How are the University of Maryland Libraries building collections to support instruction and research on campus?
The Libraries work hard to invest in a collection of resources which accurately reflect the instructional and research needs of the faculty and students. The Libraries purchase decisions must also reflect the need to keep pace with changing technology. To achieve both of these goals, the Libraries are acquiring appropriate electronic resources in addition to traditional print publications. The types of electronic resources made available include databases, reference works, and journals. In conjunction with making these resources available, the Libraries strive to educate the university community on how to locate and use these items. The University of Maryland Libraries want the campus community to be able to take advantage of the diverse and complex information environment of today.
To provide electronic resources, the Libraries usually must enter into licensing agreements with the publisher or vendor of the resource. This process can be arduous. The Libraries make every attempt to provide the most wide-reaching access possible for the university community within the financial constraints of the budget and the limitations presented by the publisher or vendor.
Recently the Libraries were reorganized to create an environment of open communication between the library staff and the faculty and student population. In the new organization, each department has a designated librarian contact who coordinates the library instruction and collection development efforts to support the programs of the assigned department. In addition to facilitating communication with departments and library users, this new organization ensure the print and electronic resources are developed as an efficient unified collection of information resources.
