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The stereotype of the "behind the scenes" technical services librarian lends credence to the idea that librarians working in cataloging, acquisitions, collection development, etc., work alone and independently, never to face the patron or engage with their colleagues. Though that exaggerated typecast may still live on in the minds of some, the more contemporary and holistic approach to library organization, where librarians in all subfields benefit from a cross-sectional skillset, has necessitated that all librarians master the soft skills needed to work well with the patron and with others. This study examines both the frequency with which librarians in technical services interact with others in the course of their job duties as well as the nature and importance of soft skills in the academic library technical services workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of a larger collections analysis study, this project outlines why a particular, underserved museum unit at the Smithsonian Institution is underutilizing the Smithsonian Libraries' facilities and resources, and how the library can better support this unit's unique research needs. Using a holistic methodology that weds quantitative and qualitative approaches, this study highlights the unit's distinct research profile that includes the various logistical, emotional, and collectionrelated barriers that impede their usage of the Libraries. Findings from this study signal the utility of a holistic, user-centric methodology to gather pertinent data and facilitate ongoing, interpersonal dialogues between the Smithsonian Libraries and its diverse internal users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic libraries face many challenges in collecting and maintaining streaming videos, particularly as demand for this unique format continues to increase. At the Oviatt Library at California State University, Northridge, it was determined that streaming video activity needed to be examined and that there was a strong need to develop a workflow for incoming video requests. A Video Streaming Decision Tree Committee composed of librarians and staff from various units within the library including collection development, acquisitions, cataloging, and music and media. Its charge was to create a decision tree workflow for incoming streaming video requests. The committee designed and implemented a detailed decision tree that accounts for many of the complexities of streaming video. This paper discusses various factors involved with collection development for streaming video and provides a detailed description of the committee's workflow for the format. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With support from an internal innovation grant from the University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign, researchers transformed and enriched nearly 300,000 e-book records in their library catalog from Machine-Readable Cataloging (MARC) records to Bibliographic Framework (BIBFRAME) linked data resources. Researchers indexed the BIBFRAME resources online, and created two search interfaces for the discovery of BIBFRAME linked data. One result of the grant was the incorporation of BIBFRAME resources within an experimental Bento view of the linked library data for e-books. The end goal of this project is to provide enhanced discovery of library data, bringing like sets of content together in contemporary and easy to understand views assisting users in locating sets of associated bibliographic metadata. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While demand-driven acquisition (DDA) or patron-driven acquisition (PDA) focuses on providing library materials at a user's point of need, approval plans attempt to help the library collect everything that might be desired in the future. DDA is the standard method of just-in-time library collecting, while approval plans are a prime example of just-in-case collecting. Therefore, these two methods are often perceived as oppositional library acquisitions practices. Yet, for the start of the 2013-14 fiscal year, California State University, Fullerton's Pollak Library implemented a hybrid approach of DDA and the approval plan, which came to be known as the DDA-preferred approval plan. This study analyzes the cost and number of books acquired before and after the implementation. Findings demonstrate that the library was able to provide access to a significantly higher number of books in the 2013-14 academic year than in the prior year, and spent much less, suggesting that DDA and the approval plan can work together harmoniously for cost-effective collection building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of its participation in the Google Books government documents scanning project, the Purdue University Libraries agreed to contribute volumes of the Congressional Serial Set (CSS). Realizing that the results would be far more useful if the individual documents within this title were cataloged separately, librarians developed procedures to create brief records and began cataloging CSS documents from the 1890s. The University of Iowa became a partner in this collaborative pilot project, and its cataloging staff used the Purdue template and procedures to create records from the CSS for individual documents from two years in the 1890s. Purdue staff used those records to barcode their own corresponding CSS documents before sending those volumes to Google for scanning. Staff subsequently loaded the records into WorldCat to improve discoverability for scholars. The result of the collaborative cataloging effort was the ability to prepare CSS volumes for scanning quickly and efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how the Viewshare web application was used to generate and customize unique, dynamic views of data about faculty members in a large public university, specifically their areas of research and other data such as PhD granting institutions, location of the PhD granting institutions, Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) authority records, and gender. Viewshare, as a visualization platform, enabled the author to discover the departments' strengths and consider how the results could be used to benefit the library, students, and specific departments. Viewshare also enabled the author