Collection DevelopmentFolke Bernadotte Memorial Library

General Principles; General Collection Books

The Folke Bernadotte Memorial Library furthers the mission of the College by collecting materials that support its liberal arts curriculum and the disciplines taught at the College. Our goal is to develop, with the assistance of faculty in the other departments, a well rounded collection that reflects the diversity of scholarship and maintains an international perspective in order to serve undergraduate needs. The library will also support, through collection development and services, student/faculty research and will provide services and support for faculty access to research materials.

The library will collect, as far as possible, reading materials beyond the curriculum for the college community, and will serve as a cultural resource for the area. We will pursue collaborative collection development with regional libraries so that our community can benefit from other collections, and we will contribute access to those parts of our collections, such as Scandinavian Studies and Nobel materials, that are a part of our institutional identity and in which we have strength.

Collection development is more than just adding books to the shelves; it also embraces an understanding of the access and use of materials in the collection and analysis of the overall quality of the resource. Librarians will work with faculty in other departments to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the collection as it is built, and will integrate collection development planning into general planning for programs and services of the library.

The library will make special provisions for support of new programs and new faculty members' area of specialization in the curriculum. It will take special responsibility for building a Reference Collection and will work with departments to build and maintain a periodicals collection that reflects curricular needs, with review of requests annually and an overall periodicals review every three years. The librarians will also be responsible for building the collection in cross disciplinary areas. In so far as is possible, the library should be a centralized access point for research materials--books, journals, videos, sound recordings, electronic resources, etc., so that such materials purchased on behalf of the College can be used by the entire college community.

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Reference Collection

The Reference Collection is a non circulating collection containing material that is not intended to be read in long stretches of time. Encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, statistical compilations, indexes, etc., are examples of such materials. They may exist in several types of formats. All are intended to serve the needs of the college community, as well as--in some specialized instances--those outside this context.

Selection criteria will be the same as that for the general collection. Records will be kept indicating those items that are to be purchase annually, every second or third year, or less frequently. For very expensive items consideration will be given, in addition to the usual criteria, to what neighboring institution have in their collections. Every effort will be made to avoid duplication of data.

For bibliographies, the normal procedure is that those which are general in nature will be kept in the Reference Collection, while the more specialized bibliographies will go into the general collection.

Generally, only the most recent edition of an item will be in the Reference Collection, with earlier editions either going to the general collection or being discarded. The major encyclopedias, viz. American, Britannica, and Collier's, will be updated every fourth or fifth year on a rotating basis. the displaced edition will then go into the general collection, with earlier editions being placed in the book sales.

The emphasis in foreign language dictionaries will be on those languages taught at the College, though an effort will be made to have language dictionaries for major world languages.

The Reference Collection will be systematically weeded on a rotating basis, with 1/5th of the collection being weeded in a given year.

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Research Tools: indexes, bibliographies, abstracts, databases

In order to support the research needs of students and faculty, the library will provide means of identifying research materials for the disciplines taught at Gustavus. In addition to basic indexes, we will provide mayor tools for each discipline either through subscription to print, Web based or CD-ROM versions. Whenever possible, access to major tools will be provided in electronic format, and those of widespread interest will be made available through Web access across campus. Consideration of the ability of flutist links is an important selection criterion. Tools which, because of expense and/or specialization, receive little use will be provided in the most cost effective way. Preference will be given to end user availability except in cases in which demand is low and mediated searching (e.g., through Dialog or another database vendor) is the most cost effective route. In such cases the library's database searching policy will provide mediated access at little or no cost to the end user.

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Periodicals

Subscriptions to the scholarly publications of the disciplines taught at the College will be acquired. Every attempt, within the confines of budgetary restrictions will be made to subscribe to the major journals of a given field as well as the sub fields of interest within those disciplines Additionally, subscriptions to major newspapers, the principal English language news magazines and some popular periodicals will also be carried. Acknowledging that contemporary written language does change, and supporting the international perspective of the curriculum, representative publications in the foreign languages taught at the College also will be acquired.

Duplication of print and full text electronic journals will be addressed on a title-by- title basis.

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Government Publications

The library will collect, organize and promote the use of United States federal publications which support the educational program of the College and the information needs of the 2nd U.S. Congressional District. The depository collection is available without restriction to all members of the College community and the general public. In addition to depository documents available from the Government Printing Office (GPO), special documents, reference works and indexes (both in electronic and paper formats) needed for access and bibliographic interpretation will also be acquired.

This is a selective depository with general emphasis on materials published in the last ten years. Since the non copyrighted government publications are readily available through interlibrary loan, there is no goal of building a comprehensive research collection. There for selection of publications will fall within the following general criteria:

  1. Core publications as identified by the GPO.
  2. Publications requested by faculty.
  3. Publications which the librarians feel directly support the liberal arts curriculum.
  4. Publications requested by residents of the 1st and 2nd Congressional Districts (e.g., individuals, Chambers of Commerce, public libraries).
  5. Publication sin subject areas of lasting interest and historical significance to our community (e.g., publications on Minnesota, on agriculture and commerce in the Upper Midwest, etc.)

Access to the extensive electronic publications of the federal government will be provided with the department's home page serving as the gateway. Other electronic indexes, full text cites and links will be maintained and added to the library catalog as appropriate to the enhanced use of the collection. The general public is free to use the networked computers located throughout the library building for their government information needs.

