collection development in cyberspace

[Robert Terry]

> 
> 	This really concerns me.  I have nothing against users suggesting web 
> sites (much in the same way that users recommend books), however, to 
> turn the collection of web sites over to students is a problem.
>   There's no way that you can call this kind of activity "collection 
> development".  Students are not trained to evaluate web sites or 
> content.  This seems to be the same as turning your collection 
> development for printed materials over to students.  In a month you 
> have a library that consists of comic books, pornography, and heavy 
> metal magazines.  
>    Development of a useful web site in the library environment needs 
> to be done by trained subject specialists who have the education, 
> training, and experience to properly evaluate and organize the 
> information in a useful manner.  To say that some freshman student can 
> do a better job than a trained library professional with subject area 
> graduate degrees is insulting.
> 
Our collection development was done by a configuration control board 
(CCB) and included domain experts (non librarians for content reasons).  
Would it not be best to have students on the board along with a "trained 
library professional".  Seems like it would be a learning experience all 
around and the site would not be foreign to the students.  A win/win !

Bob Terry
http://rbse.mountain.net/mpcs - our public domain library
http://rbse.mountain.net/MOREplus - our tool used to manage it