This report offers a case study in the advantages and disadvantages of depository libraries, their economics, and the practical and political issues associated with their creation. As director of the library at Amherst College, the author played a key role in establishing the initial off-site storage facility, as well as in broadening its service…

Describes techniques for using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SSPS) to create tables for cooperative collection development across a number of libraries. Specific commands are given to generate holdings profiles focusing on collection coverage, overlaps, gaps, or other areas of interest, from a master bibliographic list. (CLB)

Discusses results of a survey of a sample of manuscript repositories regarding their use of collection development policies and their cooperative collecting activities. Considers impediments to the use of these practices, the benefits to repositories that do use them, and includes the tabulated results of the survey. (LRW)

Discusses the relationship between library collection development and preservation staff within the context of the University of Arizona library. Topics addressed include organizational structure, training, and revising collection development procedures. Results of a preservation planning study that examined the environment, collection condition,…

Reports results of a questionnaire sent to depository libraries in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Survey collected demographic information on documents librarians and information on library cooperation, including relationships with regional depository libraries. Some reasons for slow growth of consortia…

Describes a study that examined the feasibility of automating the process of library collection analysis, using collections in botany and mathematical analysis as the study population and bibliographic utility databases as sources of holdings information. The discussion covers the effectiveness of the methodology and potential uses of the results.…

Periodicals librarians in libraries supporting smaller public colleges and universities were surveyed on issues concerning their serials collections. Findings indicate cost increases are a problem, but most respondents believe their collections are meeting institutional demands. Questions remain, however, about the influence of rising periodical…

A review of cooperative collection development activities among Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member institutions indicates that many are involved with local, statewide, or regional consortia that develop and operate one or more fairly traditional cooperative programs. This kit contains 11 documents illustrating cooperative activities:…

Reviews meaning and theory of library collections and structure and enumerates ways that data on collections can be organized to reveal underlying global structure (links and connections between collections, parts of collections, and users of collections). Definitions of terms applying to eight models described in text are appended. (53…

Describes a project that examined a random sample of 5 percent of a shelflist to provide detailed information about the distribution of imprints according to age and language, percentage of duplication, and distribution of serial and monographic formats. It is concluded that the resulting collection profile provides a multidimensional, quantified…

A study of library collections at Amherst College, Grinnell College, and Franklin and Marshall College to assess the applicability of a selection model for preservation candidates in nonresearch libraries is reported. Brittle books held by fewer than five libraries were identified, supporting the model for preservation and cooperative collection…

The results of a project comparing the nursing monograph collections of academic health science center libraries in the Southwest are reported. Records for nursing monographs from the TALON (South Central Regional Medical Library Program) Union Catalog of Monographs from 1977-1983 were analyzed to reveal the distribution by year, publisher, and…

Three articles on preservation present a theoretical framework for making preservation selection decisions by Atkinson, comments on Atkinson's concepts and possible mechanisms for identifying collections for top priority in microfilming by Child, and results of a Research Libraries Group study of the costs of preservation microfilming by McClung .…

Reviews patterns of library resource sharing and discusses how academic libraries can increase the capacity and effectiveness of future resource sharing and shared collection development programs. A strategic model based on a Research Libraries Group study is presented, with special emphasis on winning the support of faculty. (eight references)…

A shelflist sampling project was conducted at six academic libraries in Louisiana--Loyola University, Louisiana State University, Nicholls State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, Southern University, and Tulane University--and the University of California at Santa Barbara. The main objective of the data-gathering and analysis using…