Argues that the internal organization of collection development and the nature of science and scholarship lead to inevitable gaps in collection development. The structural and intellectual causes of collection development gaps are analyzed, and a number of areas whose literatures are especially vulnerable to being ignored or overlooked by…

Discussion of the role of subject bibliographers in collection development activities focuses on an approach developed at Virginia Polytechnic and State Institute to provide a formula for estimating the collection development workload of subject bibliographers. Workload standards and matrix models of organizational structures are discussed, and…

Rampant inflation in serials' pricing is forcing many academic libraries to initiate serials cancellation projects. If libraries plan carefully and involve faculty throughout the process, serials can be canceled without excessive damage to the collection or to the library's relationship with the rest of the college. (six references) (LAE)

Availability in electronic format of scholarly and scientific literatures and other forms of information has altered challenges faced by library collection managers. Drawing on ideas of the multi-library consortia, which have grown up partly in response to the advent of electronic resources, librarians have devised new criteria and means of…

Discussion of library purchasing decisions regarding serials focuses on efforts at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University to compile numerous measures into a comprehensive database for decision support. Discusses a faculty survey of serials needs and future implications. (Author/LRW)

Analysis of a survey, completed by 128 collection development librarians at 72 liberal arts colleges, ranked six university presses and 58 publishers associated with science and technology, humanities, and social sciences by their perceptions of familiarity, quality and academic relevance. Found that university presses are well respected:…