2018 Charleston Library Conference

As new librarians enter the profession with varying levels of education and experience concerning library collection management they may find themselves suddenly assigned the responsibility of coordinating collection activities within a subject area or for their entire library. From understanding terminology to working with acquisitions departments and from communicating with vendors to assessing resources, there is much to be learned in a short period of time. This presentation will provide perspectives from four librarians at the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida: the associate dean responsible for collections, the chair of the acquisitions & collections services department, and two relatively new subject librarians who were recently asked to coordinate collection decisions for their respective areas (humanities and health sciences). The two new librarians — one holds a terminal degree in her subject area and the other a recent MLIS graduate, both new to librarianship — who found themselves quickly positioned as mediators between a the acquisitions department and the librarian selectors in their departments. This presentation will address the large learning curve, including the steps of building a strong connection with acquisitions, developing vendor relations, and tracking collection development at the department level, while making suggestions for learning more along the way.