filtering as collection development

[Ed Cherry]

On Thu, 10 Jul 1997 08:33:34 -0700 Laura Quilter 
<lauramd at uic.edu> wrote:

> A small point of detail regarding uses of terms such as "collection
> development," "filtering," and "censorship."  Effectively, they are all
> the same thing -- restrictions to patron access to information.  

My understanding of collection development is that, in addition 
to choosing to not buy some material for the library, you DO buy 
other material.  The material which is selected is then 
subjected to rigorous authority control, cataloging, and 
classification.  Next it is shelved in such a way to promote the 
serendipitous collocation of other materials on the same or 
related topics.  In other words, value is added by applying order
to what would otherwise be an unruly or even unusable pile of
paper.  Unless and until your institution applies the same rigor 
to selecting and organizing the material on the internet that 
it does to printed matter, this argument is a red herring.  (It 
may be a red lemming, since so many people blindly follow it...)

********************************************************
* Ed Cherry             *                              *
* Automation Librarian  * Phone:  (205) 870-2506       *
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