Shifting Boundaries: Managing Research Library Collections at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century

Branin, Joseph J.

doi:10.4324/9780429352010-1

Cited by 1 publication

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“…CD-ROMs, videocassettes, etc. ), the rise during the 1990s of “virtual” objects and networked service infrastructures demanded radical reassessments of academic library collection practice and theory (Branin, 1998; Branin, Groen, & Thorin, 2000). Much of the scholarship published during this period addressed the emergent challenges of electronic resource collection management.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holding it together: an exploratory study on the social structures of digital collection management

Rosenstein

2023

DTS

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PurposeThe academic library’s physical capacity and its service obligations to local users structured the traditional print collection. Largely freed of these constraints, the digital collection manager enjoys unprecedented freedoms but now contends with a collection susceptible to resource sprawl and scope ambiguity. This exploratory study aims to consider the possibility that intra-field social processes help to structure and routinize digital collection practice.Design/methodology/approachLacking the constraints to which print collections are subject, electronic resource and digital library collections are more likely to reflect idiosyncratic institutional interests and therefore, to demonstrate significant variation. Evidence of homogeneity may suggest the influence of heretofore underexplored social structures. To determine the extent of such homogeneity, the author performed exploratory/descriptive content analyses on ten electronic resource collection development policies and six digital library collection development policies.FindingsThe data reveal among both the electronic resource and digital library collection policies significant uniformity. Content analyses demonstrate consistent themes (e.g. media, audience, selection priorities, etc.) and rhetoric. These findings lend support to the study’s central hypothesis regarding latent social structures. Analyses also reveal a set of unanticipated constraints unique to digital collection management.Originality/valueDespite the breadth and maturity of literature addressing the Digital Turn in academic librarianship, relatively little attention has been paid to the social dimensions of collection management. This work represents an important corrective and suggests new theoretical approaches to the study of digital collection practice.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holding it together: an exploratory study on the social structures of digital collection management

Rosenstein

2023

DTS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Shifting Boundaries: Managing Research Library Collections at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century

Cited by 1 publication

References 4 publications

Holding it together: an exploratory study on the social structures of digital collection management

Holding it together: an exploratory study on the social structures of digital collection management

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