Five of the six papers in this collection focus on public library services, collection development problems, and involvement in literacy campaigns in developing countries; the sixth paper is concerned with public library services in Norway. (1) In "Big Cities, Its Inhabitants and Public Libraries Systems," May Brooking Negrao examines…

A librarian at the Western Illinois University Library examined a list of the approximately 380 current subscribers to the Alternative Press Index (API), which has been the only access point to most periodicals on the political left since its beginning in 1969, in order to see who and what kinds of libraries receive the index. The Library Bill of…

Approximately 30 policies and classed profiles are presented in this first comprehensive collection development policy statement for the California State University at Sacramento (CSUS) Library. The profiles--which comprise the bulk of the text--were prepared by examining each part of the curriculum and matching each with the corresponding call…

This policy statement begins by presenting the objectives of the Reference Collection Policy for Rutgers University's Alexander Library: (1) to describe the current state of the collection; (2) to articulate the goals of the collection; and (3) to provide users of the library with a clear and concise explanation of what is and is not included in…

These proceedings contain 21 research reports and 56 position papers as well as capsule descriptions of 32 workshop forums, panel presentations, and group discussions that took place at the conference. The papers are organized into nine broad subject areas: (1) academic and research librarianship (recruitment, technology and change, faculty…

This report describes a study of the use of science and technology books and journals in an academic library which was conducted to ascertain whether journal use can be predicted by book circulation figures. The study background and significance are discussed, terms are defined, study limitations are considered, and basic assumptions are…

This set of collection development guidelines is the response of an academic library to the question of when and where it is most advantageous to provide access to information through resource sharing in lieu of ownership. A Collection Development Committee, appointed by the dean of the university and guided by a self-study format provided by the…

The Association of Research Libraries is fully committed to the principle of unrestricted access to and dissemination of ideas, i.e., member libraries must have unlimited access to the machine-readable bibliographic records which are created by member libraries and maintained in bibliographic utilities. Coordinated collection development programs…

Defines mechanical and expert selection of library materials and investigates the usefulness of mechanical selection in three test cases involving popular novels, German literature, and contemporary poetry. The cost of mechanical selection is examined and more quantification in selection practice is recommended. Data are presented in eight tables,…

Examining the academic library within a contextual framework (of colleges, universities, and U.S. society), this book provides an analysis of the institution's content and function. The work emphasizes the structure, organization, decision making, and operations of academic libraries. The history, organization, and cultures of the academic…

Today, as the needs of libraries change and librarians face shrinking budgets, selecting the best periodicals from over 147,000 possibilities becomes ever more difficult. This guide simplifies the task by offering the guidance of 150 experts who have screened and evaluated the universe of periodicals to produce this annotated list of approximately…

This bibliography contains annotations of 110 journal articles on topics related to library collection evaluation techniques, including academic library collections, access-vs-ownership, "Books for College Libraries," business collections, the OCLC/AMIGOS Collection Analysis CD, circulation data, citation-checking, collection bias,…

This SPEC (Systems and Procedures Exchange Center) Kit presents the results of a survey of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries. The survey addressed the following questions about numeric data (i.e., any information resource, print or non-print, with considerable numeric content) in academic libraries: (1) What relationships…

Using data on the cost of interlibrary loan, journal prices, and journal use, this article presents an economic analysis of the SUNY (State University of New York) Express consortium and the potential savings from consortium delivery of scholarly articles and joint collections development. Concludes that while considerable savings are possible…

The effectiveness of the following methods for identifying college students' serials needs for collection development purposes is compared: reshelving/ILL; bibliography; and survey. Bibliographies of student projects or student surveys provided the most comprehensive evaluation. Four diagrams depict data. (AEF)