to show patterns and trends with graphics instead of volumes of text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citation studies and analyses of usage statistics are two approaches academic librarians take to determine if their journal collections support the needs of research faculty. Librarians at a small, regional liberal arts university compiled a list of faculty journal publications covering a thirteen-year span from four academic departments--nursing, chemistry, biology, and mathematics--and, from these publications, generated a list of the journals that were cited. As expected, this university's faculty members publish in many of the same journals that they cite. However, faculty members cite a wide range of sources. Wiley journal usage statistics were examined from 2011 and 2012 to determine if the number of PDF downloads of articles in the published in and cited Wiley journals were higher than the average numbers of PDF downloads of Wiley journals. Combining an analysis of usage statistics with citation analysis provides a more strategic way to look at a Big Deal package. This information is of interest to the departments represented and other stakeholders, and the implications for collection development purposes are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collection development and management literature from 2011 and 2012 explores how libraries are making difficult collection choices with decreasing funds, competing needs for space, and a continually developing e-market. Digital content is no longer new in collection management, but some of the ways the content is chosen have changed; collection-building activities now include various models of patron-driven demand acquisitions. Other literature in this area examines how libraries are addressing their print and electronic collections with topics including open access materials, shared collection building, and weeding collections for repurposed space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines how to use specialized cataloging to evaluate discovery tools for library collections. An awareness of the capability offered by bibliographic records and data for specialized materials enables libraries to conduct their own evaluation of a discovery tool's functionality for complex materials. Bibliographic records for materials such as music are excellent for putting a discovery tool through rigorous testing. This paper may be used to facilitate evaluation of discovery tools by those without music cataloging expertise, and it provides a ready supply of examples to quickly identify complex search strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various types of alternative format materials have been developed and acquired by libraries to improve information accessibility for people with disabilities. Although many cataloging standards contain specific rules designed to describe unique characteristics of these materials, most of these rules focus on describing braille books. This lack of alternative format-specific cataloging rules may hinder information accessibility for people with disabilities. This paper proposes revision, modification, and expansion of the Korean Cataloging Rules, 4th ed., and to Korean MARC (KORMARC) fields to address these problems and to comprehensively describe various types of alternative format materials. Although these changes are intended for the library community in South Korea, they may be relevant to other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collection and management of digital resources dominated collection development and management literature produced during 2004-8. Themes covered the changing nature of local collections, redefining collection management responsibilities and practices, cooperation and collaboration, and collection assessment and evaluation. The literature reflected the struggle to manage a vast array of resources while library budgets stagnated. While publishers continued to offer more bundles of electronic publications, librarians responded with strategies to collaborate and negotiate for feasible pricing structures. A culture of continuous assessment was a major topic. During this review period, access to and ownership of digital resources reemerged as a pervasive theme. The mood of the literature was generally optimistic in light of the considerable challenges libraries faced in managing their resources to accommodate the rapidly growing and ever-shifting digital landscape. While looking back on the established philosophy of traditional collections activities, authors moved decisively into the digital age and emerged with a positive vision of the future of library collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers some of the major issues concerning collection management in academic libraries in a rapidly changing environment. Specifically, this paper reflects on core values, scholarly communication issues, acquisition activities, access and delivery issues, and innovation. The paper concludes with ideas for incorporating shifts in these areas into a sustainable, forward-looking approach to collection management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic and research libraries today confront daunting financial pressures. Their faltering budgets also compound an intensifying existential crisis resulting from profound shifts in information, scholarship, technology, and academic organizations. The purposes of collections are particularly uncertain in this radically fluid context. Analyzing the most salient elements in today's collections landscape can help to frame the guiding principles that will inform adaptive new approaches to collections and content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of research library conservation has emerged as a distinct discipline and undergone major refinements during the past fifty years. Professional organizations and training programs have been established, new treatment techniques have been developed and promoted, and increasingly, special and general collections practitioners have collaborated on treatment solutions. Despite such dramatic growth and definition within the field, no comprehensive assessment of the book treatment practices employed by research libraries for special and general collections has been conducted. In response to this need, the authors