LIBR 266-01
Collection Management
Fall 2014 Greensheet

Joni Richards Bodart
E-mail
Phone: (408)924-2728


Greensheet Links
Textbooks
SLOs
Competencies
Prerequisites
Course Outline
Resources
Canvas
iSchool eBookstore
 

Enrollment
Students will be automatically enrolled in the Canvas site for this course. The course will be automatically available to students on August 25, 2014.

Course Description

Study of collection management in all types of libraries and information centers. Includes analysis of information needs, criteria for selection, collection use evaluation, and resources for collection development.

Course Requirements

Office Hours
I will be in my office by appointment, Clark Hall, 418H, and will be on campus some weekdays, however, without an appointment, there’s no guarantee I will actually be IN my office.

I will answer e-mail on a daily basis or as quickly as I can. I will also be posting email responses to the FAQs section of the discussion board when questions are asked that are of interest to the whole class.

If you need to speak to me by phone, I will do all I can to be available to you, but scheduling that call in advance to make it convenient for both of us, and ensure that I have enough time cleared to respond to your questions or problems.

DISCLAIMER
I make every effort to proofread the Greensheet and the Canvas website, but errors can occur. Please contact me with any errors you see or any questions or may have so I can correct or explain them.

Instructional Philosophy
I want each of you in this course to succeed, and I will do everything I can to help you do so, but this is a partnership. Please make sure that communication is your top priority during the semester. Ask questions when you have them, seek clarifications when you need them, and take responsibility for understanding all expectations, content and assignments for the course. You are responsible for your own learning experience. I do not make you succeed. YOU make you succeed. You also make you fail. Understanding the contents and expectations explained in the Greensheet is critical for a student’s success in the class.

The Canvas Site
Please check the site regularly for announcements, discussion board questions, and so on. As soon as you are enrolled, go to the site, read my welcome message, then go to the discussion board and introduce yourself, both professionally and personally. I will give you a format for each part of your introduction. If you read someone’s introduction and think that you would like to work with them on a team, you are welcome to contact them either on that forum or privately and form your team immediately. The purpose of these introductions is to allow you to see who else is in class and if anyone wants to write about the same kind of library or library/group of customers that you would like to work on, making the process of creating teams easier and shorter.

Explore the various forums for other information I think might be helpful to you, such as resources and links to sites you will find useful, and survival tips from previous classes. And make sure you take a look at the policy manuals given as examples. Assignment due dates are also posted there, as well as below.

Lecture information will be given via Collaborate classes. Synchronous attendance is optional, but highly recommended, especially if you are unfamiliar with the topics under discussion or have questions about them. I will be doing a mini-lecture, 30-45 minutes, on each of the chapters of your policy manual, to let you know what I think the most important concepts are. These lectures include information not in your texts. I will also answer questions about assignments and other things you are confused about. All Collaborate sessions will be recorded for asynchronous viewing. I will have a student assistant who will be able to help you with technical issues. Be sure to log into the class session at least 10 minutes ahead of time, so you can get any communication problems taken care of ahead of time, before class starts.

Team sites will be set up by request, and will be available by the end of the third week of the semester, Friday, February 7. Let me know if you would like me to set one up. Please use them as much or little as you want to, for your own convenience, and let me know right away if you have problems with anything on your team sites. You are welcome to use any other software/websites that are convenient for you to hold meetings, exchange documents, and conduct other team activities. You are not required to use Canvas team websites to create your policy manual.

I have posted advice/survival tips from previous classes under Course Information. Please take a look at it, as I think it will be helpful. I will ask you to add to these tips at the end of the semester, and your comments will be very valuable to me and to future students as I continue to develop this course. Tips about your experience with the asynchronous format will be very important to future students.

CLASS PARTICIPATION
Read text and participate in class discussions on discussion boards. Participate is defined as posting 2-3 times weekly, both in response to the questions I post and to others’ reactions to them. Comments should be thoughtful and insightful, adding to our mutual learning process, and should NOT recapitulate what others have said. Questions will be posted on a biweekly basis. There is a list of discussion topics under Course Information. And while you do need to keep on top of the discussion boards, it is fine if you have a lot to say about one topic, and post more than the required number, and then the next week, have less to say, and do fewer. I will be looking at the average numbers over the semester. But if you regularly don’t post or post too few, I will notice. Please note that Canvas allows me to access statistics for students, and I’ll be able to count easily the number of your original posts and responses to others’ posts. When responding to discussion questions, please do not repeat information included in previous posts, but comment upon it, and give your additional thoughts about it.

COLLABORATE SESSIONS
There will be five Collaborate class sessions. All are required, and all are asynchronous. They will all be recorded, and the link to them posted on the website. Dates and content for these sessions are below.   While some professors record their lectures and use them over and over, I do not.  I record the live sessions each semester, and do not reuse them. 

PLEASE NOTE: Students who have taken this class previously recommend that you attend all Collaborate sessions live, if at all possible. You will be able to ask questions if something isn't covered or if something isn't clear. (You will find information on their other recommendations on the Canvas site for this class.) I am sure you have questions about all of the above, and you can bring them with you to the first session, email me, or post a question on the FAQs forum.

