Collection Management for the 1990s

Throughout the 1980s the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) Collection Management and Development Institutes were very influential, offering the best opportunities for library professionals to learn the latest collection management practices and theories in a rapidly changing area. These papers represent the formal communication from the last "Collection Management and Development Institute" of the decade, and include discussions of the trends and issues of the next ten years. Sound treatment of collection management as it emerged in the 1980s is provided. Restricted budgets, rapid advances in information technology, and resource sharing are among the "hot topics" addressed by experts, including Beverly P. Lynch, Robert M. Hayes, John Howe, and Nancy Sanders. Captured in these papers is the move away from traditional collection development - with its emphasis on acquisitions, selection and collection building - to the new vision of collection management - which encompasses a much broader range of policy, planning, analysis and co-operative activities.