undertook a study to investigate and document the types of treatments employed by research libraries to conserve and maintain their book collections, and to compare the practices used for special collections with those used for general collections. This paper describes the evolution of the field over the past fifty years and identifies book conservation techniques the study found to be routinely, moderately, or rarely employed in research libraries. A comparison of special and general collections treatment practices suggests that while notable differences exist, many treatment practices are common in both contexts. Implications of the study's results and potential applications for this new information are stated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proliferation of multiple versions for bibliographic works presents numerous challenges to the cataloger and, by extension, to the catalog user. Fifteen years after the Multiple Versions Forum held in Airlie, Virginia, online public access catalog (OPAC) users continue to grapple with confusing displays representing numerous serial manifestations (i.e., versions) resulting from the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules’ (AACR2) cardinal principle (Rule 0.24). Two initiatives offer hope for more coherent OPAC displays in light of a renewed focus upon user needs: the ongoing revision of AACR2, and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions’ Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) model. A third potential tool for improving OPAC displays exists within a series of standards that have developed to parallel library needs, and today offer a robust communications medium: the MARC 21 authority, bibliographic, and holdings formats. This paper summarizes the challenges posed by multiple versions and presents an analysis of current and emerging solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of availability (can a library patron locate a desired item on a library's shelves?) and Kantor's branching method for identifying barriers to availability (acquisition, circulation, library operations, and the user) are described. A literature review identifies more than fifty investigations of availability reported in journal articles, dissertations, theses, or conference presentations during the last quarter century. The mean availability rates for known-item searches by actual patrons of 61.3 percent or 63.1 percent (depending on the calculation method) are quite similar to the 61 percent found in an earlier review covering the years 1934 to 1984. Analysis of availability in Kantor's branches shows variation among libraries, but no branch standing out as a major barrier. The paper concludes with the argument that the traditional availability measure can be modified for use as an objective, user-centered evaluative tool in the electronic environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The selection process in collection management has been characterized as based primarily on logical, rational thinking processes. Psychologists, however, have discovered that judgment and decision making are not exclusively cognitive functions. They depend instead on a complex interaction between affect and cognition, feeling and thought. This paper attempts to explore some of these interactive processes and how they potentially influence the selection process in collection development. Some implications for how selectors approach their work are discussed as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In article the author talks about Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, and the new division named as Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures. Topics include the accomplishment of projects and developed standards that have advanced the development of library collections; and the essential work of technical services in libraries.

This paper presents a personal overview of the development of collection development and management as a specialization within the practice of librarianship. It gives particular attention to the activities among academic librarians and in academic libraries in the 1960s and 1970s that led to the creation of special interest groups within the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an overview of challenges facing collection development. It considers the evolving nature of collections and the main players in the information exchange process as well as outlines six key challenges intended to inform discussions at the Janus Conference, held in October 2005. These challenges can serve as catalyst for further discussion in the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets out several challenges for libraries and collection development librarians as they seek to remain relevant in a rapidly changing environment. These include changes in ease of information access, increasing interest in unmediated access, ubiquity of similar (even identical collections), and the need to develop unique collections that meet local needs and interests and to develop and promote tools that enhance the use of these collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discuss weblogs (blogs), their impact on society, whether they should be considered for inclusion in library collections, and their bibliographic nature. We describe using several top blog lists to help select a blog appropriate for cataloging and inclusion in our libraries' political science collections. Lastly, we compare our record with two other blogs that have been cataloged already and whose records are included in a national bibliographic utility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the operations of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS). The mission of the ALCTS is to provide leadership to the library and information communities in developing principles, standards, and best practices for creating, collecting, organizing, delivering, and preserving information resources in all forms. ALCTS strives to provide leadership through its members by fostering educational, research, and professional service opportunities.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Julian Everett Allgood on the complexities of serial descriptions and improving user's library access and another by Jungran Park which discusses cultural and linguistic problems.