So here we are again, ready for another session of study! This week in ETL503 we’ve been looking at the idea of ‘collection management’ and ‘collection development’. What’s the difference?

ALIA (2017) notes that the terminology surrounding collection development and management have changed since 2007 due to changing technologies and the impact this has had on library services. Gregory (2019, p.1-2) emphasises the increased complexity of collection development and management in a rapidly changing information landscape.

Johnson (2018) states that when librarians use the terms ‘collection development’ and ‘collection management’ that they are referring to all the activities involved in building and managing library collections, including physical and electronic resources. She distinguishes that ‘collection development’ refers specifically to “the thoughtful process of developing or building a library collection” (p.1) to meet the specific needs of the library community, while ‘collection management’ refers to the treatment and handling of the collection once it has been developed, though these terms are often used interchangeably.

Gregory (2019) defines collection management as “the process of information-gathering, communication, coordination, policy formulation, evaluation, and planning that results in decisions about the acquisition, retention, and provision of access to information sources in support of the intellectual needs of a given library community” (p.xiii). Collection development, on the other hand, “is the subpart of collection management that has primarily to do with decisions that will result in the acquisition of materials” (p.xiv).

I work in a NSW DoE school. I haven’t found a specific definition of ‘collection development and management’ for this context, but the Handbook for School Libraries (NSW Department of Education, 2017) features a section on the provision and management of resources. This handbook outlines that one of the teacher librarian’s key roles is to manage the school’s collection of resources by “selecting, developing, organising and managing information sources, services and appropriate technology to meet the educational, cultural, recreational and professional needs of the school community” (p.8).

 

Sources:

Australian Library and Information Association [ALIA] (2017). “Manual for developing policies and procedures in Australian school library resource centres (2nd edition)”.

Gregory, V. L. (2019). Collection development and management for 21st century library collections: an introduction.

Johnson, Peggy (2018). Fundamentals of collection development and management.

NSW Department of Education (2017). “Handbook for School Libraries.”