You need to use a microphone and speaker for these sessions if at all possible. I suggest purchasing a headset with a mike attached, since that will give the best sound quality and also leave your hands free for typing and mousing. If you are in a public area with background noise, you will NOT be able to hear/speak and be understood without a headset. In addition, your poor sound quality will become part of the tape, and make life difficult for everyone who listens to the recording.

You will need to get to all of the Esessions AT LEAST 10 minutes ahead of time, so my assistant can check to see that you can speak and hear. When this has been confirmed, s/he will tell you how to indicate that you’ve stepped away from your computer, and you don’t have to come back till 630. BTW, I have to do this too, to make sure my hardware is working properly as well.

Take a look at the Collaborate tutorials at http://senna.sjsu.edu/lmain/ogl a/el_stu.html. Log in to Collaborate with your first and last name, NOT a screen name. Your login name is what I see in the list of people in the session. You should log in as Susie Smith, not Smith, Susie. If you have a nickname you wish to use, please use that to log in. If Ms. Smith wants to be Susan instead of Susie, she should log in as Susan. If this is the first time you will be using Collaborate, you may be prompted to download some software which may take anywhere from 2 to 20 minutes depending upon your Internet connection speed. You can pre-configure your system with the required software by going to the support page located at:https://nexus.sjsu.edu:443/support.help.

Topics for E sessions will be:

  • 8/27—Q&A—this will NOT be a lecture, just Q&A and information. I will go over the greensheet in detail. If you have questions, especially about groups, it might be a good idea to stop by. This session will be from 630-730 only, unless there are additional questions or discussions.

The following sessions will be from 630-900 pm PT. Sessions may end earlier if there are few or no questions/comments.

  • 9/10—Defining CM, Community assessment, Publishing Industry, Selection process
  • 10/8--Acquisitions, Budgets, Fundraising, Weeding
  • 10/20—Evaluation, Preservation, Resource Sharing, Serials, Marketing & Merchandising
  • 11/19—Censorship, Intellectual Freedom, Reconsideration, Wrap-up

This scheduling and the due dates for assignments should inform your reading of the text, articles on Canvas site, and outside readings. There is also a class organization document on the website with information on what you should be doing week by week.

TEAM WORK
You must work as a team member with the others in your team, using email, your discussion board, and your Collaborate site. You are welcome to meet f2f if that is possible, but it is not required. You are REQUIRED to be a member of a team for this class.

Teams will be formed during the first two weeks of the semester, using a discussion forum and a Google doc to which each team will contribute. This is a new process, because the class is totally asynchronous for the second time, so please be aware that it may or may not go completely smoothly. Your patience is greatly appreciated. These are the steps I would like you to follow.

  1. Go to Introductions/Team Building forum, and introduce yourself as required, and give some details about the kind of library you would like to write about and how you function as a team member, including strengths and weaknesses.
  2. Read the introductions, and contact anyone you would like to work with or anyone who is interested in writing about the same kind of library you are interested in working on. You may do this either privately or on the discussion forum. It will be easier if you are all proactive about this, rather than sitting back and waiting to see what happens.
  3. Once you have agreed to work with one or two other people, post the information about your team on the Google doc set up for that purpose. There is a link to the doc on the website. Once you have posted that information, you will officially be a team, and so noted in my records. You will need to include in your post to the Google doc: team name, type of library, team members’ names, noting the name of the team member who will be submitting the different parts of your policy manual. This information does not have to be submitted all at one time. You need to add your team name, team members, and type of library as soon as your team forms, to make your team official, and then you can go back over the next few days and add the additional information as your team makes decisions about their process and content.

Some of you have probably done team projects before, and have not enjoyed them. I highly recommend that you take a look at Dr. Haycock's presentation on working in virtual teams. (There is a link to it under the Course Documents section of the Content area.) This will give you lots of hints on how to create a successful virtual team. You will also find suggestions from previous classes under Course Information. Finally, I am happy to report that negative team experiences in this class are definitely in the minority. If you do your prep, follow the student suggestions, take a look at the video, and stay in close touch with your teammates, it is very unlikely that you will be part of that minority.

At the end of the semester, after you have turned in your revised policy manual, you will be required to evaluate your team members on their participation and the quality of work that they contributed to the project. These evaluations will be incorporated into the participation grade. You will submit this document via the assignments dropbox.

It is up to the members of each team to work out interpersonal problems. I am available for advice and consultation, but it is ultimately up to the team members to figure out how to work together successfully and ensure that everyone contributes equally. You will spend a good part of your professional life as part of one team or another, and knowing how to be a good team player, both in contributing and convincing others to contribute, is essential. This semester will give you a chance to practice that.

ASSIGNMENTS
PLEASE NOTE: The descriptions of several of the assignments below may repeat things said elsewhere in the greensheet. This is not an error, but I hope it will alert you to the correct procedure/format about those assignments.

