Introduction
As a basic process of an information unit, we will treat in a delicate way the issue of the development of collections, the set of operations that have the purpose of grouping a set of bibliographic material for a certain educational community or population, which must cover the needs and demands of the users. The community is in charge of indicating the material used, but those in charge of selection and acquisition are responsible for this process.
Abstract
As a basic process of an information unit delicately try the issue of collection development, the set of operations that are intended to group a set of bibliographic material for a particular community or population education, which must cover the same needs and demands users. The community is responsible to indicate the material used, but those responsible for the selection and acquisition are responsible for this process.
Collection development
The development of collections is a set of operations that are carried out in a library with the purpose of providing the information center with bibliographic material that is adapted to the demands and needs of the users or institution it serves.
Collection development is a decision-making process leading to the acquisition of information resources. This should confront the strengths and weaknesses of the collection, see the needs of users, mainly considering the correction of weaknesses. This process is based on the permanent evaluation of the existing resources, study of the needs and changes within the institution.
Coinciding with the opinion of different authors and with the analysis carried out, I can come to the conclusion and think from my point of view that the development of collections is an integrative activity carried out in a library. Selection and acquisition are only fundamental elements for the development of this activity.
Selection and acquisition
The concept of selection and acquisition has undergone changes, especially in recent years, when the emphasis has been on collections to the prevalence of user needs. It is generally associated with acquisition, but these are two processes with particular and clearly identifiable characteristics. Selection is an active process of intellectual analysis based on the internal policies and processes of each library. The acquisition, on the other hand, is an administrative process, which will be based on economic availability, discounts, quick responses to suppliers; it is an outward process.
The study of the user community and its demands must be the factor that governs the selection. Today, some authors believe that it should no longer be simply “selection and acquisition” but rather incorporate the concept of “Collection Development”, within which it would be included, with the purpose of building a better collection to meet the needs of the community.
In order to determine what type of documents will be selected, it is very important to have user studies that allow quantitative and qualitative analysis of the information habits of those, highlighting mainly the statistics to clearly establish the segmentation of users.
In addition, in the case of the University Libraries, the thematic fields that the collection will cover will be easily established by studying the teaching programs taught.
Finally, the specific document will have to be chosen, a choice that implies an exhaustive evaluation of it, which will include the type of publication, the coverage, physical presentation of the work and its intellectual content. All this will have much more value if it is carried out physically disposing of the work, for this reason it is advisable to request from suppliers those works that must be examined for their subsequent acquisition, using as sources to consult: commercial catalogs, book repertoires and other documents for sale, national bibliographies, selective bibliographies, individual or collective catalogs of other libraries, etc.
The acquisition of information "just in case" some user comes to need it is an advance purchase of potentially useful information. This type of situation is not the one that usually occurs in countries like ours where budgets are meager or do not exist. It is preferable to change for that concept that contemplates acquisition at the time it is needed. This change in concepts has allowed greater efficiency in the management of Information Resources.
The important modification of the speed of circulation of the information and of the quantity that is generated makes a change in the management of the collections essential, which must be made up of a permanent information base and current information.
It is the librarians who will act as an interface between the requirements of the users and the information resources existing in the world. It must be a manager to contract services that allow its efficient use by the community it serves and a trainer to transfer the necessary knowledge so that they are autonomous.
Conclusions
Satisfying the information needs of the user is the ultimate goal of the process that begins with the demand for information, it is the manager of the information, the librarian, the architect of that happy conclusion, as long as he has foreseen such needs through previous selection processes and acquisition even with meager budgets allocated.
Cooperative acquisition offers significant financial benefits by allowing a library the opportunity to access more documents.
References
- Gómez Hernández (2002). Collection development. In Library Management. Murcia: DM. pp. 125-135.Gabriel, Michael (1995). Collection development and collection evaluation. Lanham, Md. & London: Scarecrow Press. pp. 402.
