Reference Collection Development

This important new book will help librarians make better reference decisions, aligned to customer needs and expectations, especially significant with today’s limited budgets.

As a comprehensive introduction for LIS students, a primer for experienced librarians with new collection development and management responsibilities, and a handy reference resource for practitioners as they go about their day-to-day work, the value and usefulness of this book remain unequaled.

Stay up-to-date with the growing amount of reference resources available online How important is the World Wide Web to information retrieval and communication? Important enough that information professionals have seen students exit from their libraries en masse when Internet service was lost. Internet providers dominate the indexing and abstracting of periodical articles as major publishers now offer nearly all of their reference titles in digital form. Libraries spend increasing amounts of funding on electronic reference materials, and librarians devote an increasing amount of time to assisting in their use. The Reference Collection: From the Shelf to the Web is an essential guide to collection development for electronic materials in academic and public libraries. The Reference Collection: From the Shelf to the Web tracks the continuing evolution of electronic reference resources-and how they’re accessed—in a variety of settings. Librarians representing university, elementary school, and public libraries in the United States and Australia examine how reference collections have evolved over time (and may soon be a thing of the past); how public and school libraries have dealt with the changes; why library research assignments have become more difficult for teachers to make and for students to complete; how to organize online reference sources; and why the nature of plagiarism has changed in the electronic era. The book also examines the use of electronic references from a publisher’s perspective and looks at the most important Web-accessible reference tools—both free and subscription—in the areas of humanities, medicine, the social sciences, business, and education. The Reference Collection: From the Shelf to the Web also examines: issues of authority, accessibility, cost, comfort, and user education in evaluating electronic resources the formation of purchasing consortia to facilitate the transfer of reference materials from print to online formats current literature and research findings on the state of digital versus print reference collections what electronic publishing means to smaller reference books (dictionaries, almanacs, etc.) the need for increased information literacy among students the nature, extent, and causes of cyber plagiarism the use of federated search tools and includes a selected list of the top 100 free Internet reference sites The Reference Collection: From the Shelf to the Web is an essential resource for all reference and collection development librarians, and an invaluable aid for publishing professionals.

The second edition of this popular title has been completely revised to account for the many changes in reference services since 1992. The recent proliferation of electronic products including periodical indexes, standard reference tools, and full text materials are having a serious impact on reference budgets. Because of the impact of electronic products, a new section on electronic reference sources has been added.

Collection development, the process used by librarians to choose items for a particular library or section of a library, can be time-consuming and difficult due to the many factors that must be taken into consideration. Library Collection Development for Professional Programs: Trends and Best Practices addresses the challenging task of collection development in modern academic libraries, which is largely learned on the job. This publication contains practical advice and innovative strategies essential for current collection development librarians and future librarians seeking guidance in this complex position.

Managing the reference collection is the key to ensuring that information provided is up to date, accurate, and of sufficient quantity and quality to meet the diverse needs of the library's customers. Managing the Reference Collection provides the fundamental tools to select, organize, and manage references in the library. Guidelines are given in key areas of reference collection management, including: developing a reference collection development policy, implementing selection policies and procedures, selecting and managing electronic reference sources, and evaluating and weeding reference collections.