The librarian as ethnographer: notes towards a strategy for the exploitation of cultural collections

Argues that the hybrid nature of collection development (electronic and print) requires a corresponding hybridised system of collection exploitation. Proposes a model for the exploitation of hybrid cultural collections that draws on ethnographic principles. Provides an example of this model ‐ a “cultural map” ‐ that enables librarians, users and researchers to make sense of the complex interactions that take place between the various elements of such hybrid collections.