Collection Reflection

Today's guest post comes to us from that rare breed (around here): an academic librarian. ____ This may be the understatement of the month (and in the running for understatement of the year), but collection development works a little differently at college and university libraries than it does at public libraries. In some ways, the library where I work has a foot in both camps, since we’re semi-rural and miles away from the nearest public library. This dichotomy is especially obvious when you examine one part of the Hiram College Library I manage: the children’s literature collection. Being in charge of our kid lit section presents a lot of challenges, but the biggest one is that the collection has to serve multiple masters. Master #1: It needs to be appealing to school-aged children. There’s been a lot of faculty turnover recently – due to retirement, mostly – so quite a few of our professors have young families. Master #2: It needs to be appealing to our students...

Publishing's Ecosystem on the Brink  -- reading this makes you wonder WHY publishers are turning away from libraries.  New Pelecanos novel lands in the Top 50 . (Part interesting new marketing scheme, part gratuitous advertising for one of my fave authors.) Paretsky on Nurturing her Female Private Eye . The Power of Paper in the Digital Era . Have some AAP numbers  (it's probably just about what you'd imagine, except Religion is up in all formats!) Charles Dickens at 200 and the corresponding list from Library Journal. The World of Dickens: Photos of locations described in his books . Red Box tells Warner Bros where it can go with its hold for rental policy. The Elsevier boycott seems to be making an impact . Potter and Twilight feed generation's "Hunger" for fantasy lit  (except......there has always been a hunger for fantasy lit. For every generation...)  Bernhard Schlink would like to be paid for the movie adaptation of The Reader . ...