Many health sciences librarians involved in collection development and management receive very little training prior to entering the profession. Some may have taken a course on collection development, but these are rarely subject-specific and do not address the practical nuances involved in collecting health sciences resources. In 2018, members of the Medical Library Association’s (MLA) Collection Development Caucus undertook a project to create a best practices document to support librarians new to collection development and those whose primary responsibilities are not in collection development. It listed key items to consider in developing and managing collections, and pointed readers to recommended resources. The document was published as a PDF on the caucus’s website in 2019 and awarded MLA’s Louise Darling Medal for Distinguished Achievement in Collection Development in the Health Sciences in 2021. By that point, however, the caucus leadership was informed that the document would benefit from updates. Caucus members worked together to update, expand, and improve upon the first edition, publishing a second edition as an open access ebook in January 2023. 

How the Second Edition Came Together 

In order to produce an updated work that would meaningfully build on the previous edition, the caucus used a survey to gather ideas about potential improvements and additions. Volunteers stepped forward to contribute their knowledge and time, and were assigned chapters based on their interests and expertise. A primary goal of the second edition was to continue exploring what health sciences collections librarians wished they knew when they were new and/or inexperienced. Contributors were asked to consider: What do you wish someone had told you? What information do you use every day in this profession that you learned on the job? The purpose of the book was to serve as a quick primer, with links to robust resources that would enrich readers’ breadth of collections knowledge.  

Writing began in November 2021, chapter drafts were submitted in January 2022, editing commenced the following month, and a final draft was shared with the caucus membership in November 2022. The final work was published in January 2023. Some of the chapters and sections were built upon the foundation of the first edition, while others were written from scratch. Newly added content included sections on incorporating diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) into collection development policies; communication and outreach considerations; unique collection genres (e.g., data, graphic medicine, veterinary medicine); open educational resources (OER); and more. The co-editors created a glossary to help readers wade through jargon used in the profession. 

Contributors were actively engaged in writing and providing iterative feedback during the entire process. After the co-editors finished working through each chapter, the contributors were invited to discuss whether the changes worked or not. Additionally, to bring in topical expertise, the co-editors recruited volunteers to review the veterinary medicine, consumer health, and data sections, as well as the entire work from the perspective of community colleges, hospital libraries, and DEIA. Everyone reviewed the work before a final draft was shared with the caucus, and prior to publication. 

Publishing on an Open Book Creation Platform 

The first edition was an open-access PDF that was downloadable from the caucus’s website. It was important that the updated work was still freely available, but also easier to find and more reader-friendly. Additionally, the ability to easily update sections as needed was essential for maintaining the work’s currency. After some consideration, the second edition was published on PressBooks, an open book creation platform, through Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Libraries. The co-editors enabled the Hypothesis browser plug-in to encourage readers to add annotations and suggestions to the work. It was also assigned a DOI and deposited into VCU’s institutional repository as a downloadable archived copy. 

Some of the advantages to publishing on the PressBooks platform instead of as a PDF included the ability to link to individual chapters, access glossary definitions within the text itself, read it more easily on mobile devices, collect more granular usage statistics, and gather real-time input from readers through Hypothesis. 

Challenges 

Because the first edition faced significant attrition with its volunteers over time, a tight timeline for draft chapter submissions was created, which included regular check-ins to maintain interest and provide support as needed. This worked well and all of the assigned chapter drafts were submitted on time, with only one of the volunteer authors stepping away because of extenuating circumstances. 

The most significant challenges the co-editors faced, however, were their own inexperience as editors and that their professional experiences were limited to doctoral academic institutions. At the beginning of the process, they framed the work as an outline and later realized that a larger scope was more appropriate – the text needed to function more like a short primer. They underestimated how long it would take to review each chapter to give the work a consistent voice and tighter scope, reorganize sections and chapters, and fill in any gaps they were aware of. In the midst of the editing process, they also realized that they needed to recruit more volunteers from libraries unlike their own to add different perspectives to the updated edition. All of these factors increased the planned timeline by several months. 

Additionally, using an open access publishing platform that neither co-editor had experience in was challenging and presented a technological learning curve. VCU’s former Open Education Resources Librarian, Jessica Kirschner, worked with the co-editors to deposit the initial text into Pressbooks in chapter form, and student workers from her office implemented the book’s interactive glossary and custom cover graphics. Substantial formatting, including editing the native CSS template, was needed to make the text readable and stylistically appealing, and took the co-editors some time to execute appropriately. 

Final Thoughts 

Health Sciences Collection Development: An Overview of Fundamental Knowledge and Practices (2nd Edition) was a successful caucus project that leveraged the collective knowledge of librarians from different contexts and experience levels to help bridge the divide between theoretical training about collection development and the hands-on experience gained after entering the profession. In the future, it would be beneficial to develop the project into a comprehensive work that can be used fully as a standalone OER, but in the meantime, it serves as a practical entry point into the foundations of the profession.  

DCT Featured Article – October 10, 2023