Edinburgh Napier University

  Traditional information services provision relies on the systematic and rational building of a collection to meet current and future user information needs. This is achieved through the acquisition and discarding of material, which might ideally be based on a regularly reviewed collection development policy statement. The evolution of collection development policies facilitates discussion between user groups and service providers, bringing information professionals closer to those whose needs should be served, and assuring that the materials selected and serviced by the information unit are worth the investment made in them.
Information professionals whose careers have been based in library services are familiar with the mechanics of collection development and their application. Those now involved in the creation of web pages for providing user access to remote Internet resources as a complement to the physical collection held locally are developing aspects of electronic collection development expertise.
This paper discusses the principles of collection development policies and their applicability to web page development. The results of a small scale study of British special librarians and their access to Internet resources illustrates the efforts being made towards the creation of library web pages and the development of collection development policies for electronic resources. Recommendations derived from the case study results will be of interest to practitioners who have begun, or are considering, offering remote access to Internet sources through library/information unit home pages, and who are seeking to do so using best practice principles.