A Study on the Formulation of the Collection Development Policy for a National Library

Abstract

A national library bears responsibility to collect, develop, manage and preserve the national knowledge resources and heritages. The institution, in order to accomplish this duty, should center on systematically developed collection development policy. This paper, in this regard, strives to propose a model to comprise of basic principles of collection development of a national library in order for the effective management of resources by the types and subjects. Major emphasis was put on the nature of a national library as a legal deposit library, an information gateway, and a repository for national information resources. As a result, a model collection development policy appropriate for a national library has been proposed by analyzing cases in other countries to guide establishing principles for determining and analyzing the types and magnitude of the collection acquisition; by applying the Five-level conspectus to be optimal to collection magnitude; and, by identifying the essential elements in systematic development of national knowledge/information resources.