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Last year we started talking about collection development and what it means for school librarians in the 21st century. Do we really need those expensive print reference books when we have access to the same type of information in our online databases? Where should we direct those ever decreasing budget dollars?

We aren’t the only ones pondering these questions. The topic for this year’s SLJ Summit was Remixing Library Collections for Digital Youth.

In her post on this topic, Joyce Valenza asks the same question that we did when we began our discussions:

I thought back to everything I learned more than thirty years ago in grad school (the first time around). I learned about building balanced collections.  About ensuring that various viewpoints were represented. About ensuring that great authors, and classics, and best sellers were represented.  That as my users/patrons/members browsed my collection, there would always be something to happen upon and discover.

But I wonder if what I learned about having a just-in-case collection makes any sense right now in a just-in-time, just-for-me, 24/7 demand-met universe. Is serendipity dead?

This is something that I’m still thinking about. What are your thoughts?

Image citation: Balancing act uploaded on October 7, 2007 by tanakawho. Used under a Creative Commons Attribution License