Teaching Digital Collections Management: Issues and Priorities for the Future

Terry Weech Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois. USA Eve Gaus American Library Association, Chicago, IL USA

Who am I?

I teach in a variety of subject areas including Collection Development and a required Core Course in the Master’s degree curriculum that includes collection management issues.

I have also been involved with collection management assessment over the years in a variety of contexts

My University Library

http://www.library.illinois.edu/index.html

About the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign •Almost 40,000 students, of which ¼ are graduate or professional •Largest public university collection in the world with over 10 million volumes •More than 40 departmental libraries and divisions 4

My Students

Majority of my students in the LIS (Library and Information Science) Master’s degree program, which is the first Professional Degree in the U.S., find employment in libraries or library related organizations. Thus, Digital Collections Management as well as traditional collections management issues are of interest to the students in our program.

What is a Digital Collection?

A digital collection is a group of electronic knowledge resources developed and maintained in order to meet the information needs for a given user population. A "digital library" is a collection of digital collections. A "digital library" can mean different things to different people. For example, someone with a background in computer science may view a digital library as networked or distributed information system, while a librarian may define a digital library as a digital counterpart of the physical library. Actually, a digital library may encompass either of these concepts. Above definitions adapted from: http://home.wlu.edu/~whaleyt/classes/DigiLib/Whaley/Definition.html

Development vs. Management

Select “Good Books” vs.

Obtain best Financial Deal Develop a Unique or Specialized Collection vs.

Maintain cost-effective collection

History of Collection Development Much of 20 th Century: In Public Libraries: Collection to support Reader’s Advisory Service In Academic Libraries: Collection to support Teaching Curricula and Library Use Instruction In Research Libraries: Collection to support Research Mission

History of Collection Development Much of 20 th Century: Selection based on needs assessment (users and potential users) Collection use studies Collection analysis (Conspectus and other methods) Budget management Planning for Resource Sharing

History of Collection Development

21 st Century: Transition from faculty collection development in academic libraries to the professionalization of Selection. More emphasis on networks and collaboration. Move away from local collection to a global or shared collection. Issues of Open Access & Institutional Repositories

History of Collection Development

21 st Century: Focus on Information Literacy in all Libraries with goal of “self-service” library.

Transition from Quality and Specialized Collections to Comprehensive Access to Digital Resources.

Pre-Digital Collections Courses

Identify and evaluate the reviewing sources.

Obtain data on the information needs of users.

Collection development policies & procedures.

Resource sharing and networking.

Evaluation of resources in all formats.

Intellectual freedom issues Copyright laws and collections.

Collection Evaluation

Post-Digital Collections Courses

• • • • •

Contains most of Pre-Digital content plus: Acquisition Procedures Budgeting Licensing Vendor Negotiation Access vs. Ownership

Digital Collections Issues in Digital Library Courses

Varies greatly from course to course, but in general: Intellectual Property and copyright Security Privacy

Digital Collections Issues in Digital Library Courses

Pomerantz and others in 2006 published an analysis of the digital library course syllabi in ALA accredited programs and found that collection development was third in the frequency of reading topics found in digital library syllabi. Only “Project Management” and “Architecture” exceeded the Collection Development readings. (Pomerantz, 2006, Figure 2: Distribution of readings across topics).

Model Curriculum

The Digital Library Curriculum Development Project (Virginia Tech and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) has as its goal the development of a model curriculum for digital library education.

In 2009, Module 3a “Collection Development/Selection Policies” had not been completed

Issues & Priorities for the Future

Is the lack of completion of the Digital Collections Management module indicative of a problem in our LIS education? What should be the Priority in LIS Education for Digital Collections Management?

Conclusions

Yes, the lack of completion of the Digital Collections Management module is a problem in our LIS education!

The Priority in LIS Education for Digital Collections Management should be to integrate the best of collections management course content into digital collections courses or integrate digital library education into the LIS education curriculum

Questions or Comments?

What are your opinions of Education for Digital Collections Management? 19

Thank You

Terry Weech e-mail: [email protected]

Eve Gaus e-mail: [email protected]

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