The building and maintaining of collections has been at the heart of library and information work for a very long time. In the 7th century BC, the Great Library at Nineveh housed clay tablets which represented a treasure house of Assyrian ideas. In ancient Egypt, the legendary libraries of Thebes and Alexandria housed precious collections of religious, medical and literary material on papyri. With the advent of paper and then the printing press, individuals and organizations were able to build extensive book collections, often using them to demonstrate their knowledge, wealth and power. This activity culminated in the 19th century with an upsurge in the number of national libraries, very often in the form of grand buildings housing prestigious collections of material relating to national cultures and identities. Towards the end of the 20th century the situations began to change, with unprecedented developments in digital technology, which have contributed to a very different outlook for libraries and collections. These developments have accelerated into the 21st century, bringing with them fundamental changes in the nature of scholarly artefacts, library service provision and public expectation around access to information and reading for pleasure. These changes are having a profound influence on the ways in which library collections are developed and managed. Some professionals argue that collection development is no longer relevant or possible, that it's dead in the water, while others make a passionate case for adapting existing policies and practices. At the core of this book is a desire to confront the changes we are experiencing in a very explicit way and to question whether or not the rational strategic approaches to developing and managing collections, which have been at the heart of librarianship for years, are still relevant.

The goals of the book are:

Book organization

The book is divided into four parts, allowing you to approach the subject from different perspectives.