Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Organizing Library Collections: Theory and Practice

Libraries organize their collections to help library users find what they need. Organizing library collections may seem like a straightforward and streamlined process, but it can be quite complex, and there is a large body of theory and practice that shape and support this work. Learning about the organization of library collections can be challenging. Libraries have a long history of organizing their collections, there are many principles, models, standards, and tools used to organize collections, and theory and practice are changing constantly. Written for beginning library science students, Organizing Library Collections: Theory and Practice introduces the theory and practice of organizing library collections in a clear, straightforward, and understandable way. It explains why and how libraries organize their collections, and how theory and practice work together to help library users. It introduces basic cataloging and metadata theory, describes and evaluates the major cataloging and metadata standards and tools used to organize library collections, and explains, in general, how all libraries organize their collections in practice. Yet, this book not only introduces theory and practice in general, it introduces students to a wide range of topics involved in organizing library collections. This book explores how academic, public, school, and special libraries typically organize their collections and why. It also discusses standardization and explains how cataloging and metadata standards and policies are developed. Ethical issues also are explored and ethical decision-making is addressed. In addition, several discussion questions and class activities reinforce concepts introduced in each chapter. Students should walk away from this book understanding why and how libraries organize their collections. Review Dr. Hoffman has written a clear and understandable guide that demystifies the topic. In Organizing Library Collections, the author has succeeded in creating a text that navigates through the history and tradition of library cataloging while focusing on current practice and future trends. The book is highly recommended for adoption as a cource text in a cataloging and classification course.--Technical Services Quarterly The writing is crisp and, for the most part, knowledgeable. This would be an excellent introduction to the entire area of organization for anyone newly appointed to a library board who might not have any professional training. It is also an excellent, but very sophisticated, introduction to organization of collections for a library/ information studies school student.--Technicalities Replete with theoretical and practical knowledge for both the beginning and the professional cataloger, this book covers methods, issues, and challenges faced today in organizing library collections. As technologies advance with the semantic web and linked data, catalogers are expected to usefully organize traditional materials and digital content in ways patrons may efficiently find, identify, select, and obtain resources. This text provides current information on the rules and standards catalogers follow to create metadata, subject access, and categories for successful library collections.--Marie Keen Shaw, program coordinator, Library Technology Certificate, Three Rivers Community College, Norwich, CT As a teacher of both organization of information and cataloging in a library school program, I can confirm what she acknowledges: that this is a topic that students come to in library school with little or no knowledge of and the overwhelming number of acronyms used in this branch of LIS. So I am happy to see that the book is very straightforward in its language; it assumes no prior knowledge and explains concepts in layman's terms.--Sarah W. Sutton, Ph.D., associate professor, School of Library & Information Management, Emporia State University Dr. Hoffman has written a much-needed primer for unde