  1. READING LOG AND SYNTHESIS (SLOs 1-7)
    There are many print and online sources on collection development outside the textbook. You will need to explore those items in order to get information that will help you put together your policy manual, and to examine current and evolving collection development theory. We are moving from a print society to one that will be partially or completely digitized in the future. In the text and in lectures, we will be examining the role of the librarian in collection development today. In addition to finding materials that will help with your policy manual, use this assignment to seek out and examine information on what may happen in this area in the future, and how it will impact your career as an information professional.

    IN ADDITION TO THE REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS, you should read the equivalent of 350 pages of professional reading, most of which will support the process of creating your policy manual. There is a bibliography of articles and sites students from previous classes have found useful to get you started, although you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to. However, it’s just a beginning point—I do expect you to research other sources as well. A log that contains citations only from the bibliography will not be eligible for an A, so you might want to indicate the new articles in some way to show me that you did indeed add new resources. This bibliography has been reformatted to make it more accessible for you, however, not all citations conform to APA requirements, so please be sure to check your formatting on your citations to make sure it does.

    You will want to use this log in conjunction with the research you do for your policy manual, and therefore may choose to read in the order of the chapters in the manual.  This is not required.  Therefore, in the first half of your log, you could have articles on all 11 of the chapters, and also in the second half of your log.  However, I think it will probably work best if you read materials in the order in which you need them for the manual.

    Recently a student created a reading log by looking for the longest academic articles available, because fewer would be needed to make up the database.  This is not necessarily the smartest way to create your log, because non-scholarly or brief articles can also give you lots of valuable information.

    Keep a log of your readings and web work, including for each item:
    • the bibliographic citation including the number of pages in the chapter/article
    • a code (explained or defined on the first page of the assignment) indicating whether or not it is an item you found on your own or one that was listed on the bibliography of print and web resources posted on the website
    • a summary of its content
    • an evaluation, including what you did or didn’t find useful about it.

    The information on each item should be at least half a page to a maximum of one page (single spaced, double that if you prefer to double space your work.)  Organize your log into chapters following the ones in your policy manual.  This assignment is designed to be worked on for the entire semester, as you do research for your policy manual.  Please do NOT use Excel.

    Do not wait till the end of the semester to start this assignment!
    Do not wait until it’s convenient to write the entry on each article or chapter!
    Do write each entry as soon as you finish examining it! It’s too easy to forget!


    You will be turning in this assignment in two sections, each containing approximately one half of the required pages.  (This means 170-180 pages each.)   All due dates are below.


    While I am not going to add up the number of pages listed for each and every log, please be aware that if I think you have not read the required number of pages, I will go back and count them. When you count the number of pages in a book, include only the pages in the chapters (limit three per book) you read, not front matter, bibliographies or indexes. You may have used these sections, but I doubt you will have actually read them for content. Types of material in your log will include, but not be limited to:
    • chapters in books about collection development in the specific type of library you are using for your policy manual. Limit three chapters from any one book, and count only the pages for each chapter.
    • professional articles about collection development from current journals in the field.
    • web sites that are particularly useful in the collection development process. (Estimate time spent as pages read.  For example, how long does it generally take you read a one page article?  A five page article?  A ten page article?  If you can read a five page article in 15 minutes, and spend 30 minutes recording it in your log, then a five page article equals 45 minutes.  If you spend 45 minutes looking at a website and recording the entry for it in your log, it counts as 5 pages.)

  2. REFLECTION PAPER (SLOs 1-9This paper will discuss what you have learned this semester, and how your learning has changed your perceptions, thoughts, ideas, and actions.  You will also discuss how you think you will be using what you have learned in the future, and why or why not you consider your learning to be significant or important.  What did you know about CM when the semester began?  What do you know now?  What philosophical changes have you made to your view of librarianship, and the information profession?  What has the most valuable part of this course been?  What was the least valuable?  What did you learn about yourself?  What did you learn about working in a group?  Has this class changed your thinking about your profession?  If so, how?  If not, why not?  How does this class fit into the rest of the classes in your program?  This is a then-and-now reflection or comparison of how far you have come and how much you have changed this semester, and what those changes have taught you.  This paper may be informal in style, i.e., in first person, and does not need to use APA citation format.   Minimum 2-3 pages, maximum, 15 pages.

  3. COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY MANUAL (SLOs 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
    Working in teams of 2-3, based on the type of library you are interested in, develop a comprehensive collection management policy. Chapters for the policy manual are described below.

    When deciding on whom to work with on a team, you will need to examine the introductions, especially what kind of library people want to work on, and what they describe as the roles they play in a group. When your team has formed, it is important to allocate the roles of leader or leaders. For instance, rather than one leader, you might have two leaders: a leader for deadlines and a leader for content. You might want one person to be responsible for final checking and submission. You might want to have different leaders for each chapter. Watching Ken Haycock’s video will help you decide what roles are most important to your team. It is likely that teams will be able to bond faster and better if you include some face time—meeting on Skype etc., or even just activating the video when using Collaborate. While we are a distance school, seeing people’s faces and expressions can be really helpful in getting to know them and working with them. Including a picture of yourself on the Canvas class site is also another way to help others see you as a person, not just a name.

