Abstract:
Technological developments have tremendously impacted on the activities of libraries, causing a
major paradigm shift, which challenges libraries and the library profession. Such impact and
change in information technologies forced libraries to change the way of collecting information
materials or collection development process. As the transfer from paper to electronic resources
occurs, especially in the acquisition of resource, it is necessary to examine the process academic
libraries practice to select and evaluate electronic resources. The objective of this study was to
assess in depth and comprehensive coverage of the work flow for electronic resource collection
development process from selection to acquisition in the selected Ethiopia higher institution
libraries: Addis Ababa, Jimma and Adama Universities. Along the way it addressed the status of
e-resource, process, procedures, issues and challenges in e-resource collection development and
shows guiding direction for libraries to learn best practices for collection development of eresource. This study covers various facets of collection development process including selection
and evaluation process, licensing agreement, challenges, and criteria and provides future
direction for libraries on how to overcome challenges. Cross-sectional descriptive survey
research was used to assess current practice of e-resource collection development. A total of 59
librarians were purposively sampled to fill self-administered questionnaire. Finding of the study
shows, these libraries have attempted to develop e-resource or they are in the process of
developing one. Libraries have made efforts to develop IT infrastructure and associated support
mechanisms to manage and deliver e-resources. However, when it comes to collection
development such as selecting, evaluating and acquisition of e-resources, a number of related
challenges come to the foreground. The finding proved that there is a significant relationship
between e-resource collection development policy and e-resource collection development
practices. Thus, the dearth of e-resource development from the collection development policy
has a negative impact on the status of e-resource collection development. These include lack of
selection and evaluation criteria, lack of budget, skilled professional as well as support from the
management. Therefore these libraries should formulate a comprehensive e-resource collection
development policy, allocate separate budget, and recruit skilled professionals in order to achieve
better collection development.
