2001 LCATS Award Recipient (Carol Diedrichs) ERCELAA@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu 04 Dec 2000 19:30 UTC
Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2000 10:43:13 -0500 From: Carol Diedrichs <diedrichs.1@OSU.EDU> Subject: 2001 LCATS Award Recipient 2001 LCATS RESEARCH AWARD D.G. DORNER Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services (LCATS) is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2001 Research Award, D.G. Dorner. Dorner is on the faculty at the School of Communications and Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. His proposal, "The Impact of Digital Information Resources on the Roles of Collection Managers," has been funded as the 2001 Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services Research Award. His study aims to analyze the extent to which the arrival of digital information as a major resource in libraries is affecting the roles of librarians, archivists and information managers in the area of professional practice known as collection management. None of the current literature bases its opinions or views on fieldwork data. Rather, the evidence drawn upon is anecdotal and theoretical. The purpose of this investigation is to collect 'hard data' that can be used to quantify and substantiate what is actually happening to the collection manager in the workplace. Initial data will be collected by a questionnaire administered to a stratified sectoral sample of libraries (public, academic, government, private sector) in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the USA and the UK. The questionnaire will collect data on a range of quantifiable variables related to collection management and provide the baseline information for subsequent interviews. Based on questionnaire returns, focus groups will then be established in up to four Australian and New Zealand centers (Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, Wellington). The purpose of the focus groups will be to obtain in-depth opinions of practitioners on the nature of their work as collection managers, on their role perceptions, on the degree of 'fit' between actual practice and desirable practice, on attributes required of successful collection managers, on the overall impact of digitization on all of these factors. The results of focus group discussions will be a range of qualitative data that will add multi-dimensionality to the quantitative data, answering in particular the 'why' and 'how' questions arising from the questionnaire survey. Dorner's proposal was the clear choice of the five-member LCATS review committee. To quote one of the reviewers, ""This project may be one of the few attempts to use surveys and focus groups to gather real data to indicate what we sense is happening in collection development/management." ***************************************** Carol Pitts Diedrichs Assistant Director for Technical Services and Acting Assistant Director for Collection Management Editor, Library Collections, Acquisitions and Technical Services The Ohio State University Libraries 1858 Neil Avenue Mall Columbus, OH, 43210-1286 tel: 614-292-4738 fax: 614-292-7859 Internet: diedrichs.1@osu.edu *****************************************