Issues in Collection Development Wanted: Collection Development Officer Available to Purchase

Larger libraries of both the academic and public varieties have in the last few years increasingly been creating the position of Collection Development Officer in their organizations. It seems to me that there are two very important problems with the searching and hiring procedures for this position. They stem from the conclusion of some of our top library directors that the qualifications for this position must necessarily be twofold: subject expertise and literary background. The former is usually spelled out by requiring that the aspirants have subject masters or doctorates; the latter is usually assured by having some writing or “bookman” experience in the work background. Although these two competencies are not necessarily bad for a collection development officer to have, what they do as a rule is prevent the hiring of (and discourage applications from) people who would make excellent collection development officers in areas that are plainly most important. What are the areas of expertise that are needed?