Collection Development Policies for the Twenty-First-Century Academic Library: Creating a New Model

Collection development policies in academic libraries have traditionally addressed scope and depth of subject; which languages, geographic regions, and time periods are covered; and what formats and material types are included. However, academic library collections increasingly face new challenges that these issues do not always address. These include shrinking budgets for collections and personnel, new modes of publication and distribution of content, repurposing of library spaces to focus on users rather than physical collections, and the transition to the digital library. Future collection development policies must address emerging trends use-driven acquisition and acquisition on demand, open access, emerging models of digital publishing, big science, data curation and mining, diversity issues, interdisciplinary research and teaching, and platform-agnostic content delivery. This paper demonstrates how libraries can create standards for designing collection development policies that address these issues. The presenters engage the audience in creating model collection development policies by identifying rubrics and guidelines that are relevant to the current and future needs of their audiences. The audience will take away templates for authoring collection development policy statements that can be customized for individual libraries, collection areas, and disciplines