ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Teaching as a collection development tool

By Carol Cronquist Head of Technical Services Ashland College

Collection development in the small academic library frequently suffers because of insufficient library personnel and faculty members who maintain taxing course loads. Frequently long periods of time pass when literally no one assesses just what is in the collection in any given area. Choice order cards are processed as the years pass by, and the collection frequently becomes misshapen because Choice is relied on as the sole tool for collection development.

The academic librarian with an additional subject master’s degree who is also utilized as an instructor in an academic department on the small college campus ultimately can do much to fill this collection development gap.

As head of library technical services at Ashland College, a small liberal arts institution in Ohio with an enrollment of 3,956 students, I have had the opportunity to teach as an adjunct instructor in the English Department for the past five years. I have been teaching a required freshman English course which includes segments on the short story, the play, and poetry, and I have used a text favored by the majority of the department: X.J. Kennedy’s Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, 4th edition. As with numerous other anthologies of this sort, a recent edition change reflected an effort on the part of the editor to include more contemporary literature by ethnic minorities, especially blacks, Hispanics and women. The library collection, which is undoubtedly typical of most small college libraries, could in no way support this change. Literally nothing was on our shelves by or about such authors as Kate Chopin, T. Coraghessan Boyle, Alice Walker, Alice Munro, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, Nagai Tatsuo, Toni Cade Bambara, or Gabriel Garcia Marquez. And given buying practices by a tradition-oriented faculty in English, it was likely that nothing would be added to the library collection to support either teaching or research in these areas.

In spare moments and with spare funds from the general book budget, I have been doing some sorely needed course-related collection development. I have located out-of-print books, imprints by foreign publishers, and other relevant titles that our vendor had not been able to supply.

In addition to this course-related form of collection development, I have developed a “casebook” of sorts that contains critical materials on the short stories in the Kennedy text. Ready access to the OCLC interlibrary loan system has made it possible for me to expeditiously collect materials for both my own use and other members of the English Department who are using the Kennedy text.

Though hired as a librarian with only adjunct status as an English instructor, my dual role in this institution has, I believe, had unanticipated benefits for both the English Department and the library.