Shared Collections: Collaborative stewardship

Libraries of all types are increasingly pooling resources to purchase, store and provide access to materials in response to changes in the information environment and user expectations. The challenges of providing access to increasingly diverse content demand innovative approaches, risk taking, and close collaboration to leverage the respective strengths of all stakeholders. Shared Collections provides a snapshot of models for curating content at the collective level and highlights strategies for developing and managing shared collections and leveraging resources to meet readers’ complex information needs.  The book is divided into three parts: Part 1 outlines general considerations influencing relationship building when developing a shared collection. Part 2 comprises case studies ranging from local and regional efforts to consortia approaches that leverage institutional resources in developing a ‘collective collection’. Part 3 suggests future directions for retrospective as well as prospective collection building and management as libraries transition from local isolated collections to robust collaborative stewardship of the intellectual record. This book will be essential reading for library managers, systems librarians, library technicians and all those who are engaged in developing strategies for building, managing, and providing access to shared collections that meet the needs of current and future generations of readers.