Curating SLIA Blog Posts: On Library Collection Development

What I have written so far about library collection development. Because, it's National Book Week and National Reading Month. Because, I get asked and consulted by peers and LIS students. Because, this part of what I do as a librarian.

Ins and Outs of Collection Development  (2010)

Ebook Collection Development 2012

Ebook Collection Development for School Libraries 2012

PPT on School Library Development 2012 - Throwback post for 2016

Developing Digital Collections 2011 - Insights on the topic as gleaned from a seminar I attended in Adamson Univeristy in 2011

Building a Picture Book Collection in a High School Library - Because Picture Books Are For Everyone!

Building a Graphic Novel Collection in the School Library - Because Graphic Novels Is Literature.

Striking the Balance on Collection Development - An AVR I produced for the PNULISSAA Annual Conference last May 2016.

Striking the Balance: The Changing Landscape of Collection Development

Digital School Libraries

Pasli invitation-and-program from Zarah Gagatiga

Developing an Ebook Collection via 3rd Party Solution

Don Rokusek of Follet DESTINY discuss the management of digital content for school libraries. I find the podcast a helpful content for school librarians who are considering and studying possibilities of putting ebooks in the library collection.

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On Libraries Going Digital

I am re-posting an opinionated comment by Rey Llenor on a post I did last 1 December 2010 on Reading as a RIGHT. I chose to respond but will wait for next year to post it up in the blog. For the meantime, read on and do comment if the spirit prompts you to!

Rey Llonor
Tuesday, December 27, 2011 12:43:00 AM

I love libraries as much as I love reading. But, library for me is not just an enclave of reading materials. More so, reading is no longer a monopoly of print materials. You can do the same reading sense with the use of modern gadgets.

For me, the primary function of a library is an information center. What if, you could get the information you need at the comfort of your home? Years ago, it's possible if you can afford to buy an Encyclopaedia Britannica worth thousands of pesos. I myself dreamed of having a set in our home. Unfortunately, we couldn't afford to have even the cheapest one (a segunda-mano). I believed I'm not the only one who grew up without an encyclopedia at home.

But, time has changed. When I was tasked to handle Britannica Online division here in the Philippines, I introduced the Britannica Online Virtual Library Card (vCard). In itself a complete library with five major Britannica references, 840 e-Journals and e-Magazines, over 6,500 eBooks and Original Source documents, over 6,800 downloadable videos and animations and more at price that even an ordinary labourer can afford to pay for his family use (actually it cost just the same a two McDonald's meals),

So who said that we need to have "functional libraries" when we can afford to have one with the vCard?

In fact, my advocacy is against print materials. Imagine if you are to give a piece of book in every Filipino student of 17 million, how many trees are you going to cut down to create papers? For every ton of paper, you need to cut down 17 trees! We're experiencing the impact of it with the flooding of our country.

I maybe wrong with this thinking for print materials. But let's face it, an iPad or Kindle could handle thousands of ebooks or digital references which could save thousands of trees against printed ones. God bless us all!

Developing Digital Collections

I was fortunate to be at the Adamson University library last week for their seminar on Library Services via International Collaboration. I wondered what the seminar was all about when I got a call from the Library Director herself inviting me to sit in the seminar. The topic suggested many areas of interest for the practicing librarian. The phrase, international collaboration, would mean globalization among other things "international".

Upon getting the program, I learned that the seminar was simply about collection development but, with a focus on the application of IT especially web technologies and platforms for a digital collection.

With James Galbraith, M Ryann Hess and
Madame Dhel Calimag, Director of Adamson Univeristy
Library (Manila)

It was a full house! What with two scholars from DePaul Univeristy, Chicago as resource speakers, Pinoy librarians were all eager to listen and see models of practice and application of digital collection building from the presentations of James Galbraith, Associate Director for Collections and Scholarly Resources of DePaul University and M Ryan Hess, Web Services Coordinator of the same university.

The library staff at Adamson University did not expect that they will get a very good attendance. Besides, the event was simply a venue for professional sharing and networking. It was not a money-making activity. The librarians at Adamson University are bent at collaborating and sharing resources with DePaul University being

Needless to say, the seminar was a timely one. Everyone is up and about on e-books and e-reading. Setting up a digital collection is not an option but a choice that has to be made. I sensed an unspoken anxiety and wariness among the participants though and suffice it to say that this unease comes from the bigger task of actually going digital. It sets off a host of implications which, for the local librarian, these would mean a lot of work!

One implication is the upgrade of a librarian's competency and training. Second, going digital would also mean tougher library management skills for the library manager who is in the middle: on top is his/her responsibility towards the administration and below is his/her authority and capability to lead the library staff. Developing digital collection would also entail a robust IT manpower and support systems, sustainable budget for its growth and development, on-going training of library staff, users of the library and continued networking skills for collaborative projects.

The long and short of it, developing digital collections require the accommodation of changing paradigms and the assimilation of new business models to run and operate modern library systems.