Brent Appling, MLIS
Head of Collection Strategy & Management 
Thomas Cooper Library 
University of South Carolina 

Editor’s note: This month, we are celebrating Brent Appling, who has served as a Librarian Selector for Doody’s Core Titles since 2020.     

Where do you currently work and what is your position?  

I currently work at the University of South Carolina Thomas Cooper Library as head of collection strategy and management.  

Provide a brief description of your library and its services.  

The Thomas Cooper Library is the main library on the University of South Carolina’s main campus. We are the only Association of Research Library (ARL) in the state. Serving a flagship R1 institution means that we support a very broad spectrum of areas of study.  

When did you start in health sciences librarianship? What was your position? With what institution?  

I am not a health sciences librarian; however, during my time in the research and instruction department from 2011 to 2019, I did often help students in health sciences, and currently work closely with our health sciences librarian with collection and resource needs for those areas.   

Name two of the most important issues facing the profession today.  

A persistent challenge is providing access to increasingly expensive electronic resources to our patrons, especially as collections budgets remain tight. A related issue is the rise of the demand for resources that can only be accessed through direct subscription or annual licensing, such as point-of-care resources and streaming film/videos. These are resource types that require direct library investment that cannot rely on resource sharing, adding another challenge in balancing collections spending/budgets.   

What is one innovation, product, or service in your library that you’re excited about?  

We are currently in the process of onboarding an unlimited subscription to Covidence. I am very excited to be able to provide systematic review services to our students and to the librarians who have been working tirelessly to assist with these extremely time-consuming research endeavors. Access to Covidence will be a game changer for health sciences researchers.   

Why do you serve as a Doody’s Core Titles Librarian Selector?  

I serve as a Doody’s Core Titles selector to learn more about the areas of study that are collected within medicine/health sciences and to hone my collection development skills in those areas. I have learned a lot during the selection processes and plan to continue to volunteer as a Librarian Selector.