Strategies for the development of hybrid collections in academic libraries in Mozambique : a study of three academic libraries

Abstract: Mozambique academic libraries are quite vulnerable in hybrid collection development for various reasons. In the process of collection development, physical collections have dominated the Mozambican libraries’ scene because they can acquire printed materials relatively easily. Digital materials, on the other hand, have caused difficulties due to the costs of subscribing to databases and poor technological infrastructure generated by insufficient resources. This work aims to understand the strategies followed by the libraries of Mozambican higher education institutions for the development of their hybrid collections, and to highlight the acquisition patterns, trends of integration of the collections and general challenges they face in this area. To answer the research questions, we have conducted the literature review and collected empirical data from university library documents and through semi-structured interviews with librarians responsible for collection development in three universities. The research adopted a qualitative study method and investigated three university libraries in Mozambique. As a result, we have identified collection development strategies used for the development of hybrid collections. These are partly overlapping as they must help to solve similar problems, and some strategies are specific to a university, because of different conditions and opportunities. It was also realized that, despite the efforts of those university libraries, there is a general weakness in state funding. The influence of external investment proved to be a great positive differential in the working areas of the affected libraries. It was also found out that university libraries participate and use the potential of the Mozambican library consortium AMOBAP unequally and the integration of institutional repositories is not on the same stage among the libraries.