Navigating the Parallel Universe: Education for Collection Management in the Electronic Age - collection of electronic and printed library resources

Library Trends, Spring, 2000 by Virgil L. P. Blake, Thomas T. Surprenant

To determine the attitudes of alumni concerning the competencies addressed in their MLS program, Buttlar and Dumont (1996) asked subjects to indicate the value/usefulness of fifty-nine specific skills in eight categories: (1) management skills; (2) automation/technology skills; (3) knowledge of reference and information services; (4) interpersonal skills; (5) communication skills; (6) reference interview/readers guide; (7) selection and evaluation abilities; and (8) technical services competencies (pp. 46-48). The subjects were asked to rate each skill on a scale of 1 (very useful) to 4 (not useful). There were 736 responses (41.04 percent of all sent), 726 of which (40.4 percent) were useful. Of the respondents, 41 percent were employed in public libraries, 22.1 percent in school library media centers, 22.0 percent in academic libraries, and the remaining 12.5 percent in other library/information centers. Of the respondents, 25 percent had one to three years of professional experience, 50 percent had ten years experience or less, and 70 percent had fifteen years experience or less (p. 51). Included among the most highly rated skills by all respondents were: (1) collection management skills: second in the listing (74.7 percent), (2) applying appropriate principles to weed and inventory materials and equipment: eighth in the listing (58.3 percent), and (3) developing selection policies: tenth in the listing (55 percent) (p. 51). The data were further examined by type of library and years of experience. In both sets of data, the top five skills were noted. The responding public librarians ranked the selection and evaluation of print/non-print materials as fourth (69.7 percent) and developing selection policies as fifth (69.5 percent). School library media specialists rated collection management skills as most important (78.2 percent), applying appropriate principles to weed and inventory materials and equipment was second (77.7 percent), and selection and evaluation of print/non-print materials was third (76.9 percent) (p. 53).

Experience was also a factor. Professionals with one to three years experience in a public library rated collection management as the second (80.7 percent) most important skill. School library media specialists with similar years of experience rated collection management skills as first (77.4 percent); applying appropriate principles to weed and inventory as the second (67.7 percent); and selecting and evaluating print/nonprint materials as fourth (63.3 percent) (p. 54). Public librarians with five years or more experience rated collection management skills as second most important (88.6 percent) and selection and evaluation of print and nonprint materials as fifth (71.4 percent) in importance. School library media specialists with five years of experience or more rated selection and evaluation of print/nonprint materials as most important (83.4 percent); applying appropriate principles to weeding and inventory third (80.4 percent); and collection management skills fifth (72.5 percent) (p. 55).