Reading Room

This is a list of a few selected readings (some with full text made available by permission). The "Looking Back" section contains seminal writings 35 years ago that formulated "collection development" in research libraries. The "Looking Forward" section contains articles germane to the field today and in the future. If you have articles you would like to recommend be added to this site, please send the citation (and the full text if the copyright permissions allow that) to the conference planning committee chair, John M. Saylor.

Looking Back

Bender, Ann. "Allocation of Funds in Support of Collection Development in Public Libraries." Library Resources & Technical Services. Vol. 23, No. 1, Winter 1979, pp. 45-51.

Dudley, Norman. "Collection Development: A Summary of Workshop Discussions." Library Resources & Technical Services. Vol. 23, No. 1, Winter 1979, pp. 52-54.

Edelman, Hendrik. "Selection Methodology in Academic Libraries. " Library Resources & Technical Services. Vol.23, No.1, Winter 1979, pp. 33-38.

Feng, Y. T. "The Necessity for a Collection Development Policy Statement." Library Resources & Technical Services. Vol. 23, No. 1, Winter 1979, pp. 39-44.

Miller, J. Gormly. Collection Development and Management at Cornell: A Concluding Report on Activities of the Cornell University Libraries' Project for Collection Development and Management, July 1979-June 1980, with Proposals for Future Planning.

Mosher, Paul H. "Collection Evaluation in Research Libraries: The Search for Quality, Consistency, and System in Collection Development." Library Resources & Technical Services. Vol. 23, No. 1, Winter 1979, pp. 16-32.

Osburn, Charles B. "Some Practical Observations on the Writing, Implementation, and Revision of Collection Development Policy." Library Resources & Technical Services. Vol. 23, No. 1, Winter, 1979 pp. 7-15.

Looking Forward

Branin, Joseph J., Frances K. Groen, and Suzanne E. Thorin. "The Changing Nature of Collection Management in Research Libraries." Library Resources & Technical Services. Vol. 44, No. 1 (January 2000), pp. 23-32. The second revised draft of this paper (March 1999) is available online.

Budd, John, and Bart Harloe. "Collection Development and Scholarly Communication in the 21st Century: From Collection Management to Content Management." In Collection Management for the 21st Century. Greenwood Press, 1997, pp. 3-25.

Phillips, Linda L., and Sara R. Williams. "Collection Development Embraces the Digital Age: A Review of the Literature, 1997-2003." Library Resources & Technical Services. Vol. 48, No. 4, (October 2004), pp. 273-99.

Tennant, Roy. "Collection Development Today." Library Journal Online. May 15, 2005.