The Use of Standard Selection Sources in Undergraduate Library Collection Development

Abstract

The maximum use of "Books for College Libraries, Opening Day Collection," and "Choice" as book selection sources for undergraduate libraries was measured by a sampling method. A composite test sample of 600 titles was assembled from these sources and compared with the holdings of the USC, UCLA, and Stanford University undergraduate libraries. The low matching rates that were found suggest that undergraduate libraries acquire relatively few titles from these sources. Statistical treatment of the data showed the libraries to be slow in acquiring recent titles. The significance of this work lies not so much in what was learned about undergraduate libraries, but in what can be learned about the use and value of selection tools using the same approach with other types of collections. The present approach bears a resemblance to methods that have been used previously in collection evaluation, overlap studies, and the like.