    Appropriate forms and documents will be included in an appendix for each section or chapter of your policy manual. These can be forms developed by the team or developed from ones used by actual libraries. (Appropriately cited, of course!) This assignment will be done using a library that the team creates. Precise information about the library, its policies, staff, and collections will be required. Be aware that including tables, graphs and charts will help you convey information more concisely and in formats that can be more easily understood than straight text. Each section will contain a bibliography citing the various sources, print and online, that you used while writing that section. When the completed manual is turned in as a whole at the end of the semester, these chapter bibliographies will be collected at the end of the manual, rather than at the end of each chapter. (I.e., a bibliography section, with items from Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and so on. In other words, you don’t have to realphabetize the whole list.) Graphs, tables, charts and other illustrative documents will stay with the chapter they were designed for, rather than being collected at the end of the manual. Illustrative documents stay with the chapter. References are collected by chapter at the end of the document.

    You must create your own policy manual from scratch. Using an existing policy manual with minor changes IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. Your manuals must be your own work, even when you include forms, surveys or other supportive documents from existing libraries. If I think you are using chunks of material from an existing manual, rather than writing your own policies, I will want to discuss it with your team. You will be required to demonstrate that you have not plagiarized any materials.

    The completed manual must be detailed enough that an real library could use it to define, create, and implement collection development and management policies. It will be a demonstration of the depth of your knowledge of the subject, and may be added to your portfolio documenting your accomplishments as a library school student. In fact, a number of students who have been working for libraries that don’t have a collection development policy, have used that library for the manual, and then implemented all or part of it as the actual policy for that library after the semester is over.

    Please note that this manual will differ in some aspects from the actual policy manuals you will find in libraries and online. Many policies do not contain the detail that I am requiring. All chapters must be complete and detailed, even if it is unlikely that an actual policy for your type of library would have them. This is an exercise, not reality. Therefore, even though a real special library might not have a reconsideration policy, saying “We don’t have an intellectual freedom problem in this library” will not suffice.

    You will turn in each chapter, based on the due dates given below. Please include your team name and the last names of your team members in the title of the document. For instance, Chapter 7, Team Alpha, Jones, Alexander. I must be able to identify your team using only the title of your submission. Please include a cover sheet for each chapter, giving the chapter title, the name and type of the library, the team name, and names of team members. Points will be deducted if you do not conform to document title requirements or do not have a cover sheet for each section you turn in, so you will want appoint one team member to do the final check for these things, and also submit each chapter. This person will need to be meticulous and detail-oriented. You need to do only one cover sheet for Chapters 1-4, since they are submitted together. Each chapter should always begin on a new page, as a chapter in a book does.

    PLEASE NOTE: Not adhering to this format means that 3-5 points will be deducted from your grade.

    Your chapters will be evaluated, commented on, and returned to you. My goal for this is seven days. In other words, if you turn in something on Sunday at 1145pm, I should, under normal circumstances, post the grades for that chapter by 1145pm the following Sunday. TEAM ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE SUBMITTED ONLY ONCE, BY THE SAME PERSON ON EACH TEAM. Only the person submitting the assignment will be able to see the comments and will need to share them with the other team members. At the end of the semester, you will be able to turn in (if your team chooses to do so) a corrected final version of your entire project. This does not mean that every section will need to be rewritten, since only those that receive less than satisfactory grades (in the team’s opinion) will need rewriting. Other sections can be turned in without further changes, assuming their formatting is the same as the corrected chapters. The submitter will note which chapters have been rewritten when turning in the revised manual. Even if no changes are made, each team must submit a completed policy manual. While revision is not required, it will allow you to raise the grade received for the project. (See grading standards below.) All members of a team will receive the same grade for the policy manual chapters, and for the revised manual, but due to differing participation and reading log grades, may not receive the same grade for the course. Before submitting, you must scan document for viruses before sending.

    Each section of your policy manual will be submitted in document format. When you are ready to submit a chapter, follow the procedures on the Canvas site:


    PLEASE NOTE: You may submit more than one document to fulfill an assignment, but all documents must be submitted at the same time. If you want to submit an assignment that you have done in two files, you MUST submit them at the same time.

    When I grade the assignment, my comments will go only to the one person who submitted it on behalf of the team. Therefore, that person needs to share the comments with other team members.  Since all team members get the same grade, and you will know that immediately from your submitter, other grades will be added to the gradebook at the end of the semester.  Each of you will receive full credit for your work.

    Be sure to keep copies of all your work on CDs, flash drives, and/or on all team members’ computers, so if one of you has a problem or a crash, you won’t lose your work. Another reason for keeping your work is that you will be able to use it when you do your Eportfolio. This includes your completed policy manual, your reading log and synthesis, and your reflection paper. You will need to discuss in your competency statement what part of your policy manual represents your own work, just as you would for any other team project.

    You may use only Microsoft Word or ClarisWorks (AppleWorks) either mac or pc versions. Your graphics should be integrated into the word processed chapter as described above.

    I recommend sending each chapter back and forth from at least one team member to another in the exact version you will be turning in, just to see if you have any problems attaching or opening it or if there are formatting changes. I will let you know if I have any problems about this. Glitches exist, and I understand this.

