As academic libraries move forward toward an increasingly digital environment, this work illuminates the field of Latin American collection development, and serves as a guide for university and college administrators, library directors and heads of collection development as well as those who work to create foreign-language collections for research libraries. These essays by noted Latin American librarians and curators at research libraries in the US and Canada function as a general introduction to the field, but are also relevant for the more experienced area studies librarian.

Coverage includes the history of collecting, current strategies in collection development, collaborative collection development, buying trips, and future trends and new technologies. The volume presents historical perspectives and background for several independent Latin American libraries, and strategies for building specialized Latin American collections. Essays position each topic historically, provide context for its present status and look ahead to future developments especially those anticipated by new technologies.

The volume may come as a surprise to some readers who perceive the field as one dominated by static and traditional collection development strategies. While Latin America collection development is still molded and influenced by problematic and difficult obstacles in collecting, Latin American studies librarians have implemented ground-breaking approaches to meet these challenges and can serve as a model to other within the library information and scholarly fields.