Selective and Effective Strategic Collection Development Approach in Universities Libraries

Purpose: University libraries playing pivotal role in developing and delivering education among university community by providing authentic information resources in terms of books, magazines, academic research journals etc. Collection development policies adopted to select and purchase the library print and electronic resources which worked as a guide for decision making. The purpose of this study is to propose the collection development policy which will help the acquisition librarians in selecting, evaluating and purchasing the materials for academic/universities libraries. Methodology: The trends of collection development practices were identified through the intensive literature review. Then, the university libraries of Lahore were personally visited to understand their collection development policies and practices. Moreover, the acquisition librarians from outside of Lahore were contacted via phone call to understand and discuss the collection development process in their libraries. Findings: The study findings revealed that there is no systematic written policy for assessment, selection, evaluation and deselection of library material at the universities libraries of Pakistan. Even, the acquisition process of books in universities libraries vary from university to university and even province to province. However, the proposed collection development policy revealed that the automatic receiving of books and other library materials via gifts, donations, exchanging library materials, resource sharing, and subscribing memberships of other organizations will be helpful to enhance the library collection and also reduce the cost to purchase the library materials. The proposed steps for collection development will act as a segment of complete collection development policy and may work as a guide line of collection development procedure to the universities libraries. Originality/Value: The study is first attempt to draw holistic approach of collection development at national level and it will also provide guideline to select user centered resources and also beneficial in terms of saving finances by practicing the proposed steps for developing academic libraries collection