    LIST OF COLLECTION POLICY MANUAL CHAPTERS (see list of due dates for chronological list of chapters)

    • Description of the Library Building and its Collection, including the size of both and the number and kinds of employees currently on staff
    • Community Assessment Methods and Survey Results, including a survey of your community, the methods you used to get information, and what the results of the survey were.
    • Collection Development Statement and Rationale, stating briefly the library’s overall policy and philosophy, including the national guidelines and statements it supports.
    • Types of Materials Available, describing the different kinds of materials available in each department, what percentage they are of the whole collection, and why this figure is appropriate.
    • Review Sources, including a comprehensive annotated list of sources you will use to select materials for all parts of your collection. The annotations should be brief, yet clearly indicate why you chose this source. You also need to include the price of each item, and at the end, provide a total cost of the sources you have included, and the percentage of the budget that this total reflects.
    • Budget, including amounts for different departments and rationales for your allotments.
    • Selection Procedures, with specific policies for various departments and types of materials. Include rationales for each part of the policy and a list (not annotated) of the review sources used to select materials.
    • Acquisition Procedures, describing the process of ordering, receiving and processing all types of materials.
    • Evaluation and Weeding Procedures, based on age, format, relevancy, usage, and space available.
    • Merchandising and Promotion of the Collection, based on type of library, community, and library’s mission and goals.
    • Reconsideration Policy and Procedures, with detailed information on steps to be taken from the first complaint about an item to the final resolution of the matter.

  4. TEAM PRESENTATIONS (SLOs 3, 4, 6, 7)
    Teams will present their libraries and policy manuals and record those presentations, posting links to them on the appropriate forum. I expect each team member to participate in the presentation, and discuss part of either the library or the team process. PowerPoint slideshows or some other form of visual presentation will illustrate and organize your presentations. YOU WILL LOSE POINTS IF YOU READ YOUR PPT SLIDES! Your complete presentation will be no longer than 20 minutes, which means that you will have to include a lot of information in a short time, so writing down and practicing what you will say and how you will use the visual part of your presentation will be important.

    The Collaborate student assistant can help you learn how to load your slides or other visuals, and practice on Collaborate before you present, so your presentation will be smoother and more effective. You will set up these practice sessions during the semester with the assistant. For instance, since you will be changing speakers during the presentation, it will be necessary to figure out ahead of time who will say what and in what order and how the “hand-off” to another team member will be managed. Practicing with the assistant will also mean that he/she can give you tips about these things that you may not have been aware of. After you have recorded your presentation, you will post a link to your presentation so other students can view it and make comments on it.

    WHEN SUBMITTING THIS ASSIGNMENT YOU MUST SUBMIT THE LINK TO YOUR PRESENTATION, THE SCRIPT OF YOUR PRESENTATION AND A COPY OF YOUR POWERPOINT OR OTHER VISUALS.

    These are some of the topics I'd like you to include:
    • How you decided on what library to use, and how close to reality it would be
    • Brief description of your library and why you think it’s important
    • Unique or interesting features of your library
    • How you went about setting up your team process
    • Division of labor—who wanted to do what and why
    • Communication—how often, and about what
    • Problem resolution
    • What you’ve learned about team work during the semester
    • Most valuable part of the process, what you learned most from
    • What you’d recommend to future students to help them succeed in their team work
    Please note that since all of your policy manuals will be essentially alike, you need to focus on the parts of your library and policy manual are unique in some way, and present to the class what your team feels are the most interesting parts of your work.

ASSIGNMENT DUE DATES
All assignments are due on Sundays before midnight. This means the midnight between Sunday and Monday, not between Saturday and Sunday. Not every week is listed below, since you don’t always have something due. Week 1 is the first week of the semester, even though it is not technically a full week, Jan 23-27. Week 2 is the following week, and so on. FOLLOW THE SEQUENCE BELOW TO WRITE AND SUBMIT YOUR CHAPTERS

  • Week 4, September 14
    Chapters 1-4
    • Description of the Library Building and its Collection, including the size of both and the number and kinds of employees currently on staff
    • Collection Development Statement and Rationale, stating briefly the library’s overall policy and philosophy, including the national guidelines and statements it supports.
    • Community Assessment Methods and Survey Results, including a survey of your community, the methods you used to get information, and what the results of the survey were. (If you don’t have time to do a real survey, create a credible faux survey and results.)
    • Types of Materials Available, describing the different kinds of materials available in each department, what percentage they are of the whole collection, and why this figure is appropriate.
  • Week 6, October 5
    Chapter 5
    • Selection Procedures, with specific policies for various departments and types of materials. Include rationales for each part of the policy and a list (not annotated) of the review sources used to select materials.
  • Week 7, October 12
    Chapter 6
    • Review Sources, including a comprehensive annotated list of sources you will use to select materials for all parts of your collection. The annotations should be brief, yet clearly indicate why you chose this source. Please include the price of each item, a total amount, and the percentage of the budget that it reflects.
    • FIRST HALF OF READING LOG IS DUE
  • Week 8, October 19
    Chapter 7
    • Acquisition Procedures, describing the process of ordering, receiving and processing all types of materials.
  • Week 10, November 2
    Chapter 8
    • Budget, including amounts for different departments and rationales for your allotments.
  • Week 12, November 16
    Chapter 9
    • Evaluation and Weeding Procedures, based on age, format, relevancy, usage, space available, and other individual factors.
  • Week 13, October 23
    Chapter 10
    • Merchandising and Promoting your Collection, based on community, type of library, and library missions and goals, discuss and describe general overall policy and give examples of techniques and methods.
  • Week 14, November 30
    Chapter 11
    • Reconsideration Policy and Procedures, with detailed information on steps to be taken from the first complaint about an item to the final resolution of the matter. Information on staff training in challenge situations should also be included.
  • Week 15, December 7
    • Group presentations: recordings, documents, including scripts and PPTs, and group evaluations
    • Final completed and revised policy manual
  • Week 16, December 14
    • Second half of reading log with overall synthesis
    • Informal paper

