Collection development policy: A panacea for collection development challenges in university libraries in Africa

Abstract

Collection development is faced with various challenges such as decreasing budget allocation, increasing cost of materials, increasing demand for information, the complexity of electronic resources, and legal issues arising from copyright and censorship. To meet these challenges, university libraries in developed countries have adopted different strategies such as using a written collection development policy (CDP) to guide their collection development activities. However, university libraries in Africa are lagging in this regard. It is either they have not formulated the policy or used it to guide their collection development activities. Therefore, this study argues that a written CDP, if well prepared and used, can address collection development challenges facing university libraries in Africa and provide standard collections necessary for teaching and research activities of the university communities. Specifically, the paper discusses major collection development challenges facing university libraries in Africa and establishes ways in which a written CDP could be used to overcome them. Methodologically, the paper is based on a review of related literature. The paper contains a literature review of papers discussing the major collection development challenges facing university libraries in Africa and ways a written CDP could be used to overcome them.

Censorship issues: awareness and preparedness among university librarians

“…Building a library collection faces numerous obstacles, including diminishing budget allocations, rising material costs, growing information demands, the intricacies of managing electronic resources and legal concerns stemming from copyright and censorship issues. In addressing these challenges, university libraries in developed nations have used various strategies, including the implementation of a written collection development policy (CDP) to steer their collection development endeavours (Yakubu, 2023). Libraries globally encounter significant challenges during the collection development process, namely, the censorship of information (Kincaid and King, 2018;Nye, 2017).…”