The university library collections in the 21st century: Main trends and factors of efficient collection development

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The necessity for studies and sharing the experience of Russian academic university libraries in collection development is substantiated. The main trends for the collection development in the 21-st century are revealed and examined as the case study of Novosibirsk State University Library.NovosibirskUniversityis among the nation’s leading research universities. The authors specify the trends of modernization, globalization, collection development with digital publications, and the increasing share of the latter in the Library’s acquisitions and, correspondingly, in the collection, on the whole. They also emphasize the relations and mutual dependence of these and other trends within the collection development process. The factors of successful collection development at the Library are recommended to be implemented by other libraries. High professional competences of collection development specialists and other librarians, the wide range of the collection development sources and their stability, and university administration’s special care of the library collections are specified among these factors. The authors conclude that Novosibirsk State University Library has accumulated great experience in collection development in the circumstances of information society, advance of information technologies, expanding globalization, university integration into the global education, science and research environment. This experience can be shared with many other university libraries.