I am willing to be flexible about due dates and will always give you extra time when you ask for it. However, any assignment that does not come in on time when no extension has been requested will be penalized one letter grade for lateness. When in doubt, ask for more time, just in case. You have a huge project before you, and my due dates are designed to keep you caught up, so you don’t have too many things overwhelming you at the end of the semester. Since I have mentioned this at several points in this greensheet, I will be less sympathetic at the end of the semester if you say you need more time.

If you create a website for your assignments, and send me a URL when they are due so I can look at them, and I cannot open the link, I will let you know about the problem right away, and it MUST be corrected within 48 hours of my email, or your work will be counted as late. Please check your links, and make sure you have published or opened your site so I can examine your work, and check your email to see if I have let you know that there are problems.

ALL DELAYED OR LATE ASSIGNMENTS MUST BE IN TO ME WITHOUT EXCEPTION NO LATER THAN MIDNIGHT, 12 AM, ON DECEMBER 16 (which is also my birthday!) IN ORDER TO SUBMIT GRADES ON TIME. I am willing to be as flexible as I can, but the due date for grades MUST be met.

Grading Allocations

  • 25% Reading and web work log and synthesis
  • 50% Individual project parts, averaged together
  • 25% Class participation (including group evaluations), informal paper and final revised project, averaged together

COURSE ORGANIZATION
This will help you know what's going on every week.

Please note that the chapters in your Policy Manual are out of synch with the discussion board and chapters in the text. This is deliberate, to give you more time to write and review your work. The further you get into the semester, the more out of synch they get, also deliberate, to give you an extra week to work on chapters that are more time-consuming. I know it’s a little confusing, but better that than having you turn in chapter separately and have something due every single week.

IMPORTANT FACT TO REMEMBER!
Since your assignments are due at midnight on Sunday, the other activities, such as working on your manuals and posting to the discussion board will need to begin the previous Monday, which is the beginning of each week. If you aren’t sure what week is “week 1,” look at the list of assignment due dates above. Week one is always the first week of classes, even though the "week" starts on Wednesday.

  • Weeks 1-3 Intro to course, defining selection/selection policies, review sources, selection policies, comunity assessment
    Text Chapter 1-4 Gregory, Chapter 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 10 Disher
    Discussion board—Definition of CD, Publishing industry, Community analysis, Selection, Review sources
    Work on Chapters 1-4
    PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE ASSIGNMENTS ARE FOR THREE WEEKS, NOT ONE!
  • Week 4 Acquisitions
    Text Chapter 5 Gregory, Chapter 9 Disher
    Discussion board—Acquisitions, differences among types of libraries, vendors pro/con
    Turn in Chapters 1-4, begin work on Chapter 5
  • Week 5 Budgeting
    Text Chapter 6 Gregory, Chapter 6 Disher
    Discussion board—budgets, creative financing, fundraising, impact of budget cuts
    Work on Chapter 5
  • Week 6 Weeding and Evaluation
    Text Chapter 7 Gregory, Chapter 3, 5, 11 Disher
    Discussion board—weeding, methods, philosophy, evaluating collections
    Turn in Chapter 5, begin work on Chapter 6
  • Week 7 Resource sharing and Collection Merchandising
    Text Chapter 8 Gregory, Chapter 13 Disher
    Discussion board—Resource sharing pros/cons, merchandising, promoting your collection
    Turn in Chapter 6, begin work on Chapter 7
  • Turn in first half of reading log
  • Week 8 Preservation and maintenance
    Text Chapter 11 Gregory, Chapter 12 Disher
    Discussion board—to preserve or not to preserve, methods, considerations
    Turn in Chapter 7, begin work on Chapter 8
  • Week 9 Chapter 14 Disher
    Print and electronic serials
    • What’s a serial?
    • Choosing serials
    • Budgetary concerns
    • Usage of serials
    • Policy variations by type of library
    Continue to work on Chapter 8
  • Week 10 Promotion and merchandising
    Discussion board—how and why to promote and merchandise your collection
    Turn in Chapter 8, begin work on Chapter 9
  • Week 11 Electronic materials
    Text
    Discussion board—electronic materials
    Continue to work on Chapter 9
  • Week 12 Censorship, intellectual freedom, and reconsideration policies
    Text Chapters 9-10 Gregory, Chapter 14 Disher
    Discussion board—Defending difficult books, angry customers, policies and procedures
    Turn in Chapter 9, begin work on Chapter 10
  • Week 13
    Text—Review chapters as necessary
    Discussion board—top 5 resources in your reading log, and why you chose them
    Turn in Chapter 10, begin work on Chapter 11
  • Week 14
    Text—review chapters as necessary
    Discussion board—valuable insights or knowledge from this course
    Continue to work on Chapter 11
  • Week 15
    Discussion board—final thoughts and tips
    Turn in Chapter 11, begin to revise entire manual
  • Week 16
    Turn in completed and revised policy manual
    Turn in second half of reading log, synthesis of entire log

