Helen

							    International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
          Section on Acquisition and Collection Development
                Standing Committee Mid - Term Meeting
                          Library of Andalucía
                             Granada, Spain
                           8 – 10 March, 2007




THE NEED TO INCREASE CONCIOUSNESS ON
 COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT IN MEXICAN
   LIBRARIES: QUANTITY OR QUALITY?:
        A MEXICAN EXPERIENCE.

                  HELEN LADRÓN DE GUEVARA COX
   Center for the Quality and Innovation of Higher Education (CCIES)
                Library Research & Special Projects Unit
               CUCEA- University of Guadalajara, México

                       HLG / IFLA Section A&CD/Mid-
                         Term Meeting / March 2007
       IFLA´s Publications

• Valuable information resouce

• Fundamental for library development

• All forms of working documents: toolkits,
  guidelines, recommendations...


              HLG / IFLA Section A&CD/Mid-
                Term Meeting / March 2007
   Some Risks & Dangers
Limited Collection Assessment
         in Mexico
• Collection development (CD)falls behind.

• Difficults country´s competitivity and
  participation in global economy.

• Technologycal and scientific dependence
  of well developed countries.
               HLG / IFLA Section A&CD/Mid-
                 Term Meeting / March 2007
ACCESS TO INFORMATION
    Spanish Language
___________________________________
• Most CD professional literature published in
  English.
• Translations are a must for Latin American
  countries - Mexico.
• Greater problem for empirical librarians
• Professionals not affiliated to IFLA or other
  library associations due to high costs.
                 HLG / IFLA Section A&CD/Mid-
                   Term Meeting / March 2007
          TYPES OF LIBRARIES AND LEVELS OF COLLECTION
                       DEVELOPMENT (CD)
                             MEXICO
• Academic libraries ( 809) : good technology, higher
  number of professional librarians and collection
  growth... * ( local needs & programs).
• Public libraries: National Network since (7,010) covers
  2,236 municipalities of the 2,451 in the country**.
  (mainly centralized CD).
• Other public libraries: Jalisco State New Public Library
  Project. Largest in the country. ( CD Policy Statement
  in progress).


*Consejo Nacional para Asuntos Bibliotecarios de las Instituciones de Educación Superior en México. Diagnóstico de los sistemas bibliotecarios de las Instituciones
         de Educación Superior participantes en el CONPAB-IES. México: SEP, Diorección General de Educación Superior, 2005, p. 15.
* http://dgb.conaculta.gob.mx/html/ docs/ organización.pdf. Tuesday, Feb., 27, 2007.


                                                       HLG / IFLA Section A&CD/Mid-
                                                         Term Meeting / March 2007
    THE QUESTION OF THE 64 THOUSAND
               PESOS!!!!

• Are collections of good quality?
• Are they pertinent? To what degree?
• The collections sustain the country´s cultural, social
  economic and political development?
• What is their budget allocation for acquisitions /
  collection development?
• What are the subject priorities?
• Are we loosing our indigeneous people literature?
• Density and / or intensity? In which collections?

                    HLG / IFLA Section A&CD/Mid-
                      Term Meeting / March 2007
INCIPIENT INFORMATION
       CULTURE
• Federal law of the Right to Access to
  Public Information ( April, 2002).
• Most state laws on the subject completed.
• Research on CD- Acquisitions budget
  allocation of state universities.
• Limited or non existing information
  culture for common citizen.

              HLG / IFLA Section A&CD/Mid-
                Term Meeting / March 2007
    BENEFITS OF INFORMATION
        ON COLLECTION
         DEVELOPMENT

• Reduce the abyss of limited information
• Know collections strenghts.
• Know collections weaknesses.
• Improve local / regional / national
  development.
• State of- the-art on CD and impact on
  Collection Management.
              HLG / IFLA Section A&CD/Mid-
                Term Meeting / March 2007
      OTHER QUESTIONS
• Budget required to initiate, maintain and
  advance quality along with quantity?
• Is Collection Management really
  understood?
• How to handle gifts?
• Local or centralized acquisitions &
  collection development?

              HLG / IFLA Section A&CD/Mid-
                Term Meeting / March 2007
    STANDARDS, INDICATORS,
         GUIDELINES
• Norms of the National Council on Library
  Matters of Institutions of Higher Education
  (CONPAB-IES- 2003) based on the Norms of
  the Association of Institutions of Higher
  Education ( ABIESI, 1976): surpassed, numeric
  formulas, open-ended.
• National Network of Public Libraries ( Library
  Law ( 1987), open-ended for CD purposes
  which benefit collections for educational
  purposes: ( elementary-high school levels).

                HLG / IFLA Section A&CD/Mid-
                  Term Meeting / March 2007
            COLLECTION
            ASSESSMENT
• Internship at Arizona State University.
• Need for comparisons Mexican / American
  academic collections and other Spanish &
  Portuguese language countries.
• WLN Collection Assessment Manual(1992)
• IFLA A&CD Section. Guidelines for a
  collection development policy using the
  Conspectus model. ( Spanish version translated
  by Dora Biblarz. 2001).

                HLG / IFLA Section A&CD/Mid-
                  Term Meeting / March 2007
                      NEEDS
• Workshops in the CD field
• Working kit how- to- prepare a collection development
  policy statement.
• Assess Mexican collections with international collection
  depth indicators.
• Share experiences / knowledge of similar experiences.
• Consortia, resource sharing, improve interlibrary loan.
• Use of a simplified Conspectus method or other.
• Relationship with library certification.
• Control gifts / donations of books...

                   HLG / IFLA Section A&CD/Mid-
                     Term Meeting / March 2007
             PROPOSALS
• Design and launch a survey on the status of CD
  assessment activity in Mexican academic and
  key public libraries.
• Act as a facilitator for the survey
• Contact pertinent library groups
• Timetable of 12-16 months.
• Share findings with the A & CD Section-IFLA.
  Quebec 2008.
• Fill out gap of information on CD assessment
  methods used in the Mexican libraries.
                HLG / IFLA Section A&CD/Mid-
                  Term Meeting / March 2007
              CONCLUSION
• The A&CD Section of IFLA plays a very important
  role.
• Contributes to move the empiric practice of CD into
  the scientific dominion.
• Potentialize library collections in Mexico.
• Pertinent library collections.
• Library financial resources will be more efficient.
• Improve status of library work.
• Increase credibility of general public.

                   HLG / IFLA Section A&CD/Mid-
                     Term Meeting / March 2007
              THE END
I thank you on behalf of my colleages of the
         land of the ancient aztecs!!!!




              HLG / IFLA Section A&CD/Mid-
                Term Meeting / March 2007