Old forms, new forms: The challenge of collection development

Abstract

Collection development is intended primarily to improve the academic library's ability to fulfill competing information responsibilities with chronically inadequate resources. In order to meet this challenge, collection development has sought to create a system out of the processes which are already endemic to selection. If this system is to progress, if it is to adapt to rapidly changing technical and economic conditions, it must have the capacity to exert greater control over scholarly and educational information. Steps toward this increased control should include the categorization of sources and access by function rather than merely by subject, the ongoing definition of a title-specific core, and the development of prescriptive access and collection policies.