A field guide for collaborative collection development

Volume 20, Number 6 • June 2000

A field guide for collaborative collection development
by Beth Carpenter

Discusses cooperative efforts between the Outagamie Waupaca Library System (OWLS) of northeastern Wisconsin and the Nicolet Federated Library System (NFLS) to develop a collection of free Web resources for libraries. Describes the origins and purpose of the Cooler by the Lake Web project. Examines the site's main areas of content: Guideposts, for access to reviewed Web sites; Trailblazers, for access to library catalogs, full-text databases, and Internet search tools, and room for additional databases; Search, which allows searches by keyword; Community, for links to community indexes and events; About Us, for a list of the caretakers; and Local Libraries, for links to public library Web sites. Details the development process. Concludes that cooperative collection development on the Web can work well in a consortium setting. Includes one screen display.