Analysis of the Collection Development Process of Books in Central Library of Universities in Tehran

Collection Development is considered as one of the most basic activities affects the user satisfaction with libraries.The purpose of this study was to analyze the collection development of printed and electronic books in the central libraries of universities under the supervision of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology in Tehran.

The study was an applied in terms of purpose, which has been done with a qualitative approach of phenomenological type. The data gathering tool was a semi-structured interview, including 15 open- ended questions, through which 10 collection experts or managers of the central libraries of universities in Tehran were interviewed. To design the interview questions, library studies were conducted in the field of collection development, its policy and the process of collecting resources in libraries.

Collection development process in academic libraries in the fields of printed books was influenced by factors that were classified into categories of collection development policies, identification of user needs, provision of sources, budget and collection evaluation. There was no written policy for e-book collection and free downloading, purchasing resources collectively, subscribing through databases, or exchanging and collaborating between libraries were used to provide them. The challenges of libraries in collection development consist of the lack of written policy, the need for librarians to increase their knowledge and library softwares weakness.

It can be concluded central libraries lack a group of important components of collection development. Accordingly, it can be concluded that a set of external and internal factors are involved in the shortcomings. International sanctions, university policies and the way the budget are allocated, the lack of need for collection policy and the lack of planning for collection evaluation were among the influential factors. The results of the present study can be used to identify the collection development methods currently used in university libraries and to address the their weaknesses and challenges.