A couple months ago I began playing with the concept of collection development as a primary pedagogical tool for libraries in the pre-Google environment. Somewhat analogous to the editorial and peer review for scholarly journals, collection development combined faculty input and librarian expertise for the purpose of creating a collection that would support the active engagement of students in rich bodies of literature. The faculty and students could be confident that the collection would support the curriculum of study. Through engagement with the literature, students could be formed by that engagement and shape the future of the discipline.
In a post-Google environment, I’ve proposed that this pedagogical tool has already broken down. Students no long feel the constraints of the physical collection so carefully gathered and maintained by librarians. Google has become the primary tool for information discovery and if a document isn’t online, it isn’t even consulted.
Ann Okerson’s recent presentation about the changes in collection development nicely documents what I’ve been thinking. Not only have our users rejected the physical constraints of the collections we’ve built, but the business models and work flows through which we obtain (purchase and license) information has increasingly taken selection out of the hands of local librarians.

Tags: Digital Culture, Google