Librarians and other library professionals will find this informative book chock full of thought-provoking papers that will help you find new solutions to the collection development problems your library may experience while facing this new digital age. Collection Development in a Digital Environment is a result of papers presented at the 1998 University of Oklahoma Libraries Conference.

You will discover ways to help your library take the lead in advancing the academic agenda through technology while at the same time leaning how technology requires change in the way libraries themselves operate. Collection Development in a Digital Environment explores ethical and technological dilemmas of collection development and gives several suggestions on how your library can successfully deal with these challenges and provide patrons with the information they need.

This guide covers many valuable ways that your library can be better prepared for developing a “user friendly” collection of materials in this new digital age. You will discover how methods to shift your library from buying materials for collections for faculty or students that may need them sporadically to a system of responsiveness and customization where “just in time” and “just for you” are the standards of information access, making you and your library both time-effective and cost-effective. Collection Development in a Digital Environment brings to light many ways in which libraries can improve collection development methods, such as:

• using the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) initiatives to improve global access to information, such as the Global Resources Program, which features a seamless web of interconnected, coordinated, and interdependent research collections that are electronically accessible to users
• examining discussions on scenario-driven planning and the benefits of having your patrons let you know what they are interested in instead of guessing what materials they may be interested in
• analyzing the influence of the World Wide Web on the role of libraries to discover how you can use these ideas to expand the collection of materials in your library
• gaining insight into how the concept of disintermediation in the publishing process will help libraries use the electronic environment to eliminate intermediate sources and collect materials directly from the publisher, thus saving time and money
  
• From the insightful chapters in Collection Development in a Digital Environment, you will find new and successful ways to use the new digital environment to enhance collection development in your library. This unique book will help your library be more digitally accessible while still being user-friendly to your clientele.