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Developing and Managing Electronic Collections: The Essentials By Peggy Johnson. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2013. 186 p. $65 softcover (ISBN: 978-0-8389-1190-7).
As Johnson comments in the preface, her goal is to offer practical advice in working through the many issues involved in providing library users access to online resources. She focuses on indexing and abstracting services, e-books, e-joumals, and streaming multimedia; she does not address locally produced content, digital textbooks, games, or software.
The book opens with a brief history of electronic resources in libraries. Although some readers may be tempted to skip the history, it both explains the context for many of the issues librarians face and introduces some essential vocabulary. For example, Johnson introduces terms like Open URL, link resolver, and digital rights management (DRM) as developments that helped libraries manage and provide access to electronic collections. In chapter 1, she also introduces issues such as equitable access, collection stability, and the differences in how publishers offer popular and scholarly content to libraries.
Throughout the book, Johnson focuses on factors to consider when selecting, acquiring, and managing e-resources. For example, in the second chapter, she lists a dozen selection criteria, in addition to the standard criteria for all materials, which libraries should consider...