We select materials relevant to our respective subject assignments as well as determine items that need to be weeded from our collection.  We have our liaison assignments across departments on campus where we can engage with our faculty to promote our collection and services. 

This guide is for all of us who are doing the work of building our library collection in order to ensure that our materials are current and relevant for our students, faculty, and staff. 

Collection management is  an umbrella term under which collection development is subsumed. It covers decisions about weeding, retention, serials cancelation, storage, and preservation and the activities that form these decisions such as use studies and cost/benefit assessment.

Collection development  covers several activities related to the development of library collections, including selection, the determination and coordination of selection policy, assessment of the needs of users, budget management, identification of collection needs, community and user outreach and liaison, planning for resource sharing, and e-resources contract review and negotiation.  

Source: Johnson, P. (2014). Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management, 3rd ed. Chicago: American Library Association. 

Liaison Librarians have the primary responsibility for selecting materials in their respective subject assignments. 

Review the Liaison Coll Dev page for best practices and activities.

This will take you to the old Collection Development page in our library website. 

This should be replaced by the Proposed Collection Development Policy which is below..