Thursday, August 28, 2008

Crash Course in Collection Development

Disher, Wayne. Crash Course in Collection Development. Westport, Connecticut, Libraries Unlimited, 2007. isbn 978-1-59158-559-6. 025.21 Dishe
“Disher, a seasoned practitioner and part-time instructor in San Jose State Universitys School of Library and Information Science, speaks primarily to public library staff with little, if any, experience in collection development....Chapters describe how a library might analyze its community as well as assess and evaluate its collection. Other chapters address collection development policies, statistics, budget, selection, acquisition, reviewing sources, the publishing industry, collection maintenance, mending and preserving, and promotion and marketing. The final chapter discusses complaints, challenges, and intellectual-freedom issues. This new entry in the Crash Course Series explaining collection development was created for those with little formal LIS training working in small, rural libraries. The guide will also be useful for librarians who are new to this area of service or need to brush up on their skills.