A school librarian and book reviewer argues that buyers, reviewers, editors, and publishers need to look more carefully at series books. Discusses series and reviewing tools and ways reviewers can help colleagues make the best choices for students. Recommends two social studies series, and suggests questions to ask when buying series books. (PEN)

A periodical database was searched to investigate the occurrence of favorable and unfavorable book reviews to determine the role of reviews in library selection. Compares book reviews with other types of reviews, examines relationships between review evaluations and other review characteristics, and compares the number of favorable and unfavorable…

Designed to help library students gain an understanding of building library collections for specific communities of users, this text presents the process of collection development. Emphasizing collection development in general, rather than the process in any particular institutional setting, the book provides a discussion of needs assessment,…

Core-reference collections are the small number of sources which meet the basic needs of all libraries, and the purpose of this guide is to assist libraries in the selection, acquisition, and use of these resources. Section I, structured like an annotated bibliography, focuses on the selection of those works which should constitute the main…

This guide provides a representative selection of biographical dictionaries and related works useful to the reference and collection development processes in all types of libraries. Three criteria were used in selection: (1) each item included was published within the past 12 years; (2) each item has been included in American Reference Books…

This two-volume guide is designed to make subject encyclopedias more accessible. To qualify for inclusion, an encyclopedia must meet the following criteria: new or revised edition published since 1990; coverage by subject (not primarily biographical or geographical); intended audience of high school students, college students, and adults;…

Directed at the novice selector of Latin American literature in Spanish, this article suggests a strategy and tools for collecting these titles. Sources consulted for selecting this literature; book dealers, vendors, and publishers with a strong literary focus, and useful World Wide Web sites are appended. (AEF)

Reports on the use of book reviews as selection tools to establish the reputations of publishers. Examines the quality of books of several presses, and compares each publisher against a control sample, finding discernible variations in how reviewers express themselves about books. Discusses the relationship between price and qualit,y and…

This collection development policy serves as a guide for the selection and retention of depository government documents by the Government Publications Unit of the Kennedy Memorial Library of Eastern Washington University (EWU) in Cheney, Washington. The library selects approximately 65 percent of the depository items distributed by the U.S.…

Via an overview of core journal studies, emphasizing the social sciences and education, this review looks for best practices in both motivation and methodology. Selection decisions receive particular focus. Lack of correlation between methods is indicative of the complexity of the topic and the need for judgment in design and use. (Author)

A case study based on theories of loose coupling and loosely coupled systems focuses on the relationship between librarians and faculty who share collection development responsibilities. Data indicates that areas of collaboration at a public comprehensive university library center more on procedures of collection development than on substantive…

Shows how a well-respected collection development tool contains ideological frames, using the "Public Library Catalog" (PLC) as an example. Evaluation by library science graduate students indicate that the PLC makes recommendations that have an imbalance of perspectives, overemphasize a particular facet or theory within a field, lack authority,…

Collecting full-text CD-ROMs for a humanities library requires an examination of literary research and the way literature is taught. It is within this context that selectors must establish selection criteria and develop plans for promoting use of these new resources. Includes a checklist of literary and technical criteria for selection. (Contains…

Presents a 1992 study which discovered and investigated collection development bias in academic and public libraries in California. The investigation was carried out in five stages: (1) selected a controversial topic; (2) identified representative works; (3) ranked works by qualified judges; (4) measured holdings via library online computer…

The four basic criteria for the selection of library materials--quality, library relevancy, aesthetic and technical aspects, and cost--remain the same in the electronic era of information. What they mean and how they are used has changed. But even quality and cost, the two most controversial criteria, carry great importance for the responsible…