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Collection Development Kent Abbott 04 Sep 1991 17:54 UTC

Linzy,
    Normally, I ignore the type of discussion that deals with professionalism
because I often think, althoug not always, that it is a bunch of hot air.
However, I do not want a future colleague to think that everyone on the
list has the same sentiment.  Therefore, I am going to give a politica
lly
incorrect answer.  I do not think librarians should control collection
development, which seems to be in this case that we have the final
say about what goes in the collection.  I think that it should be a case
of shared governance, such as the Auburn model seems to be.
Librarians are trained for collection development, but in general, the faculty
 has the better subject knowledge.  If we cannot stand to really share
governance of the library with faculty, then we are no better than
the administrators that everyone is always complaining about.

Kent Abbott
J. Hugh Jackson Library
Graduate School of Business
Stanford University
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