Abstract: James Cory Tucker and Matt Torrence, "Collection Development for New Librarians: Advice from the Trenches," Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services 28 (2004): 397–409.

In one sentence, this article purports (correctly) that library school ill prepares graduates for work in collection development, and so the authors have pulled together some tips and recommendations for starting out as a collection manager. Tucker and Torrence concede that most of these lessons are best learned on the job, but that sometimes the lack of experience upon starting a position can leave the newly hired employee bewildered, not knowing where to turn to take on difficult tasks of selection, budget management, collection assessment, and liaison activities.

To this end, the article is a good overview and can serve as a valuable reference for identifying tasks to accomplish within the first few months of starting work. These include arranging meetings with faculty, staff, and other campus organizations that might have valuable input regarding the types of materials to collect to support research and instruction. The new collection development librarian should also be careful to learn the ins and outs of budget management. I would use this article as a reference if I had some collection management duties as part of my job. Now, if they would have only been able to explain how one goes about getting a job in collection development straight out of grad school; every job in this area I've seen is looking for lots of experience, presumably because it takes a lot of on-the-job training to bring recent grads up to speed on this type of job.