Guides to Literature, Standard Lists and Subject-Specific Bibliographies

Definitions

Guides to the literature, standard lists and subject specific bibliographies survey the progress in a particular aspect of a subject area over a given period. The surveys range from a bibliographical index or list of references to more specific critical reviews of original publications on subject areas covered. Subject specific bibliographies compile specific systematic or enumerative bibliographies - books, MSS, audio-visual formats and other publications and arrange these in a logical order giving author, title, date and place of publication, publisher, details of edition, pagination, series and literary/information contents. Such a bibliography might be of works by one author, or on one subject, or printed by one printer, or in one place or during one period. The term is also applied to the whole of the literature on a subject. Bibliographies may be complete/general/universal (i.e. including all formats, periods, subjects, etc) or national (material emanating from one country), or select (rated by quality or relevance to a purpose) or special (Limited to one aspect) or trade (complied for commercial purposes in the booktrade).

Strengths and Weaknesses

The strengths of this tool for collection development are manifold. Guides to the literature provide a quick and easy way to find reliable surveys of a specific topic heading or subject area. Standard lists give a librarian looking to develop a collection standards and essential books that should be included in the subject area being developed for the library. Subject-specific bibliographies give a person without comprehensive knowledge of a specific subject area a good starting point for classics in the field and the general subheadings and divisions in a particular subject area. These tools also provide valuable annotations for the generalist that are less biased than 'publishers catalogs' notes or reviewing media to provide the collection development librarian with a valuable set of summaries that he or she may use in developing a collection. As for weaknesses, some of these bibliographies tend to date and older bibliographies have not kept up to pace with alternative media formats (i.e. Internet, CD-ROM, databases, film). For newer developments in a subject area or rapidly changing subject areas, these bibliographies might be less useful. Guides to literature on a specific subject area might also miss hidden 'interdisciplinary' works that do not fit easily into stratified categories but might be valuable additions to the subject area area collection being developed.