Music Collection Development and Management in the Digital Age

Book excerpt: Music Collection Development and Management in the Digital Age offers both a theoretical context and practical approaches to the issues facing today’s music collection builders and managers. In this exciting new book, Kirstin Dougan Johnson engages readers with many of the core responsibilities involved with music collections, in both music library and general library settings. The author examines the whole of music collections, incorporating into that vision guidance on the principles and tasks involved with collection building, acquisitions, management, and assessment. Details include music formats and publishing, music identification and discoverability, the context of music collections and the tasks involved in building and scoping them, diversity and inclusion in music collections, budgets and acquisitions workflows, pre- and post-order tasks, collection management and assessment, and future directions for collection development in music. With its focus on issues related to music scores and media in physical and electronic forms, Music Collection Development and Management in the Digital Age directly addresses subject librarians who select music materials in academic libraries. The volume also serves music librarians in other settings, such as public and conservatory libraries. All in all, Music Collection Development and Management in the Digital Age is an essential reference for all who work with music collections, whether in music libraries specifically, general library collections with music holdings, or centralized library acquisitions departments.