SIMS 245 Organization of Information in Collections. M. Buckland.

ROLES OF COLLECTIONS
In general collections are created to ensure availability and enable access to documents. (See Purposes of Collections).

Preserving (Archival Role): If nobody collects an object, it is likely to become unavailable. Insurance. Potentially non-renewable resource.
Dispensing Role: The existence of a single copy of an object in a single collection somewhere does not make it conveniently available. You have to find out where it as and then either you go to it or it (or a copy) has to come to you. The physical properties of the object make a large difference (size, fragility, how easy to transport or copy), especially paper versus digital.
Advisory (Bibliographical) Role: Helping individuals to identify, choose, and locate the objects through making a selection of objects available for browsing, inspection, and systematic arrangement.
Symbolic: Good collections make attract attention, increase prestige, and stimulate new or additional use of objects.

PURPOSES OF COLLECTIONS
Purposes of users
Who will want (or need) use objects in a collection, when, and why, cannot be known with certainty. A purposeful collection depends on assumptions about what demands are likely and which (and whose) demands the collection will be designed (and funded) to serve.
In addition to the motivations of users, demands vary in important ways. Instances: Does the user want every instance of a type of document? - or any instance? - or any copy of any instance? - or a few examples? - or a few "good" instances? How many is "a few"? What does "good" mean in this situation? Probably, "better" means having additional desirable characteristics, such a credibility, intelligibility.
Purposes of the provider of the service
Why is this service being provided? Who is paying? Resources are always constrained. Priorities among users, among service options.

ORGANIZATION OF OBJECTS IN COLLECTIONS
Organization of collections has several aspects:
- Whether and where to have a collection;
- What instances to include in it and what, if anything, to do about objects not in the collection.
- How to arrange the objects, and, especially,
- How to arrange surrogates / copies of (parts of) the objects. There can be multiple arrangements and arrangements of copies or descriptions of the objects.
Our options are always constrained by resources (budget, space, staffing, technology).
Descriptions to augment or substitute for the original object.
Access points (on what bases can you search?), usually fragments of descriptions.

Cutter's Objects (i.e. objectives) of a catalog:
1. To enable a person to find a book of which either (a) the author, (b) the title, or (c) the subject is known.
2. To show what the library has (d) by a given author, (e) on a given subject, (f) in a given kind of literature.
3. To assist in the choice of a book (g) as to the edition (bibliographically), (h) as to its character (literary or topical).