From budget allocation to collection development: A system for the small college library

Abstract

Research has shown that faculty involvement in library collection development is directly proportional to the size of the library collection itself; specifically, as library collection size increases, faculty involvement in library collection development decreases. Conversely, the opportunity for faculty involvement in library collection development is enhanced in the small-college setting where collection development is a collaborative effort between the faculty, who serve as the counterparts of subject bibliographers in larger university settings, and librarians, who both oversee the collection development process and serve as bibliographers in general and interdisciplinary subject areas. The case study documents the collection development philosophy, selection and acquisitions policies, and accounting procedures used at the Iris Holt McEwen Library and LaRose Resources Center at Elon College in North Carolina. The interrelatedness of selection, acquisition, and accounting processes as well as the collaboration between librarians and faculty in collection development are emphasized. A time line for the collection development process is included.