ABSTRACT
Like most jobs in research libraries, the position of collection development librarian-bibliographer, resource specialist, subject specialist, whichever term is used-has undergone a dramatic change in the past two decades. Once almost exclusively focused on materials selection, the responsibilities of the librarian engaged in collection development now extend to the creation and maintenance of Web sites, intensive faculty outreach, teaching, specialized reference service, fund-raising, and other tasks. And yet, although the nature of the work we call “collection development” has changed, the image of the bibliographer and of the complexity of his or her work has generally not. This is due in large part to the continued compartmentalization of library work, at least in our minds, and to the persistence of traditional organizational categories. Our structures have not kept pace with our functions.
