Developing and managing information collections for academics and researchers at a university of technology : a case study

Abstract

This study examines the efficacy of collection development and management practices, policies, guidelines and standards in universities of technology to meet the information needs of academics and researchers at such institutions. In South Africa, as in Australasia, technikons or polytechnics have been upgraded first into degree granting institutions and then, at the beginning of the 21st century, into universities of technology. The researcher was concerned that library collections in South African universities of technology have not grown to meet the research and teaching needs of academics at the level of universities offering instruction up to a doctoral level. As research funding, government grants and the general prestige of the institutions depend on the research output of the institutions, it is essential that academics and researchers find the information resources they require in their institutional libraries. Case studies of universities of technology in New Zealand and South Africa reveal that, while Auckland University of Technology has been successful in extending its collection to meet the increasing demands placed on it, the collection development policies, standards and guidelines in a South African university of technology need to be upgraded in order to meet the information needs and information behaviour of their researchers and academics. Current levels of funding for the acquisition of information resources in South Africa lag behind those found at the New Zealand university of technology. The university of technology that was the object of the South African case study needs to bring its collection in line with that of similar institutions worldwide. This entails adapting goals and objectives stating how the collection is to develop, evaluating the collection and the needs of users, changing the Collection Development Policy to reflect the direction collection development will take and ensuring that the institution and the government back this project financially. To this end, a model Collection Development Policy has been drawn up that can be adapted to the local requirements of South African universities of technology to assist with the process of developing and managing library collections that will be worthy of such an institution.