From smart guesser to smart navigator: changes in collection development for research libraries in a network environment - Libraries and the Internet: Education, Practice & Policy

Library Trends, Spring, 1994 by Yuan Zhou

A TECHNOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT

The current trend of dramatic advances in computer network connections suggests that research libraries have been moving into a new technological environment. In this environment, computers are networked locally and connected to each other through "information highways." Many databases and other electronic resources previously available only locally are now accessible to anyone with network connections. Geographical distance, once a seemingly insurmountable barrier to the instantaneous demands of remote users, has become much less relevant in the quest for information. Institution-based differences between the "fortunate" and the "less fortunate" research communities regarding accessibility to information resources are starting to blur and will be redefined by increased connectivity.

The changes occurring in this new environment for research libraries are both visible and profound. Reference service, once constrained to locally created databases, now extends to a host of electronic resources ranging from locally licensed or mounted commercial databases to online public access catalogs (OPACs) of distant collections available for searching through the Internet. This extension has enhanced both the quality of reference services and user satisfaction. The most visible beneficiaries of network connections within the library are perhaps interlibrary loans and document delivery services. For interlibrary loans, access to remote OPACs enables a borrowing institution to confirm holdings, ascertain circulation status, and check bibliographical information before registering a request with a potential lender. It may also aid in determining a preferred lender in cases where several institutions own the item in question. For document delivery services, networks are beginning to demonstrate their potential for instant delivery through the growing number of items stored in digital format. Electronic mail, listservs, and discussion forums on the Internet offer librarians an interactive channel through which they can communicate with colleagues on issues of mutual concern. Such a powerful communications system not only enables librarians to share their thoughts with colleagues across the country and throughout the world, but also significantly improves local organizational communications, particularly to those libraries with branch locations. Indeed, the potential benefits of network communications for professional development, problem solving, and organizational efficiency can hardly be overestimated.

CHANGES IN COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT

Less visible, but by no means less important, are changes about to occur in collection development. Compared with other library functions--i.e., cataloging, circulation, reference, and interlibrary loans--collection development has hitherto experienced, in generall fewer changes through technology with the exception of acquisitions processing. While many librarians in other positions experienced increased need for computer skills, these skills were generally less important for bibliographers. Even after CD-ROM products became popular in libraries, their selection and acquisition tended to be handled by systems librarians or online coordinators (Beaubien, 1991, p. 43). Although many bibliographers have acquired high levels of computer proficiency, these skills still tend to be emphasized far less in position descriptions for bibliographers than for other librarians. However, this disparity will not last for long.

Once again, information technology acts as the agent of change. Networks have created new potentials for improving many aspects of collection development such as selection, acquisition, evaluation, and interinstitutional cooperation. Electronic publishing is another technological aspect that will help shape the future of collection development. Librarians have closely monitored the development of electronic publishing--from commercial bibliographic databases; full-text databases; and CD-ROM products to electronic journals and monographs; and full-image and multimedia resources. While rapid advances in computer storage capabilities, information storage and retrieval techniques (including image scanning), and audiovisual technology have surely provided the impetus for this progress, it is network technology and the Internet that have brought about the recent proliferation of formal and informal electronic resources. Without the Internet, many of the new electronic journals would not have been created, nor would a large body of literature from numerous online forums, listservs, and conferences. The informal online literature may be less rigorous, but it is widely consumed and seems likely to play a role in the future of scholarly communication, education, and lifelong learning. The convenience of delivering an electronic text via the Internet, the predictably explosive growth in network subscribers, and the significant improvements in traffic control and navigation to be brought by further development of the National Research and Education Network (NREN), have encouraged--if not actually provoked--electronic storage and preservation of esteemed texts. Those projects are being done by the Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities (CETH), Project Enlighten, and Project Gutenberg. The advantages apparent in digital scanning over microfilming in preserving, reproducing, and disseminating paper-based images support the prediction that this new technology is well on its way to replacing microforms (Billings, 1991, p. 411).