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This article considers the distinct challenges that works of art pose for those managing non-art specialist research libraries across the United Kingdom. Using analysis of survey and case-study interview data, the article demonstrates that current approaches to the management of art in non-art specialist research libraries are uneven in such key areas as collection management; cataloguing; storage and access; and librarianship and training. This article seeks to build consensus on best practices with respect to the management of art in libraries and proposes practical recommendations for libraries seeking to improve the care and use of the art in their collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors, with background in collection development, acquisitions, and subject liaison, outline how the first Chinese Medicine Library collection was planned and established in the region. The library's experiences, efforts, communication between various channels and difficulties in acquiring Chinese Medicine materials are discussed. An account of collection development activities during the initial and enhancement stages of the Chinese Medicine Library is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patrons and scholars are increasingly likely to first encounter a collection in a digital space rather than a physical one. This article considers how to utilize data visualization in an academic library to promote a unique collection to remote visitors. In order to create awareness of the Valente Italian Library at Seton Hall University, one of the largest Italian collections in the United States, subject librarians considered ways to convey and describe the collection beyond the search box or the discovery filters of the catalog. After considering meaningful data points available in the records data, the authors harvested, cleaned, and mined the data for interesting collection facets. Visualizations were created from the data and the authors explore whether they offer a greater understanding of the collection and aid in telling its story, as well as recreate a sense of browsing for the online visitor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the future of collection management and the need to improve user-centered features. The author believes that a common practice in collection management is to develop collections based on what librarians think users will want, rather than actually taking the time to learn what users want. She also points out that collections are often built based on policies that have been designed to lightened the workload of librarians. She urges collection managers to take a more user-centered approach, noting that this style of collection building is responsible for producing many world class libraries. She discusses several user-centered features such as self-checkout, home and office delivery and electronic books.

This study, an analysis of the foreign approval plans for Romance languages at the University of Alabama Libraries, investigates the use of WorldCat as an assessment tool. The technique employs the capability in WorldCat to limit to a specific library collection and thereby to compare and contrast library collections. The analysis provides results that reveal relative strengths and weaknesses within the collections. The WorldCat default ranking by library holdings provides title lists for future collection development. In establishing comparisons among collections and highlighting missing titles, the technique uses basic WorldCat to mimic some of the features of OCLC's Worldcat Collection Analysis, a subscription product derived from the WorldCat database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT. Collection managers challenged by service to distance education may find pointers in comparing Murray State University Libraries' assessment model to local situations. Information revealed through queries of participants in distance education curricula could serve as a basis upon which to formulate future assessments regarding resources, usage, and service. First, the pragmatic feature of assessing support for curricula encourages closer monitoring. The second provocation arises from usage data as a guidepost for collection development. Finally, readers cognitive of strength that stems from the combination of resources and services may find prompting in meeting the students' research needs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The LibQUAL+ survey is a web-based instrument that can be administered annually to enable libraries to determine their users' level of satisfaction with the quality of collections, facilities, and library services. This article examines the Texas Tech University Libraries' LibQUAL+ survey results for 2001 in the area of Access to Collections. The institution's results are compared with average survey scores from 20,416 respondents at 43 institutions, chiefly Association of Research Libraries members. Implications for collection management and ideas for “best practices” investigation are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The authors describe how subsidized, self-service document delivery at the University of Tennessee Library meets researchers' needs with emphasis on comparing delivery service performance by users' discipline. Analysis of use reports from the document delivery vendor (UnCover) and a user survey are the major components of the study presented here. Recognizing that document delivery is like other elements of collection management in that needs vary by discipline, the researchers also acknowledge that libraries never achieve equity in meeting information needs in all fields. The authors set out to test the assumption that researchers in the sciences benefited from a subsidized document delivery service more than those in the social sciences and humanities. Overall satisfaction rates were high across disciplines, while awareness and use was highest among science researchers. Librarians at the University of Tennessee concluded that the Un- Cover@UTK service is useful as one alternative to local ownership of many journals, despite recognized limitations such as article availability, copyright fees, and variable fax quality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Establishing a process for the systematic evaluation of a library's collection on acquired human immunodeficiency virus is complicated by the rapid changes in AIDS-related science, law, social policy, and education. However, organizing these changes into a timeline of HIV/AIDS events provides collection managers with baseline data, which can be used to measure the validity of HIV/AIDS materials. This paper presents an HIV/AIDS chronology, outlines an approach for using the timeline as a collection development tool, and includes Internet resources that may serve as supplements to a print HIV/AIDS collection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Difficult decisions about the collection had to be made by the library staff planning the move to the new Walter C. Koerner Library at the University of British Columbia. This library was to be the center for services to Humanities and Social Sciences users, but could accommodate only 60% of the Humanities and Social Sciences collections housed in the old Main Library. The staff had to decide what parts of the collection to move and what to leave in the old building, against the day when the second phase of the Koerner Library should be built. This article describes how these difficult choices were made, including the consultation process, the development of criteria to split the collection, and their implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]