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Dissertation Information for Hur-Li Lee

NAME:
- Hur-Li Lee

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- Rutgers University (USA) (1997)

ADVISORS:
- Pamela Richards

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- David Carr
- Kay Ellen Vandergrift
- Kathy Burnett
- Joseph P. Consoli

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Toward a reconceptualization of collection development: A study of the collecting of women's studies materials by a university library system

Abstract: The predominant model of collection development advocated in the literature has emphasized objectivity and rational decision-making. The practice of collection development in academic libraries, however, is far more complex. It is argued in this study that the rationalistic model of collection development is too narrow and simplistic and fails to take into account librarians' subjectivity and institutional cultures. These subjective factors are usually characterized generally as "political," an inadequate descriptor.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the process of collection development to discern these personal and institutional factors. Because a university library system is chosen for study, knowledge developments, particularly the increasing interdisciplinarity, are also relevant. Therefore, special attention is paid to the ways in which collection development responds to interdisciplinarity. An in-depth study of collection development for the interdisciplinary field of women's studies at Rutgers University is conducted. Since the influence of some factors in collection development can only be seen over time, a historical analysis is employed. The time period concerned extends from 1970 to 1995.

Based on documents, records and interviews, a historical narrative of the overall process of collecting women's studies materials at Rutgers is constructed and eight subjective factors are identified and described. The American historical and social contexts serve as the underlying framework for the discussion.

Among the identified factors, four are personal and four institutional. It is found that collection decisions follow librarians' subjective interpretations of user information needs, vague and conflicting understandings of interdisciplinary inquiry, attitudes toward the Women's Movement and women's studies, and struggle for status. The campus politics of interdisciplinarity, constraints of a disciplinary system, personnel politics and the institution's quest for prestige are four institutional factors that are found to dominate in collection decisions.

This study is exploratory and descriptive in nature. Its conclusions are preliminary. Building on its results, a reconceptualization of collection development in university libraries starts to take shape. This new model is meant to be more inclusive, more realistic, and more reflective of cultural influences.

MPACT Scores for Hur-Li Lee

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:10:43

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Students under Hur-Li Lee

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None