Pitschmann stated that the purpose of this report is:
… to identify and synthesize existing practices used in developing collections of free third‐party Internet resources that support higher education and research.
The author used several methods to gather data, such as interviewing librarians about what they defined “high quality” sites to be, reviewing gateways to locate and evaluate their selection criteria, and cataloging and related practices. The publication also includes:
a general discussion of added value or cataloging;
access and archiving;
user support;
human resources;
workflow and organizational issues; and
fiscal implications.
The report contains a section entitled “Identification, Evaluation and Selection” that looks at relevant issues on collection development policies, scope statements, and selection criteria.
The report is divided into ten sections that have a “recommended examples” list of Web sites to view and articles containing significant information. There is a separate reference list that includes all relevant articles and Web sites used for the background and research study. Pitschmann concludes that libraries cannot collect free Internet resources using the procedures currently in use to collect print and analog collections.
The language in the report is clear and comprehensible. It is an excellent step‐by‐step resource guide to creating collections of free third‐party Web resources. It provides a detailed strategy that takes the mystery out of the process. This report is an excellent reference tool for collection development and electronic services librarians and is recommended for libraries that want to maintain or begin to develop free third‐party Web resources collections.
