Library collection management practices, problems and needs of Chin Christian University Library: A basis for a proposed collection development policy

Abstract

This research study was conducted to determine the library collection management practices, problems and needs of Chin Christian University library. Specifically the study aimed to: 1) determine the collection management practices of faculty, administrators, librarians and students in Chin Christian University Library in terms of: selection and acquisition, funding sources, deselection, maintenance networking and resource sharing, and intellectual freedom and censorship; 2) examine the problems encountered in the implementation of the collection management process by the faculty, administrators, librarians and students; 3) identify the collection needs of faculty, administrators, librarians and students ; and 4) formulate a Collection Management Policy based on the findings of the study. The research involved 3 librarians, 15 faculty/ administrators and 200 students. Data were collected through administration of questionnaires conduct of interview with library staff and examination of library reports and procedural manual. The finding of the study were as the following: the collection management practices of CCU library were not clearly drawn and the faculty, librarians and students were not able to carry out well. The finding involvement of the faculty/administrators were more on the selection of library materials and less on censorship for the faculty. Thexii involvement of the librarians were more on in the deselection of materials they were least involved in budget preparation, while the students were more involved in the selection of the library materials. The collection needs of the faculty, librarians and students include electronic resources, serials, and non-print and print materials. The problems encountered by the librarians were high price of materials, lack of time for deselection, lack of conservation facilities for the maintenance of materials, librarian's limited involvement in networking and their lack of knowledge on censorship and intellectual freedom. Among the problems experienced by the faculty/administrators were lack of guidelines and lack of knowledge about resource sharing and censorship. The problems of the faculty and the students were the price of materials and scarcity of titles needed, as well as the lack of selection criteria and out of print materials. Based on the results of this study, a newly formulated collection management policy is needed; and the faculty/administrators, librarians and students with less involvement in the collection management practices should be encouraged to participate in collection management activities. A well balance and quality collection of any library cannot be fully developed without a well- defined, clearly formulated policy that would serve as a guideline for the library collection management.