The topics of discussion at this year’s Collection Development Roundtable were many and varied. A variety of librarians representing numerous institutions offered their viewpoints on everything from cancellations to consortiums. All acknowledged the seemingly universal problem of maintaining strong and diverse law library collections in the face of ever-shrinking budgets.
The discussion started out with a brief introduction to the new ABA Standards relating to law library accreditation. Because the new language of Standard 606 was just recently adopted, it is unknown what its effect on academic law libraries and the need to maintain core collections will be. Also discussed was the problem of volume count and electronic resources.
Another topic of discussion was the WorldCat Collection Analysis tool. Many law libraries are just beginning to explore this service. Of the libraries represented, several indicated it was of limited value at this point. It was agreed that more libraries were needed to successfully evaluate the utility of this product.
An additional topic of interest to many was librarians’ experiences with West’s Library Maintenance Agreement. Some libraries were happy with the ability to freeze the cost of West publications over a period of time and the simplified invoicing. Others were unhappy about the inability to get title lists from West and the fact that the program had only been offered to selected institutions.
A final highlight was Bob Oakley’s discussion of the Legal Information Preservation Alliance (LIPA). The purpose of LIPA is to ensure the preservation of print and digital materials and to ensure that no library accidentally discards the last copy of a particular title. More information about the organization can be found on the LIPA website, www.aallnet.org/committee/lipa/.
This year’s roundtable touched on many issues facing those responsible for collection development in law libraries. Although these issues won’t be resolved any time soon, it is hoped that through sharing experiences with colleagues, we take away information that will help with the tough decisions we all face.