Course Outline

  • Week 1
  • Chapters 1,2 Gregory
  • Chapter 1, 2, 4, 10 Disher
    What, why, and how is collection management?
    • What about assessment?
    • Community analysis
    • The Publishing Industry
  • Week 2
  • Chapter 3 Gregory
  • Chapter 7 Disher
    Selection policies
    • What are they?
    • Why are they important?
    • Components
  • Week 3
  • Chapter 4 Gregory
  • Chapter 8 Disher
    Review sources
    • Characteristics
    • Variation by type of library
  • Week 4
  • Chapter 5 Gregory
  • Chapter 9 Disher
    Acquisitions
    • What is it?
    • Procedures
  • Week 5
  • Chapter 6 Gregory
  • Chapter 6 Disher
    Budgets
    • Where does the money come from?
    • Where does it go?
    • How should it be apportioned?
  • Week 6
  • Chapter 7 Gregory
  • Chapters 3, 5, 11 Disher
    Weeding and evaluation
    • Methods and criteria
    • Budgetary concerns
    • Variations by type of library
  • Week 7
  • Chapter 8 Gregory
  • Chapter 13 Disher
    Resource Sharing
    • Methods
    • Issues
  • Week 8
  • Chapter 11 Gregory
  • Chapter 12 Disher
    Preserving and Maintaining Collections
    • Fragile or rare materials
    • Conservation
    • Availability
  • Week 9
  • Gregory
  • Disher (check index under serials, electronic resources)
    Print and electronic serials
    • What’s a serial?
    • Choosing serials
    • Budgetary concerns
    • Usage of serials
    • Policy variations by type of library
  • Week 10
  • Chapter 13 Disher
    Merchandising and promoting the collection
    • Why???
    • Merchandising—what is it?
    • Promotion—active and passive
    • Displays
    • Booklists and bibliographies
    • Visuals and nonprint promotions
    • RA work—what it is and why it’s important
    • Psychology of the customer—user behaviors and patterns
    • Organization of your collection—fitting it to the community
  • Weeks 11-12
  • Chapters 9-10 Gregory
  • Chapter 14 Disher
    Censorship
    • Psychology of censors
    • Issues
    • Print, nonprint, and electronic censorship
    • Self censorship
    • Reconsideration Policies
    • What to include
    • Forms
    • Procedures
  • Weeks 13-15—Review text chapters as necessary

Course Workload Expectations

Success in this course is based on the expectation that students will spend, for each unit of credit, a minimum of forty-five hours over the length of the course (normally 3 hours per unit per week with 1 of the hours used for lecture) for instruction or preparation/studying or course related activities including but not limited to internships, labs, clinical practica. Other course structures will have equivalent workload expectations as described in the syllabus.

Instructional time may include but is not limited to:
Working on posted modules or lessons prepared by the instructor; discussion forum interactions with the instructor and/or other students; making presentations and getting feedback from the instructor; attending office hours or other synchronous sessions with the instructor.

Student time outside of class:
In any seven-day period, a student is expected to be academically engaged through submitting an academic assignment; taking an exam or an interactive tutorial, or computer-assisted instruction; building websites, blogs, databases, social media presentations; attending a study group;contributing to an academic online discussion; writing papers; reading articles; conducting research; engaging in small group work.

Course Prerequisites

LIBR 202, LIBR 204

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

  1. Exhibit familiarity with the theoretical and practical issues of resource selection and collection management for libraries and information centers.
  2. Describe the role and value of collection management and its relationship to other library functions.
  3. Describe the major forms of cooperative (shared) collection development.
  4. Develop a rationale for planning the development and management of a collection.
  5. Assess user information needs in the context of collection management.
  6. Identify and evaluate literature and other resources pertinent to materials selection and collection management.
  7. Apply methodologies and skills for selecting resources and evaluating and managing a collection.
  8. Create and evaluate collection policies.
  9. Identify the challenges and issues of collection management, such as ownership and access, cultural sensitivity, copyright, and censorship.

Core Competencies (Program Learning Outcomes)

LIBR 266 supports the following core competencies:

  1. A Articulate the ethics, values, and foundational principles of library and information professionals and their role in the promotion of intellectual freedom.
  2. B Describe and compare the organizational settings in which library and information professionals practice.
  3. F Use the basic concepts and principles related to the selection, evaluation, organization, and preservation of physical and digital items and collections.
  4. N Evaluate programs and services based on measurable criteria.

