Developing a Strategic Plan for German Language Materials in a Large Research Library Environment

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Developing a Strategic Plan for German Language
Materials in a Large Research Library Environment

• Roger Brisson
• Harvard College Library
• 7 February 2005

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The University of Göttingen Library in the
Mid-18th Century
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Selection Criteria

• How do we decide whether this book should be
  acquired for a large academic librarys
  collections?
• What criteria do we use in making this decision?
• Is it possible for a selector to explain the
  decision to purchase any given book added to the
  collections?
• Should a selector be able to do this?

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Two Possible Approaches

• In this case, one could delineate a rationale for
  a selection decision in two differing ways
• Yes, why not, this book could be useful to a
  scholar doing research at some point in the near-
  or long-term future. We collect comprehensively.
• No, this book would be out-of-scope, i.e., it is
  too popular for our collections.

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A Bibliographic Typology

• Does not belong to core German studies
• Not a scholarly monograph
• Not popular literature
• Important as contemporary literature for German
  cultural studies
• Possibly important for geographical studies,
  environmentalism, and mountain studies

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The Move to Strategic Planning

• How do we decide whether a book should be
  acquired for a large academic librarys
  collections?
• What criteria do we generally use in making this
  decision?

These questions at the micro level of
reflecting on how we decide to acquire
particular books inexorably leads to questions at
a more macro level
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Fundamental Questions

• Why do we collect?
• Who uses our collections?
• What is the purpose of a research library?

Individual decisions should as much as possible
be informedby the larger goals and mission of
the department and, ultimately, the
library. Individual decisions should always be
made in the contextof the larger whole.
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Effective strategic planning requires a constant
interaction between the micro and macro
levels of an organizations mission and goals.
HCL Mission Statement The Harvard College Library
supports the teaching and research activities of
the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the
University. Beyond this primary responsibility,
the Library serves, to the extent feasible, the
larger scholarly community. The Library
acquires, organizes, preserves, and makes readily
available collections of scholarly materials in
all media and formats. The Library fulfills
its mission by providing intellectual access to
materials and information available at the
University and elsewhere, by providing assistance
and training in the location and use of these
materials, and by providing facilities and
services for research and study.
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What does the mission statement mean for German
collection development?
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Collection Development Statement of Intent (1980s)
The Library collects, in the original language
of publication as well as selected translations,
every significant edition of a vast array of
intellectual, political, and social figures as
well as creative artists of all kinds. The goal
is to acquire what the library staff believes
will be of interest to scholars today as well as
50 and 100 years from today. For this reason, the
research collections are never weeded, and the
approach to preservation is cautious
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The Library collects history in great depth,
including local histories, for which we have some
unique collections in the US, and non-scholarly
titles, if these help document historical
eventsWe collect not only the history of events
(political, military, social history), but also
histories of numerous individual subject fields,
such as the histories of language, philosophy,
etc. We collect comprehensively works of all
literatures and in nearly all languages We
collect in all literary genres, works of minor
writers, as well as the major ones, and literary
criticism about all literatures
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For German collection development this means

• Serving the scholarly needs of the faculty,
  staff, and students of the University
• The Library collects comprehensively in all
  literatures and languages
• With the importance of German as a scholarly
  language in Harvards past, this provides the
  German selector with a great deal of
  discretionary flexibility in shaping Wideners
  collections.

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These conditions form the basis for strategic
planning, they shape the parameters by which a
structuredcollection development plan for German
can be built.

• A formal strategic plan for German collection
  development
• in Widener is important at this time for several
  reasons
• Explosive growth of scholarship in non-book
  formats
• Development of online dissemination of
  research, including the humanities
• Ongoing expansion of the German publishing
  industry
• Rapid changes taking place in the organization
  and access to library literature

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Working Assumptions

• A librarys collections represent a highly
  dynamic, active body of material. The collections
  constantly move (circulation, moving shelves and
  housing, etc.) and they are acted upon in a
  number of ways. A library is not a storage
  house of books.
• No library that exists today can be comprehensive
  and universal in its collecting. The largest
  libraries in the world collect a relatively small
  percentage of what is available
• A library has limited resources in relation to
  its mission. These resources must be managed
  strategically using well-designed methods.

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Working Assumptions (2)

• A librarys primary mission is not the possession
  of materials per se, but rather the intelligently
  structured organization and provision of access
  to its collections. Access and a carefully
  defined body of material are what a library
  creates and offers as its primary service, not
  simply the purchase of books.

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• This implies a return to the foundationalprincipl
  es of the research library as exemplified in
  Göttingen.