Publications of governments other that the U.S. Federal Government and of multinational organizations (e.g., State of Minnesota, United Nations, OAS) will be purchased according to the same criteria established for general collection and Reference Collection materials. They will be added to the general collection and not the Documents Collection.

The Documents Collection, is for the most part, a circulating collection. Faculty, students and staff may check materials out of the library with a valid College identification card. Community users with a valid public library card will be issued a courtesy card at the Library Circulation Desk.

A more detailed statement for this collection is available as Government Documents; Collection Development and Use Policy.

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Children's Literature

Purpose: The library's juvenile and children's literature collection supports the curriculum of the Education Department and the English Department. The collection provides materials for use by students, student teachers, and faculty members. To a more limited extent, the collection also serves as a resource for the children of students, staff, and faculty.

General Collection Guidelines

  1. Language: Collecting juvenile literature or children's literature is mainly done in English, though there are some books in other languages. These foreign language books may or may not include translations. They constitute a small, but important, part of the collection, particularly since they support courses on children's literature, multicultural education, and bilingual education. Materials in any language, especially those languages that represent public school populations in Minnesota (for example, Spanish, Hmong, or Somali) should be included.
  2. Chronological Guidelines: There are no chronological limits to the materials in this collection, though most titles added are current.
  3. Treatment of Subject and Types of Materials: Fiction and nonfiction at all levels (from pre-kindergarten through high school) are included.
    For the discipline of children's literature, bibliographies and book lists are regularly added to both the reference and general collections. Prize winning works for children, especially those that win the Caldecott and Newberry awards, are added to the collection. Works by Minnesota children's authors are also given special consideration.
  4. Formats: The children's literature collection is in book form and includes children's oversize books. Pop-up books and similar type books are generally excluded from the collection. Cassette books or similar formats are also excluded. Textbooks, lesson plans, activity guides, curricula, and kits are also excluded.
  5. Date of Publication: Works published within the last ten years are emphasized. Historical materials of significance are also added.
  6. Other General Considerations: The Department of Education maintains a limited curriculum library with lesson plan materials, textbooks, and a small collection of children's literature.

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Non Print Materials

When appropriate, materials that meet the criteria for addition to the general collection will be purchased in DVD, compact disk, or other electronically accessed formats. These items, as well as disks that accompany books, will be cataloged and made available for circulation on an individual basis.

The purpose of the Audio-Visual department is to make available to the community all films and videos which support classroom instruction and the officially sponsored college programs (e.g., Out of Scandinavia), or which demonstrate lasting contributions to the art of film making. DVD is the preferred format, and will be selected first. However, VHS, laser disks, slides and spoken word recordings etc. will also be purchased if they meet the general collection development goals and criteria.

For the Lund Music/Communications Studies Library the policy is to collect recorded music on compact disk.

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Gifts of Materials to the Library

The library is pleased to accept gifts of books, recordings and other library materials and grateful for the consideration shown by donors. However, because of limitations on staffing, shelving space, and the need to maintain collections which directly support the curricular needs of the college, donations can only be accepted under certain conditions:

  1. The item is appropriate in subject matter to the disciplines taught on the campus and to the general liberal arts.
  2. The value of an item is predetermined by the donor, i.e., the library cannot appraise the value of material donated.
  3. The donated item is handled at the discretion of the library faculty and staff who will determine appropriateness of subject, condition of the individual items, whether or not any individual item will be added to the collection, and disposal of the item to book sales, other libraries, or recycling.
  4. Material donated will not be returned to the donor.

See also: Staff Procedures for Gifts and Gift Books - Form.

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Out-of-Print Materials

The library will regularly attempt to acquire out-of-print materials that are not automatically located or are canceled through the normal vendor processes. Searching for out-of-print materials is labor and time intensive, thus it will be carried out as time permits. The pursuit of such items will be coordinated by the acquisitions assistant and the librarian serving as collection development coordinator. The librarians will judge acceptable price ranges for individual titles, and reprint editions will be substituted when available, unless the requester indicates that only the original edition is acceptable.

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Collection Maintenance; Replacement Copies

Materials that are damaged beyond repair or are superseded will be evaluated for removal from the collection of for replacement as they come to the attention of the librarians. Library liaisons will review such cases periodically through the year. As time permits, the library will review collections to assess whether materials are superseded or require updating or replacement. Items tat a library liaison determines should be weeded from the collection will be reviewed by the entire library faculty, and as appropriate, faculty outside of the library will be consulted. Weeding should be conducted as part of an overall collection assessment program and should entail not just removal, but the purchase of replacement and substitute copies as needed.

All library materials, print or non print, which are lost will be reviewed on a title-by-title basis for replacement. Usually, a newer edition of the same work will be purchased. However, if a particular edition is noteworthy, or specifically requested by a faculty member, every effort will be made to acquire that edition for replacement. If an item is no longer available through the new or out-of-print vendors, a different work on the same subject, or, for example, as in the case with recorded music, the same piece with different instrumentalists will be substituted.

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1996. Revised 2000, 2001. Collection Development Policy, Folke Bernadotte Memorial Library, Gustavus Adolphus College.