Staffing for Collection Development in the Electronic Environment

Like most jobs in research libraries, the position of collection development librarian-bibliographer, resource specialist, subject specialist, whichever term is usedhas undergone a dramatic change in the past two decades. Once almost exclusively focused on materials selection, the responsibilities of the librarian engaged in collection development now extend to the creation and maintenance of Web sites, intensive faculty outreach, teaching, specialized reference service, fund-raising, and other tasks. And yet, although the nature of the work we call ‘‘collection development’’ has changed, the image of the bibliographer and of the complexity of his or her work has generally not. This is due in large part to the continued compartmentalization of library work, at least in our minds, and to the persistence of traditional organizational categories. Our structures have not kept pace with our functions. Even when libraries have been restructured and divisions have been given new names, the work is still perceived as belonging either to technical services, public services, or collection development. In fact, collection development is hybrid work, incorporating both technical and public service. Positions that blur the lines among these organizational units are difficult to define and to evaluate.