Organization for collection development in medium-sized academic libraries

Abstract

A survey of medium-sized academic libraries was conducted to ascertain their organizational structure for collection development, and its effect on the activities performed. Two survey instruments were developed, one for chief collection development officers, and one for librarians with collection development responsibilities. The study revealed that librarians defer collection development to other responsibilities and perform few of the activities they feel are desirable for collection development. Librarians in separate collection development departments were less likely to defer collection development to other activities, and performed more collection development activities than their colleagues in other types of libraries. It was recommended that a library of this size locate librarians with primary assignments in collection development in departments established for that purpose.