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Working Assumptions (3)
The fundamental relationship between a countrys
bibliography, the deliberate selection and
acquisition of materials from this bibliography,
and the methodical organization and provision of
access to this material requires that a
bibliographer coordinate and work in a close
relationship with all the other working units in
a library. The bibliographer needs to
communicate collecting strategies and key
decisions to other units, and he/she must play
an important role in organizing the means by
which these materials are made available.
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A bibliographer is therefore primarily a manager,
a steward, and a coordinator.
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Environmental Factors Influencing German
Collection Development

• The Continuing Transformation of the Academic
  Research Library

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How does this
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Relate to
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In a similar manner, how do these books
How does the ongoing move to a digital
environment change the nature of scholarly
communication? How do the underlying assumptions
that structure our image of Widener change as
the Google era continues to impact research and
scholarship?
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Relate to
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An example of scholarly activity

• Goethe and the Natural Sciences

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Traditional Scholarship

• Working familiarity of primary monographs in the
  subject
• Ongoing development of personal bibliography
  using
• Citations
• Footnotes
• Major bibliographies and subject catalogs
• Reviews
• Colleagues recommendations
• Etc.

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In remaining within a traditional context,
however, we miss
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The Changing Nature of Scholarly Communication

• The referencing apparatus of books and print
  serials is largely static.
• The containers, or the books themselves, play a
  formative role in how I structure my research
  questions. These questions are framed around
  works as represented in books, and around authors.

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The Continuing Shift Toward Access

• In the online environment research becomes much
  more dynamic and interactive.
• The focus is less on containers and works, and
  more on the concepts and ideas themselves.

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The German Bibliographic Universe

• The German publishing industry largely parallels
  that of the American or British publishing in
  size, quality, scope, and social importance

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The German publishing industry
As a nation of readers, Germany has built a
well-developed publishing industry with a long
and rich tradition. Since the 1960s the
situation has changed dramatically for the German
publishing industry. The highly rationalized
nature of the publishing industry, coupled with a
sustained demand for the printed word by an
educated reading public, has led to exponential
growth of commercially sold books in a countless
number of fields and formats. German publishers
are very resourceful in developing new markets
and increasing the quality and design of printed
books and materials in other formats. The sheer
numbers of the books of this nature published in
Germany annually must be emphasized in order to
understand the challenges for German collection
development.
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German Scholarly Research

• German has been a primary language of scholarship
  since the 19th century.
• German research and scholarship has thrived and
  expanded exponentially since the middle of the
  20th century. German research plays a leading
  role globally in a number of fields.
• German scholarship has embraced the Internet
  revolution, and countless thousands of resources
  of high research value exist now on the Internet.

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The Scholars Who Make Use of Harvards German
Collections
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German at Harvard

• By the end of the 19th century, German had risen
  to become the preeminent language of scholarship
  in the natural sciences, the humanities, and the
  social sciences.
• At Harvard, as at other major universities in the
  US, knowledge of German increasingly became
  valued in the acquisition of knowledge and for
  research in a variety of disciplines.

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Combining German Bibliography With the Harvard
Scholarly Community

• A Possible Collection Typology for Harvards
  Germanic Collections

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German Studies Core Disciplines

• Literature
• Linguistics
• History
• Political Science
• Philosophy
• Classics
• History of Art
• Music
• Architecture/Design

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German Social and Cultural Studies

• Current events
• Major entertainment (television, film, popular
  music)
• Migration literature
• Important studies on social phenomena (gender
  studies, employment and work studies, etc.)
• Education

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Secondary German-Language Literature

• Lesser scholarly literature
• Biographies of popular figures
• Bestsellers
• Popular cultural studies (e.g., books similar to
  The Tipping Point)
• Books on particular social fashions

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General Academic Research

• Ethnic- and country-specific studies
• Africa
• Education
• General history
• Literary studies of other cultures
• Economics
• Gender studies
• Technology and society
• Anthropology

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Books on the USA, English literature and language

• Scholarly monographs on American politics,
  society, and culture
• Popular books on topics relating to American
  society and culture
• Scholarly studies on American and English
  literature
• Linguistic studies relating to English
• Scholarly studies on terrorism and international
  relations

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Heimat Literature and Local History

• History of local institutions
• Museums
• Schools
• Local and regional histories
• Local folklore, legends, and stories
• Family histories

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Popular literature (Source Material)

• Dime store novels, science fiction, fantasy,
  etc.
• Sports
• Popular public figures
• Popular technology
• Advice and how-to books
• Popular psychology
• Travel guides
• Hobbies, pets, cooking, etc.

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The Infrastructure and Support of Harvards
German Collections
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Though often heard, one cannot emphasize enough
the administrative importance of integrally
linking book selection, or collection
development, with organization and access, or
technical services activities. The 20 it may
cost to purchase a book on a popular topic or a
local history only begins the succession of costs
for Harvard to make this book available for
long-term use. Depending on the estimates one
wishes to cite, processing this book will cost
another 60 to 80, with long-term storage adding
another notable amount in staff and material
resources.
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