Due to the countless developments affected by the information technology revolution which fuels the digital world, the triangle of “information resources and their types or formats”, ”information users and their needs”, and “library and information centers and their services” has significantly as well as revolutionarily changed from different dimensions. So, it is expected that the libraries of the digital age must be rethought and developed in line with emerging horizons to meet different needs of current conditions in theory and practice. To respond to such inescapable demands, investigate the key developments in collection development and their impact on policy and practice, explore the role of information professionals in this changing environment and the new skills set they need, and chart a path for the future, the edited book Collection Development in the Digital Age has been collected and published. Based on its editors, at the core of this book is a desire to confront the changes we are experiencing in a very explicit way and to question whether or not the rational strategic approaches to developing and managing collections, which have been at the heart of librarianship for years, are still relevant (p. XV). It consists of 15 chapters in the form of four foundational parts wholely compiled by 17 contributors who made use of a wealth of related literature, as an indication of common wisdom, to shape the finished product.
Part 1 The Concept and Practice of Collection Development (two chapters), highlighting that “the concept of collection development is central to the professional practice of librarianship, since the whole notion of a library is fundamentally associated with the idea of a collection, to the extent that the words ‘library’ and ‘collection’ are almost synonymous” (p. 3), aims to explore the concept of collection development in the digital library and information environment and in particular to examine how thinking and practice in this vital area of library and information management have developed and changed in response to advances in digital technologies. Due to the transformation of the core activities and processes of collection management by the digital age, some issues concerning selection, acquisition, budgeting, serials management, co-operative collection development, stock evaluation, preservation, and so on are also discussed.
Part 2 Trends in the Development of E-resources (five chapters) deals generally with some case studies and initiatives which took place in the UK's higher education (academic) and public libraries in the domains of developing and managing e-resources like e-journals and e-books. In line with developing and managing e-resources, some theoretical discussions as well as real evidences regarding hybrid libraries, open access, digitization programmes, online contents, digital preservation, models of delivery, adapting skills, processes of selection, acquisitions, cataloguing, and accessing, digital rights management (DRM), suppliers, and e-readers are provided. Moreover, the readers are supplied with an independent discussion covering stewardship and curation in the digital world in terms of definition, components, importance, and policies and strategies for realizing stewardship in the context of e-collections.
Part 3 Trends in Library Supply (four chapters) revolves mainly around the provision and development of a digital collection through trans-library channels which, in turn, can alleviate budgetary constraints and other crises especially serials crisis. Accordingly, finding and evaluating the suppliers, purchasing consortia, and outsourcing in the UK public libraries are examined. In addition to outside methods commonly used to enrich e-collections, “open access” (OA) – grey OA, green OA, and gold OA – and “institutional repositories” are emphasized as two synergic ways to bridge the divide between end-users and various but relevant data that is being produced and made available on the web. This is what Stuart (2011, p. X) names “the web of data” – which includes data that is structured in a machine-readable format, and has been published openly on the web.
Finally, Part 4 Making and Keeping Your Collection Effective (four chapters), as its name indicates, underlines other pillars of a successful as well as effective digital collection development. In my opinion, from a managerial stance and based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) model developed by Deming (1986), the part begins with some conceptual and practical considerations relating to the collection development policy (CDP) as a pivotal roadmap for making collection management processes viable. As Kibirige and DePalo (2001, p. 283) posit that “obviously accessing digital collection requires a different mode of access, equipment, and skills, for both library users and staff, in contrast to print and hard copy”, taking an information literacy and synergic approach. Other chapters of Part 4 have been formed in a manner that librarians can play their different particularly educational roles more successfully, users can utilize the e-collections more effectively and satisfactorily, and so the existing information resources can be searched, found, accessed, read, and applied more easily and efficiently. Structurally, most chapters end with some points deserving to be addressed, reflected, and considered. To locate easily the concepts argued within the book, an index has been presented at the end. Also it would have benefitted from having a final glossary defining the key collection development terms. The book suffers from the lack of compilation of all references in a single bibliography which could help readers find many of collection development-related works by a single attempt. However, it could have had a concluding chapter in which some remarks or future horizons and further research are highlighted. Its foreword (written by Liz Chapman) and introduction (written by the editors) to a certain degree compensates such a requirement. As Liz Chapman highlights in the Foreword of the book: this book will help us move on confidently in collection development (p. VIII), it is altogether a step towards the realization of Deming's quote, “It's not enough to do your best, you must know how to do your best” in the context of collection development in the digital age. Reading such a guide and text book is of value for librarians, information professionals, managers, and LIS professors and students.
