Up-and-comer Emily Clasper has an interesting post on her blog, in which she identifies an intriguing permutation to the traditional activity of library collection development. Rather than considering the latest ways to obtain books or e-resources, she ponders the issues around which apps to acquire for a library iPad. This was spurred by a call from a librarian seeking her advice on how to trick out a newly-acquired iPad for patron use. Their conversation touched on a number of key questions.
The final determination we came to after all of this discussion was that choosing content for the iPad was pretty much the same as developing any library collection.
- There needs to be a goal. How does providing this service fit with your mission and what would you like to see happen as a result of purchasing and providing access to this material?
- There needs to be a plan. Selection criteria. Plans for keeping the collection current and updated.
- Policy needs to be in place. Who can access this material and how? How will you defend the selection of the materials via collection development policy?
I found this discussion, and their conclusions, both reassuring and surprising — reassuring that our strategies for collection development could translate to this brave new world and surprising that they did. On the other hand, I can’t help feeling that patron use of an iPad in a library will create new issues that will require new modes of management. I don’t know what those are yet, but I feel fairly certain they exist — or will soon. Thoughts?
Picture courtesy Ben Atkin, Creative Commons License Attribution 2.0 Generic.
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