LITERATURE REVIEW

Literature Review

Literature Review

Introduction

A review of the local literature reveals that no relevant study specifically dealing with selection issues has been made in the U.S. (Evans and M. Saponaro, 2005)

(Evans and M. Saponaro, 2005) presented a masterful summary of what he terms the “theory” of selection based on eleven major textbooks published. All that discussions in Evans words can be summarized as “need versus want” or “quality versus demand”. The issue has been particularly critical to handle in public libraries due to their needs and wants of the community coming from all walks of life.

Literature review

(Evans and M. Saponaro, 2005) also discussed selection principles and practices in an excellent manner with reference to renowned authors like Evans, Broadus and Ranganathan. According to Gorman and Howes apparently opposite theories like censorship versus selection, demand versus quality, need versus want, “indicates that the users above all is the central focus of selection, the raison d'etre upon which collection development, technical services and information services are built”. Hence, in each theory of selection the focus remains on the users: their needs or wants or what is best for them.

Since the emergence of digital paradigm, the issues of selection have grabbed more attention of researchers and practitioners. Now the selectors have to select not only among the titles but between the formats and accessing modes also. However, this researcher focused on the studies dealing only with the issues of book selection in university libraries and found a relevant study by Kuo (2000 . It addressed the trends of faculty book selection at Kean University and revealed that the faculty of Liberal Arts and faculty with 1-5 years of teaching across all disciplines were the most active in their participation in book selection. (Evans and M. Saponaro, 2005)

The findings also showed that Kean's faculty ordered books mainly for undergraduate students and teaching; and primarily used publishers' catalogs and professional journal book reviews for selection sources. Another study by Mueller (2005 [13]) reviews the use of an approval plan to accomplish two goals: to develop a more rounded collection with faculty involvement and to simplify the acquisitions budget process. The article provides a brief background of the faculty involvement in collection development at the University of Montana before the approval plan pilot project. Not sufficient works could be accessed on the topic.

Structure of university libraries

Universities have administratively different library structure, such as (i) central library with independent, subject libraries attached with the departments, colleges (ii) central library with seminar or reference libraries in departments, colleges (iii) only central library. It may be described as both centralized and decentralized. (G. Evans, 2000)

The study (G. Evans, 2000) by found out that in most of the cases, the authority regarding financial grants, administrative and policy decisions lies in the hierarchy of the syndicate, academic council and library committee to run the central library system. A library committee usually consists of chief librarian (secretary/ex-officio member) and nominees of syndicate, academic council, faculty and ...