Tradition and Expertise in Academic Library Collection Development

The tradition of academic freedom in postsecondary institutions has produced organizations in which two modes, one for faculty and one for services, operate side by side. The issue of whether faculty or librarians have primary responsibility for collection development demonstrates the conflict inherent in this bimodal structure. During recent periods of relative affluence, many institutions gave librarians an unprecedented degree of selection responsibility. This raised questions about the kinds of expertise librarians must have and led, in many libraries, to the evaluation of collections. The controversial University of Pittsburgh study is compared with the National Enquiry into Scholarly Communications. ollection development com-mands widespread attention even as technology threatens to render society paperless and, presumably, bookless. The success of re-cent collection development institutes at-tests to this. The topic is vital because de