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Collection Development Liaisons: Basic Competencies and Activities

  1. Planning

    • Prioritize collection development among other work activities and schedule sufficient time for collection development responsibilities.
    • Identify subject competency gaps and planning ways of learning about the subject.
    • Participate effectively in the Collection Development Committee’s discussions, planning and decision making.

  2. Collections

    • Know the call numbers for the areas of your subject collecting responsibility.
    • Know the existing strengths and weaknesses of your areas.
    • Know the desired strength of your areas.
    • Have a basic understanding of the overall collection strengths and weaknesses.
    • Review and update periodically the scope notes for your areas as faculty and curriculum change.

  3. Selection and Review Process

    • Understand the criteria and procedures for adding an item to a collection.
    • Use appropriate tools and methods to identify available materials.
    • Understand cooperative initiatives such as SEIR/EAR, LINK+, etc.
    • Understand the policy and procedure for accepting and reviewing gifts.

  4. Budget & Fund Managing Process

    • Understand the basis of collection development budget allocations
    • Understand what information is needed to assist in establishing budget allocations.
    • Manage your funds effectively throughout the fiscal year.
    • Know what possible endowment funds are available for your subject areas and what kinds of materials can be acquired with them.

  5. Collection Development & Other Library Departments

    • Know the priorities, policies, procedures and timelines under which technical services staff members operate in order to support collection development and management.

  6. Marketing, Outreach, and Communication with Constituencies

    • Understand and use the various means of communicating with the user community.
    • Develop a library liaison relationship with faculty and students in your areas.
    • Foster familiarity with curriculum changes and the research interests of students and faculty in your areas.
    • Keep apprised of faculty publications in your areas.
    • Be familiar with the overall user community profile.

  7. Selector's Knowledge Base

    • Develop the subject knowledge needed to accomplish tasks in collection management and development.
    • Understand the structure and publishing patterns in your subject areas.
    • Keep up-to-date on new resources in your areas, in all formats, including online research tools.
    • Know how to use the resources in your subject areas, including indexes, databases, and Internet resources, and be able to teach them to the user community.
    • Be familiar with selection tools in various and evolving formats as well as key publishers in your subject areas.

  8. Electronic Resources

    • Keep informed of new electronic resources, especially those in your areas.
    • Know how to assess the quality of the resource, its search engine, and other relevant features.
    • Understand the process for selecting, acquiring, and providing access and user support to electronic resources.
    • Know how to identify key Internet resources in your subject areas.

  9. Collection Evaluation, Deselection, Weeding and Replacement

    • Understand standards and methods of measuring and assessing collections.
    • Understand and participate in the process for deselection, weeding and replacement of missing/damaged items.
    • Know what items or types of material are the best candidates for transfer or discard.
    • Understand the current space configurations in the SSU Library including the Automated Retrieval System.
    • Participate in ongoing review of subject areas through regular evaluation and weeding

  10. Conservation/Preservation

    • Understand the role collection evaluations play in the preservation of our collections.
    • Understand your role in making preservation decisions regarding the disposition of material due to deteriorating physical conditions, its retention, replacement, or changed format.
    • Understand the various preservation priorities for the library and how to incorporate preservation into the selection process.

Approved by Library Faculty 11/2007.
Adapted from: Collection Development: A Basic Outline (n.d.). Boston College
Libraries’ Staff Web.
Retrieved 10/16/2007 from http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/ulib/staff/cdbasic.html