A very solid and practical guide....

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	• Developing Library and Information Center Collections: Fifth Edition (Library and Information Science Text ... G. Edward Evans, Margaret Zarnosky Saponaro Libraries Unlimited, 2005 - 472 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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Essential resource

Covering the spectrum of what is involved in true collection development, this is an essential resource.

A very solid and practical guide....

This volume by Evans and Sapanaro was a textbook in my collection development class. Given the very pragmatic approach of my instructor, I'm not surprised she selected this book.

First of all, collection development can be a very politically charged responsibility, especially in a public library. While this book may not give you all the nitty gritty details of how to deal with every situation that can threaten your library or your career, it can certainly provide helpful introduction on how to write a comprehensive and useful collection development policy that will guide the selection and deselection process, and insulate your library from a public relations fiasco.

In chapter 2, the authors provide a thorough but not overwhelming chapter on different approaches to assessing the information needs of your patrons, depending on the library you work (i.e. Public, academic, special library). Thankfully, they spare you from the fine grained details of research methods and statistical methods. In fact, they recommend hiring a consultant to help out with such procedures, since it might not always be practical to hire such a specialized staff member full time.

Chapter 4 provides a hefty and substantive overview of how to select materials for your library and how to evaluate these materials. Other chapters discuss the unique issues of evaluating and selectings serials and electronic resources.

While just about every chapter appeared to have very useful information, some noteworthy (personally speaking) chapters address legal issues, fiscal management, and deselection.

If you have been assigned this text consider yourself lucky. If not, it could be a good supplementary text. Professionals new to collection management will probably find this text to be a useful resource. Veterans of the field might not find much in this text, but it could serve as a good refresher to collection development practices.

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Very heavy reading

The book is full of information so it is reather heavy reading. The book also contains lots of useful website addresses.

This latest edition continues to cover all phases of collection development--from needs assessment, policies, and the selection process (theory and practice) to publishers, serials, protection, legal issues, censorhip and intellectual freedom. Each chapter has been extensively revised to reflect changing practices, policies, and technologies. To this end, some chapters--electronic materials, government information, audiovisual materials, and resource sharing--have been almost completely rewritten. In addition, electronic serials, introduced in the 4th edition, has been combined with its print counterpart into a single chapter. New to this edition is a CD containing supplementary material; a companion Web site () is maintained to ensure URLs referenced throughout the text are kept up-to-date. As the authors put it in their introductory chapter, "whatever environment one works in, collection development is an exciting challenge that requires lifelong learning." Students and practicioners alike will benefit greatly from this state-of-the-art text.

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