Around the World to: The University of Dar es Salaam Library: Collection Development in the Electronic Information Environment
| Published date | 01 July 2004 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07419050410554861 |
| Pages | 19-24 |
| Date | 01 July 2004 |
| Author | Elizabeth Kiondo |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Around the World to: The University of Dar es
Salaam Library: Collection Development in the
Electronic Information Environment
Elizabeth Kiondo
LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 6 2004, pp. 19-24, #Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/07419050410554861 19
Introduction
Application of information and
communication technologies in
information management has
transformed the way libraries provide
information services to the user
community. The advent of electronic
publishing has led to the emergence of
electronic or e-resources with
associated challenges of their selection,
acquisition, storage and information
delivery. On the other hand, the
emergence of the Internet as a source of
information, not only for news,
business and entertainment, but also for
teaching and learning and research has
equally led to a number of challenging
issues confronting librarians and
information professionals. In the past,
collection development was paper
based and selectors used printed
selection tools like publishers'
catalogues and trade bibliographies,
unlike today where most of selection
tools are available electronically and
librarians need to be computer and
information literate to surf through the
various tools at their disposal. Library
staff members also have a new cohort of
vendors and suppliers, and for
e-resources there are different
procedures required to license, acquire,
and list in library online catalogues.
In the ICT era the whole collection
development process has been highly
computerised in that e-mail
communication facilitates
communication between libraries, book
vendors, publishers and suppliers and
books can be ordered and transactions
completed in the shortest time possible.
Mosher (1994) characterises the
situation very well when he argues that
there is a shift in paradigm from
traditional to electronic in that ``we are
moving from the age of the library as
ordered and ordering institution to the
library as a situational and virtual one,
an adaptive culture characterized by
change.''
This paper discusses the emerging
issues in the electronic information
environment in the context of selection
and acquisition of e-resources in
African academic libraries, with special
reference to the experiences of the
University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM)
Library. The methodology adopted is
the case study method whereby the
UDSM Library is examined, analysed
and discussed in order to come up with
lessons, challenges and opportunities
for change when it comes to the
question of selection and acquisition of
e-resources. The case of the UDSM is
being examined mainly due to two main
reasons:
(1) The university library has been
providing electronic information
services for more than a decade.
(2) During the entire period it has
acquired CD-ROMs, e-journals
and databases, and now the library
has started implementing the vir-
tual library project.
The challenges arising out of
practice and experiences as far as
collection development is concerned
will constitute the core of this paper.
The problem
The problem area is presented in the
form of a series of questions arising out
of the new electronic information
environment. While in the past
librarians were guided by collection
development policies which spelled out
what needed to be bought in what
formats and what quantities, in the
electronic information environment, the
issues include the following questions:
.What technology infrastructure
would support selection and acqui-
sition?
.What skills are required by library
staff?
.What is the right balance between
paper and electronic resources in
the library?
.How much should be allocated to
the acquisition of e-resources and
why?
.What about archival and licensing
of e-resources?
.Do we really just need access to
e-resources or do we need to own
the e-resources?
.To what extent should electronic
document delivery complement
acquisition?
.How do we revise our collection
development and management
policies to reflect the new emer-
ging and challenging environment?
African academic libraries have
been selecting, acquiring and providing
electronic information services to the
academic user community for more
than a decade, but the problem remains
that, to what extent are academic
libraries satisfying the needs of users
when it comes to selection, acquisition
and provision of e-resources to the
academic community in our
universities? In addition we ask:
.Do we really get value for the
scarce financial resources?
.Are our users really effectively
using these resources?
.Do they have adequate skills to
exploit fully the e-resources
academic libraries acquire?
The challenges and problem areas
confronting African academic libraries
are discussed by examining the UDSM
library experiences.
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