Textbooks

Required Textbooks:

  • Disher, W. (2007). Crash course in collection development. Libraries Unlimited. Available through Amazon: 1591585597. arrow gif indicating link outside sjsu domain
  • Evans, G. E., & Saponaro, M.Z. (2012). Collection management basics. Libraries Unlimited. Available through Amazon: 1598848631arrow gif indicating link outside sjsu domain

Recommended Textbooks:

  • Gragory, V.L. (2011). Collection development and management for 21st century collections. Neal-Schuman. Available through Amazon: 1555706517arrow gif indicating link outside sjsu domain
  • Johnson, P. (2009). Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management. ALA. Available through Amazon: 0838909728. arrow gif indicating link outside sjsu domain
  • Loertscher, D. & Wimberley, L. (2009). Collection development using the collection mapping technique. Hi Willow. Available through Amazon: 1933170433. arrow gif indicating link outside sjsu domain

Grading Scale

The standard SJSU School of Information Grading Scale is utilized for all iSchool courses:

97 to 100 A
94 to 96 A minus
91 to 93 B plus
88 to 90 B
85 to 87 B minus
82 to 84 C plus
79 to 81 C
76 to 78 C minus
73 to 75 D plus
70 to 72 D
67 to 69 D minus
Below 67 F

 

In order to provide consistent guidelines for assessment for graduate level work in the School, these terms are applied to letter grades:

  • C represents Adequate work; a grade of "C" counts for credit for the course;
  • B represents Good work; a grade of "B" clearly meets the standards for graduate level work;
    For core courses in the MLIS program (not MARA) — INFO 200, INFO 202, INFO 204 — the iSchool requires that students earn a B in the course. If the grade is less than B (B- or lower) after the first attempt you will be placed on administrative probation.  You must repeat the class the following semester. If -on the second attempt- you do not pass the class with a grade of B or better (not B- but B) you will be disqualified.
  • A represents Exceptional work; a grade of "A" will be assigned for outstanding work only.

Students are advised that it is their responsibility to maintain a 3.0 Grade Point Average (GPA).

University Policies

General Expectations, Rights and Responsibilities of the Student

As members of the academic community, students accept both the rights and responsibilities incumbent upon all members of the institution. Students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with SJSU's policies and practices pertaining to the procedures to follow if and when questions or concerns about a class arises. See University Policy S90-5 at http://www.sjsu.edu/senate/docs/S90-5.pdf. More detailed information on a variety of related topics is available in the SJSU catalog at http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/catalog/departments/LIS.html. In general, it is recommended that students begin by seeking clarification or discussing concerns with their instructor. If such conversation is not possible, or if it does not serve to address the issue, it is recommended that the student contact the Department Chair as a next step.

Dropping and Adding

Students are responsible for understanding the policies and procedures about add/drop, grade forgiveness, etc. Refer to the current semester's Catalog Policies section at http://info.sjsu.edu/static/catalog/policies.html. Add/drop deadlines can be found on the current academic year calendars document on the Academic Calendars webpage at http://www.sjsu.edu/provost/services/academic_calendars/. The Late Drop Policy is available at http://www.sjsu.edu/aars/policies/latedrops/policy/. Students should be aware of the current deadlines and penalties for dropping classes.

Information about the latest changes and news is available at the Advising Hub at http://www.sjsu.edu/advising/.

Consent for Recording of Class and Public Sharing of Instructor Material

University Policy S12-7, http://www.sjsu.edu/senate/docs/S12-7.pdf, requires students to obtain instructor's permission to record the course and the following items to be included in the syllabus:

  • "Common courtesy and professional behavior dictate that you notify someone when you are recording him/her. You must obtain the instructor's permission to make audio or video recordings in this class. Such permission allows the recordings to be used for your private, study purposes only. The recordings are the intellectual property of the instructor; you have not been given any rights to reproduce or distribute the material."
    • It is suggested that the syllabus include the instructor's process for granting permission, whether in writing or orally and whether for the whole semester or on a class by class basis.
    • In classes where active participation of students or guests may be on the recording, permission of those students or guests should be obtained as well.
  • "Course material developed by the instructor is the intellectual property of the instructor and cannot be shared publicly without his/her approval. You may not publicly share or upload instructor generated material for this course such as exam questions, lecture notes, or homework solutions without instructor consent."

Academic integrity

Your commitment, as a student, to learning is evidenced by your enrollment at San Jose State University. The University Academic Integrity Policy F15-7 at http://www.sjsu.edu/senate/docs/F15-7.pdf requires you to be honest in all your academic course work. Faculty members are required to report all infractions to the office of Student Conduct and Ethical Development. The Student Conduct and Ethical Development website is available at http://www.sjsu.edu/studentconduct/.

Campus Policy in Compliance with the American Disabilities Act

If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, or if you need to make special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible, or see me during office hours. Presidential Directive 97-03 at http://www.sjsu.edu/president/docs/directives/PD_1997-03.pdf requires that students with disabilities requesting accommodations must register with the Accessible Education Center (AEC) at http://www.sjsu.edu/aec to establish a record of their disability.

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