LAUSR

boards which were all excellent supplements to the lessons being delivered to us. Though some aspects of the course were mandatory (or heavily suggested that you do them) it never felt like a chore or a bother—all assignments and activities were aptly geared toward the lessons and toward my day to day activities as a Collection Development Assistant. I found I was able to apply a lot of what I learned in the course to my responsibilities at work, and was even able to use some of the course readings to enhance and build upon projects I had already started. Developing a library collection, along with either creating or following some form of a selection criteria, was a key part of the third module. Electronic resources come into play here, suggesting additional criteria for librarians and selectors to be mindful of. Leases, licenses, and contracts can be tricky, especially when it comes to communicating with publishers—ensuring valuable content is added while also making sure guidelines and practices are abided by can be a tedious process. Also, keeping track of content, how it is being used, and what is not being used is also something that can be difficult. At this point, the course discussed usage statistics and highlighting the different organizations and initiatives that effectively do this. ICOLC (International Coalition of Library Consortia), COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources), and SUSHI (Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative) were all mentioned in an effort to highlight this kind of effectiveness. Another topic that was heavily discussed was the weeding and cancelation of resources. For the physical aspects of a collection, librarians and staff can look to circulation activity and sometimes even interlibrary loan data. Electronic reports offer this information; the only downside to this is that in-library use is not usually recorded, so it cannot be factored in. When it comes to the cancelation of electronic resources, we learned many of them are considered “non-discretionary” purchases; this means once a decision has been made, it is continually made until it is reversed. In regards to reversing a decision, libraries usually have distinct reasons for doing so (cost, loss of availability, redundancy). They also usually consider the policies, guidelines, and major stakeholders when making these decisions. In conclusion, the Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management course made grasping the world of collection development very simple and straightforward. The discussion boards, guided reading, and real-world examples all played a part in ensuring the class was informational and as beneficial as possible.