Bibliographic Services: Collection Development

Collection development at James M. Milne Library encompasses several major functions : acquisitions of new material, deselection of mutilated and/or outdated or superceded materials, and the maintenance of materials through repair or rebinding. All of these elements enhance the value of the library collections, keeping them strong and vital.

 

Milne Library strives to achieve the standards for resources and access as promulgated by the Standards for College Libraries 2000 :

 

Resources : The library should provide varied, authoritative and up-to-date resources that support its   mission and the needs of its users. Resources may be provided onsite or from remote storage locations, on the main campus or at off-campus locations. Moreover, resources may be in a variety of formats, including print or hard copy, online electronic text or images, and other media. Within budget constraints, the library should provide quality resources in the most efficient manner possible. Collection currency and vitality should be maintained through judicious weeding.

 

Access : Access to library resources should be provided in a timely and orderly fashion. Library collections and the catalog for accessing them should be organized using national bibliographic standards. A central catalog of library resources should provide access for multiple concurrent users and clearly indicate all resources. Provision should be made for interlibrary loan, consortial borrowing agreements, access to virtual electronic collections, and document delivery to provide access to materials not owned by the library. Furthermore, distance learning programs should be supported by equivalent means such as remote electronic access to collections, the provision of reliable network connections, and electronic transmission or courier delivery of library materials to remote users. Policies regarding access should be appropriately disseminated to library users.

 

Collection Development is a collaborative effort between members of the faculty and librarians.

 

With the fall 2004 semester the library instituted a new acquisitions formula and a new method of better serving the faculty departments in their library needs.

 

The new 2004 formula was approved by the College Library Committee at its April meeting. Henceforth, serials and electronic resources will be purchased by the library with extensive consultation with faculty in the appropriate discipline or department. These purchases will come from the general library budget instead of departmental allocations. The remainder of the total allocations budget will be allocated to departments for the acquisitions of other library materials (books, AV, CDs, videos, etc.). The formula shall be determined by a base percentage shared equally by all departments (10%), the number of courses taught (30%), the unweighted departmental FTEs (30%), and monograph use (30%). An additional amount is set aside for Special Projects.

 

FACULTY

Responsibilities :

Each faculty member is responsible for recommending the resources needed to support his/her courses. Each department sets its own priorities for the use of its portion of funds. Each department has a liaison member chosen by that department to work with the Acquisitions librarian. This person should be the conduit for information between the department and Acquisitions. He/she may also serve as his/her department’s representative on the College Library Committee. Budget information is forwarded to the liaison when the acquisitions budget is approved by the Provost. The liaison then gathers the book/material requests from his/her department and forwards them to the Acquisitions librarian. In turn, completed requests are returned to the liaison when the material is available for use. The liaison also directs any departmental questions regarding acquisitions and budget to the Acquisitions librarian.

 

Request cards are available by calling Bibliographic Services (2727). An online request form is also available on the library’s web site.

 

To aid departments, Choice review cards are distributed on a regular basis.

 

Each year a portion of the departmental allocation is set aside as a Special Projects Fund. Individual faculty members or departments are encouraged to apply for a portion of this money to support a new course, meet needs not addressed by regular funding or for interdisciplinary courses. The request must be supported with actual titles of materials needed and should be submitted to the chair of the College Library Committee or the Acquisitions Librarian by a deadline set by the Library Director in consultation with the Committee chair and the Acquisitions librarian. Library bibliographers can be asked to help with these Special Project requests.

 

Of equal importance to building up collections is the deaccessioning of outdated materials. Faculty are encouraged to help participate in this process. Deaccession lists will be made available through the library’s homepage for faculty to review and make recommendations about retention, transfer to another collection or deselection of individual titles.

 

LIBRARY BIBLIOGRPAHERS

Responsibilities :

Each faculty department is assigned a librarian who will serve as bibliographer to support the department.

 

It is the responsibility of the library bibliographer to provide an avenue for faculty in the department to learn about library resources and services and to work with the department to build a strong collection in the department’s curricular areas. Following the model developed in many other libraries where this system has been in place, the bibliographer assigned to a department will:

  • Work with the library liaison appointed by the department to help build a strong collection to support the mission of the college
  • Meet with the department at least once a year at the department’s request
  • Discuss the implications of periodical price increases and available funds with the department
  • Facilitate faculty input into decisions to purchase electronic resources
  • Serve as a contact to refer questions and concerns within the library
  • Support research
  • Help connect instructors in the departments to librarians who can help with creating library assignments and provide library instruction to classes/students, if needed
  • Disseminate information to departments about library matters such as:
    • Subject-specific databases (new and existing electronic resources that may be of interest to members of the department)
    • Possible titles to acquire
    • Table of contents alert services and saved search features of various databases

 

The library portion of the budget is used for indexes and abstracts, monographic serials, reference materials, all journals and microfilm, electronic resources and some current purchases.

