2016 Charleston Library Conference

An opportunity to look back and reflect on how Acquisitions has changed in 30 years from the viewpoint of the vendor/publisher and librarians. The panel members will provide a brief overview of their professional path and thoughts on what has most changed in acquisitions and vending over the years. The panel hopes to include the audience to share their own experiences.

The traditional subject liaison role is evolving. Users increasingly require functional information support (e.g., for GIS or data mining) rather than simply domain-specific. At the same time, reports from the ARL Pilot Library Liaison Institute and others have noted self-conscious trends towards developing liaison roles that engage and support the full research life cycle, as opposed to traditional service models focused on building and promoting library collections as more or less fixed products. This session will outline and collaboratively address the future of these new roles, with participants exploring questions that include: What does it mean to be a "collections" librarian in this new world? What "new" skills do we need to develop? What "old" skills should we not lose? How do we adapt both our institutions (and our individual staff) without sacrificing our (or their) very identities?

Collection Development is a standard course taught in LIS programs across the country but without any real "standards" of what we should be teaching. This lunch discussion section will be facilitated by LIS educators and trainers who want to engage the audience in a thoughtful conversation about how we need to prepare librarians (through LIS programs and continuing education) to navigate the shifting landscape that is collection development. As new issues emerge in the field (ownership vs access, standing orders vs Evidence-Based Acquisitions models, etc), we need to re-evaluate the curriculum and decide what should stay and what should go. All stakeholders from content creators and providers to future librarians have a vested interest in making sure librarians are prepared to develop and maintain collections.

During the discussion audience members will be given notecards with collection development topics currently addressed in LIS education as well as blank notecards for the participants to add topics. After quickly touching on some of the issues, needs, and constraints we face as educators we will ask the participants to work at their tables on prioritizing content areas and then opening those up to discussion by the larger group. The attendees will be able to identify and prioritize which knowledge, skills, and abilities collection development librarians need. Their feedback will be incorporated into the curriculum used by the presenters and shared with other LIS educators in the hope of collaboratively shaping the future of LIS education.