Selection
Selection is a process that takes place in many different contexts. Library and Information
Science (LIS) study how researchers select their information sources, how
librarians select and deselect documents for libraries, how journal editors
select articles, how publishers select manuscripts, how databases select their
input etc.
Important factors in any selection process are 1) to make clear what goals
should be fulfilled by the selection 2)
to gain an overview of and control with the sources from which the selections are
made (i.e.., the systematic identification of relevant documents by a well
designed strategy) and 3) the view of quality of the documents to be selected as
well as the sources from which the documents are selected. This point
involve the consideration of different epistemologies in documents, sources and
users.
The concept of deselection (or discarding) may be described as selection with a negative sign.
In scientific journals and in scientific conference proceedings are selection of
articles mostly based on the so-called
peer-review system.
Ethical problems are very important in relation to selection of information and
documents. Groeskamp (1989) discuss the general ethical aspects, including the
relation between selection and censorship as well as problems related to
pornography and extreme political views.
Literature:
Allen, T. J. & Gerstberger, P. G. (1967). Criteria for selection of an
Information Source. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, Sloan School of Management (PB 176
899).
Atkinson, R. (1984). The Citation as Intertext: Toward a Theory of the Selection Process. Library Resources and Technical Services, 28(2), 109-119.
Axtmann, M. M. (1990). Publisher advertising: proposal for a new era. Acquisitions Librarian, (3), 21-25.
Broude, J.
(1978). Journal de-selection in an academic environment: Comparison of faculty
and librarian choices. Serials Librarian, 3(2), 147-166.
Bullard, S. R. (1984). Ethics of vendor-library relations. Library Acquisitions: Practice and Theory, 8(4), 251-254.
Bullard, S. R. (1987). The ethics of working with vendors: a report on the RTSD RS Acquisitions Librarians/Vendors of Library Materials Discussions Group. Library Acquisitions: Practice and Theory,11(4), 373-375.
Coffey, J. R. (1990). Contrasts and ethics in library acquisitions: the expressed and the implied. Acquisitions Librarian, (3), 95-110.
Germain, J. C.
(1996). Serial selection and deselection decisions - The view from America. Learned Publishing, 9(2), 87-93.
Hjørland, B. (Ed.). (1996). Faglitteratur: Kvalitet, vurdering og selektion. Grundbog i materialevalg. Göteborg & København: Valfrid & Danmarks Biblioteksskole.
Jenkins, C. (1996). Serial selection and deselection - policies and
decision-making. Learned Publishing, 9(3), 157-162.
McClung, P. A. (1985). Selection Sources and Strategies. P. 3-24 IN: Selection of Library Materials in The Humanities, Social Sciences, and Sciences. Ed. by Patricia A. McClung. Chicago: American Library Association.
Robb, D. J. & McCormick, A. (1997). Decision support for serials deselection and
acquisition: A case study. Journal of the American Society for Information
Science, 48(3), 270-273.
Triolo, V. A. &
Bao, D. C. (1993). A decision model for technical journal deselection with an
experiment in biomedical communications. Journal of the American Society for
Information Science, 44(3), 148-160.
Tucker, B. E.
(1995). The journal deselection project - The LSUMC-s experience. Library
Acquisitions: Practice and Theory, 19(3), 313-320.
Van Rijsbergen, C. J.; Harper, D. J. & Porter, M. F. (1981). The selection of
good search terms. Information Processing & Management, 17(2), 77-91.
Warner, J. (2006). A labor theoretic approach to information retrieval (1): selection power and selection labor. Journal of the American Society for information Science and Technology. Article resubmitted April 2006.
Ørom, A. (1996). Bibliotekarisk prioritering og vurdering af dansk faglitteratur. Historiske ændringer 1960-1992. I: Faglitteratur: Kvalitet, vurdering og selektion. Grundbog i materialevalg. Red. af Birger Hjørland under medvirken af Erik Alstrup, Jan Graulund & Michael Kristiansson. Borås: Valfrid & København: Danmarks Biblioteksskole. Click for full-text.pdf
See also: Accession; Impact factor; Peer-review; Scattering
Birger Hjørland
Last edited: 15-10-2006