theorywatch

The last time I had the privilege of hearing Ross Atkinson speak was at the October 2005 Janus conference at Cornell, shortly before I left for Oklahoma. I was dismayed (as were so many in the profession) by his untimely death from cancer shortly afterwards, because he was one of our foremost collection theorists, with his ideas about the “library control zone,” the “anti-collection,” “the collection as a privlleging mechanism” and many other intriguing notions. This is a link to his Janus talk, “Six Key Challenges for the Future of Collection Development”. A striking example of the usefulness of an institutional repository, because I don’t think he had a chance to rework this particular piece for publication elsewhere before he died. Janus, the god of gates and doorways….