Selection collection out of control

Jim Winheimer wrote a week ago about "selection" of books and journals.

"This is another basic point: what is the "collection" today? I can add 
lots of things to the
catalog, but I still must point people in the direction of Google and 
all kinds of other
places for lots and lots of excellent materials. When Google Books is 
approved eventually,
how will anybody "select" from that? You either get it or you won't. 
It's just like
"selection" of journals has gone out of the control of librarians once 
the aggregatorse came
around; with Google Books, the same will happen. I won't be able to 
"select" or "deselect"
anything at all. I can only provide access.

I have written on this list before about collection building and 
selection issues and I am
forced to repeat some of my observations after nearly thirty years in 
that business.

What does Google Book contain? Everything in fulltext? No. Is everything 
needed
for me in a Swedish university library. No. Do I need the literature in 
most of the worlds
languages? No. Do I need books in every subject? No. So what do I need? 
Not more
 than say 10-15% of the old stuff in theAmerican libraries. To give my 
users everything
seems to me absurd and crazy. They don't want to get swamped. Maybe 
that's not your
problem but for me it is. A library user must trust that we have a 
collection of great worth
and quality. There is a big fuzz concerning the big black hole, the 
copyrightprotected material.
mostly from the last century. Even if Google will succed in making this 
material free for a
fee, not everything of that material is of interest. Still a selection 
must be made. New books?
No library can afford to buy every book produced in the world, about 
three thousand
every day. We have to make a selection.

Selection of journals has not gone out of control, at least not 
completely. There are good
libraries in the world fighting the Big Deals and the open access 
movement are trying to
creat an alternative. There are many thousand free open access journals 
today that are
part of all major libraries. Take a look at for example DOAJ, Open 
J-Gate and Elektronische
Zeitschriftenbibliothek. And there are thousands of repositories nowdays 
that are part
of the open access movement.

So I am confident that library collections even in the future will be of 
the same importance
as for two thousand years ago. American corporations like Google will 
come and go but
libraries are forever. We have a responsiblity today and for tomorrow 
that can't be thrown
away. A country without libraries is a country without culture, memory 
and knowledge.
Even "person younger than 21 years old" will surely learn that when they 
grow up.

Jan





-- 
De åsikter som framförs här är mina personliga 
och inte ett uttryck för Göteborgs universitets-
biblioteks hållning


Opinions expressed here are my own and not
those of the Gothenburg University Library 



Jan Szczepanski
Förste bibliotekarie 
Goteborgs universitetsbibliotek 
Box 222
SE 405 30 Goteborg, SWEDEN 
Tel: +46 31 7861164 Fax: +46 31 163797 
E-mail: Jan.Szczepanski_at_ub.gu.se