Factors and Processes of Library and Information Resource Development

Factors and Processes of Library and Information Resource Development:

The main function of librarianship is the development of library resources. The primary purpose of the librarian is to start, build up, develop, and organize a collection of library and information resources. These meet the needs, interests, and demands of the library’s clientele. Resource development aims to provide the right materials to the right readers at the right time.

1.  Survey of the library’s resources: The primary element in developing any collection is a preliminary survey of the library’s existing resources. The book selector must discover what basic books and other materials are already in the library. For this, the collection is to be checked against the bibliographies of good standard histories of the particular subject considered.
2. Updating the collection: The existing collection of the library should be updated. In updating the collection, the selection of current resources should be accompanied by weeding or discarding unwanted resources, duplicating titles, and replacing lost or worn-out materials.
3. Variety of Materials: According to the clientele’s choice, the most convenient terms possible. The traditional resource should be supplemented/ added by the selection of government documents, technical and scientific reports, pamphlets, etc.
4. Gifts: In developing the collection, gifts should be accepted only in case they add strength to the library collection and do not carry unreasonable restrictions. A policy should be developed for accepting gifts. The policy should clearly define what kinds of gifts are desirable for the library concerned, why such gifts should be integrated with the regular collection, and where the gifts are housed separately.
5. Comprehensiveness of Collection: No library can hope to maintain comprehensiveness, that is, the most extensive and intensive collection, in all fields. But comprehensiveness within certain fields or subjects is practicable.
6. Subject Coverage: Subject coverage will depend upon the size and the social and economic background of the population served by the authority. It means selecting the preferable element from a number of titles published on a subject that the library ought to cover.
7. Balanced Collection: A balanced collection of a library is not a matter merely of a wide of subject matter but also all topics without any biases and emotional matters of the librarian. He should be able, through advice and guidance, to establish his own particular balance.

Search keyword: Information resource development, Library resource development, What measures would you take for the development of library and information resources?