ALA Competency 2: Information Resources
INFO 5400: Eugene McDermott Library Collection Development Policy - Completed May 9, 2022
This paper was the final deliverable for INFO 5400. It was a combination of multiple assignments from early in the class mixed in with some new information. The point of the assignment was to create a collection development policy for the library that we had been studying throughout the semester.
This assignment was the culmination of all the work that we
had done in INFO 5400, and as such it was a test of my knowledge of collection
development principles. The document also contains information that is more
consistent with a library profile than a collection development policy, but
this was an intentional part of the assignment. This assignment primarily
taught me how to format and prepare a collections development policy. Through
this assignment, and the assignments that led up to it, I also learned about
how libraries decide what materials they will acquire for their collections and
who makes those decisions. I learned about library budgets and how they can
fluctuate dramatically from year to year in some cases. Additionally, I had to develop criteria for
reviewing materials in the library’s collections and provide a form that patrons
could use to challenge library materials. I believe this assignment applies to
this core competency because it taught me about the concepts, issues, and
methods related to the acquisition of information resources.
INFO 5295: Storing and Preserving Digital Materials: An Annotated Bibliography - Completed October 8, 2021
The purpose of this assignment was to research an area of preservation that I chose and create an annotated bibliography to present my findings. I chose to research the storage and preservation of digital materials because I am interested in technology and its uses in preservation.
The primary outcome of this assignment was that I learned a lot about the preservation of digital materials. For this project, I looked at various aspects of digital preservation. Digital preservation is a rapidly developing area in the profession, and one of the hottest topics currently is archival and long-term storage media. Through my research, I learned that there is no perfect preservation storage media at this point in time. As a result, the best way to maintain the integrity of digital information currently is to migrate it to new media periodically and verify it continued accuracy through checksums. Another area that I looked at was the challenges of digital preservation in the developing world, where access to reliable electricity and internet services may be difficult to guarantee. Overall, I believe this assignment fits into this core competency because it allowed me to learn more about the concepts, issues, and methods related to the maintenance of digital collections, and specifically digital preservation methods.