 

New periodical and standing order lists are created each year and made available online. These lists should be reviewed carefully by bibliographers and faculty to ensure that all titles are still relevant. Any titles deemed no longer useful should be forwarded to the Serials librarian for dropping. She then compiles a list of potential dropped titles and circulates it to the whole faculty through the bibliographer to verify that those titles being cancelled will not affect any one else’s research.

 

Librarians are encouraged to participate in collection development, especially in the subject areas for which they serve as bibliographer. They are not limited to these areas, however. The recommendations for library purchases will come from the library’s portion of the acquisitions budget. Resources for accomplishing these duties may include Choice, Booklist, Library Journal, other reviewing resources and subject bibliographies. The library subscribes to a second subscription of Choice so that bibliographers can read these reviews.

 

Of equal importance to building up collections is the deaccessioning of outdated materials. When recommending a title for withdrawal, these factors should be considered : age, condition, use, relevance to our current curriculum, whether the title has been superceded by a later edition and if there are duplicate copies of the title. Use the deselection recommendation form and fill in the complete call number and reason for recommending that the item be deselected; send this to Bibliographic Services.

 

THE ACQUISITIONS LIBRARIAN

Responsibilities :

At Milne Library, the primary objective of the Acquisitions librarian is to acquire materials efficiently and economically for a balanced collection of library materials needed to :

  • Support the college curriculum
  • Foster research on an undergraduate or master’s degree level (where appropriate to College at Oneonta programs)
  • Provide for some recreational and avocational interests

The Acquisitions librarian is responsible for:

  • spending the acquisitions budget efficiently and adhering to state and campus guidelines, fiscal rules and regulations.
  • keeping track of all departmental and library funds
  • working directly with the faculty liaisons in ordering, notifying them of their allotments, deadlines and spending activity
  • making final decisions regarding ordering, adding gifts, deselection, and disposition of materials
  • selecting and orderings materials in all subject areas and collections to help prevent gaps
  • coordinating collection development and conservation efforts
  • making decisions to replace titles that have been damaged or stolen

Specific guidelines for acquisitions :

 

Hardbound editions are preferred unless the price differential from a paperback is over $50.

 

Individual issues of a periodical to which we do not subscribe may be ordered only if they are monographic in nature. They are then cataloged as monographs.

 

The library does not order 16mm film, cassettes, filmstrips, slides or other obsolete formats. DVD is preferred over videotape.

 

The library will only order up to 6 copies of one title.

 

Deselection :

Once weeding slips are received, Bibliographic Services will add the rest of the bibliographic information. These slips will then be added to an electronic database which will be made available to the faculty for their input. Faculty are also to be encouraged to make recommendations for deselection. When agreement is reached, the Acquisitions librarian will have materials withdrawn or will note in this decision in books that are to be kept.

 

Deselection decisions are based on many evaluation tools : Books for College Libraries, Books in Print, the availability of suggested titles in the out of print market, subject bibliographies, circulation statistics, OCLC for other library holdings and other sources as may prove useful

 

Gifts :

Donations of books or journals are received by the Acquisitions librarian or her designee throughout the year. Condition of the gift and appropriateness to our collections are the determining factors for acceptance of a gift. Those titles not accepted may be returned to the donor if so requested or given to other libraries on a library exchange program, recycled or sold, in accordance with New York State guidelines. Those titles then added are placed in the appropriate collection at the library’s discretion, unless prior negotiation has been conducted with the donor.

 

Gifts can not legally be valued by the library, but names of local used book dealers can be suggested if an appraisal is requested. Lists of donated materials can not be created. However, gifts are acknowledged if the donor is known.

 

All donors interested in donating books should contact the Acquisitions librarian. For journals, contact the Serials librarian. Decisions regarding acceptance will be made only by these two librarians.

 

 

CONSERVATION

Lastly, keeping our collections in good repair is also everyone’s responsibility. Pulling books off the shelves that are in bad condition can be a very important activity. It may bring into play the keep/discard decision. But the librarian responsible for collection development should be looking at each repair candidate in relation to others in the collection : earlier or later editions, unnecessary multiple copies or paperback vs. hardcover. Again, using the aforementioned resources to determine retention of a title can be used to decide whether to repair or rebind an item, or to reorder or not. Once titles are determined to be of continuing value, the duty to keep them in good repair is crucial.

 

CONCLUSION

The College at Oneonta has a good strong collection and current and past faculty and librarians are to be commended for this. To continue this tradition, we should all make a concerted effort to participate in collection development.