Collection development policy: How its absence has affected collection development practices at Mzuzu University Library

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine how the absence of a collection development policy is affecting collection development practices at Mzuzu University Library. This research is a case study that makes use of a sequential mixed design which means that data was collected in a number of stages. The researchers personally collected data from the field using a semi-structured questionnaire, tape recorder, and coding schedules. The main data collection procedure was a focus-group discussion involving senior library members of staff. Researchers also carried out physical inspection and analysis of books from the Acquisitions Department, and Reading Area. Qualitative data collected was analysed thematically, whilst quantitative data was analysed using MS Excel. The study found out that the absence of a collection development policy has greatly affected collection development practices at Mzuzu University Library. Most of the core collection development practices such as selection, acquisition, weeding and preservation were haphazardly done as there were no clearly documented guidelines to guide the various individuals that were involved in the implementation of these collection development tasks to ensure consistency. The findings of this study are significant because they could be a catalyst for the development of collection development policy at Mzuzu University Library, which might in the long run provide solutions to collection development challenges which the institution currently faces.

Assessing academic librarians’ awareness on the importance and knowledge of collection development policy in Nigeria

“…For this study, the emphasis would be on five main reasons; namely selection, planning/budgeting, protection, communication, and collaboration. The primary purpose of having a written CDP is to provide guidelines for the selection and deselection of library materials (Chaputula and Kanyundo 2014;Khan and Bhatti 2016). CDP also outlines the criteria and steps to follow when selecting and deselecting materials which ensure more control and consistency in the selection process.…”

“…However, despite its importance in developing library collection, academic libraries in some developing countries, such as in Nigeria, are still operating without CDP and those with the policy have not dedicated enough time and effort to update or implement it (Adekanmbi 2007;Chaputula and Kanyundo 2014;Ghalib 2014;Nwosu and Udo-Anyanwu 2015). This shows that collections in the libraries are developed without a proper plan.…”

“…This shows that collections in the libraries are developed without a proper plan. Studies have revealed that most of the essential elements of collection development activities are done haphazardly due to the lack of written guidelines to guide the overall collection development activities (Chaputula and Kanyundo 2014;Ghalib 2014;Nwosu and Udo-Anyanwu 2015). Also, studies have reported that the libraries are unable to provide collections that represent the research activities of the academic community (Adekanmbi 2007;Nwosu and Udo-Anyanwu 2015).…”

“…In Nigeria, relatively little is known about the academic librarians' awareness on the importance and knowledge of CDP. While there is a plethora of scholarly work espousing the benefits of and need for CDP (Chaputula and Kanyundo 2014;Fought et al 2014), there have been no studies that examine the librarians' awareness on the importance of CDP. Also, several empirical studies have discussed the process of constructing the CDP (Levenson 2019), but how this process is understood by the librarians is not reported in the literature.…”

Comparative study of collection management practices of academic libraries

“…Chaputula and Kanyando (2014) noted that due to high cost of living in today’s world, resources sharing and consortium purchase have been adopted by most libraries in the acquisition of e-journals and databases. Also, the global economic crisis has compelled some academic libraries to adopt demand-driven acquisitions; this is where the library procures library resources on request to avoid the problem of purchasing items which would never be patronized.…”