Over the last several years fewer full-time professional staff, on average, are involved in collection development. For this survey, the term bibliographer and selector denote a library staff member whose responsibilities include aspects of development or management, or both, of the library's information resources in particular subject fields. Subject specialist and collection developer are also synonymous terms. Organization charts submitted by survey respondents show the relationship of collection development to other library functions. Typically, collection development is subdivided on a subject basis into groups of related disciplines or specialized areas.
Most charts employ the traditional layout of organizational relationships.
One chart portrays the library's relationship to its external faculty and information systems as a functional matrix. In this scheme collection management and development are identified in a dual capacity, as an interface between the library's information systems and its external faculty, and as a function that interacts with the library's processing and preservation services. An increasing reliance on part-time staff in collection development is but one trend evident during the last five to seven years. Evidence suggests other changes are also occurring. More formally structured training is provided through orientation sessions conducted by staff at various levels.