Chapter IV: Policies and Procedures For Collection Development and Management

A. General approach to materials selection

1. Current and retrospective acquisitions

The Library gives priority to current publications in meeting present and anticipated research and teaching needs while recognizing the importance of retrospective purchases. Retrospective acquisitions are made to enhance existing subject areas and special collections, to build collections in new areas of interest, and to replace missing or deteriorating material. The significance of retrospective acquisitions varies from field to field; decisions regarding purchase, preferred format, etc., are left to the discretion of the individual bibliographer.

2. Types of material and format

The Library collects monographs, serials, maps, sound recordings, scores, audiovisual materials, realia, manuscripts, and electronic resources . Printed materials currently represent the bulk of the collection, but non-print formats are acquired as well. Electronic resources are fast becoming a substantial component of annual acquisitions. Monographs and serials are the most common types of printed materials collected; others include maps, pamphlets, and musical scores. Non-print formats include microforms, sound recordings, video and audio cassettes, manuscripts, realia, photographs, slides, laser disks, computer files and interactive media.

When an item is available in both print and non-print formats, the bibliographer weighs such factors as cost, how an item may be used, space requirements, and preservation considerations in making the selection decision. A decision may be made to purchase one format or both depending on the nature of the item.

3. Acquisitions strategy

Several strategies are employed to encourage timeliness of acquisitions and to make the most effective use of staff in the selection and acquisitions process. A large percentage of acquisitions is accounted for by standing orders and serial subscriptions; blanket orders have been established with particular publishers, organizations and learned societies; approval plans exist for both university and trade presses. Profiles of current approval plans are available in Acquisitions Services. A set of guidelines for bibliographers interested in developing approval plans in their subject areas is also available in Acquisitions. The Library is a selective depository for U.S. federal documents and Canadian federal publications. Title-by-title purchases are made to insure a balanced collection. Various document delivery strategies are also employed to acquire material. Materials received by gift or exchange make a small but meaningful contribution, except in the case of the Special Collections Department, where gifts represent an important and substantial component of the collection.

Bibliographers keep abreast of the literature in their fields by reading reviews, bibliographic essays, and publishers' announcements, consulting faculty members, monitoring ILL requests and course offerings, and reviewing material received through the approval/gift process.

4. Acquisition of Electronic Resources

The acquisition of electronic resources (e-journals, databases, A & I services, etc.) has increased rapidly in the past few years. The unique nature of electronic resources requires that bibliographers follow additional guidelines in selecting and ordering these products.

• Contact Acquisitions to start the INNOPAC record keeping process. This applies even if the resource is FREE. The INNOPAC record assists the library technical staff in making the process go smoothly.

• Request that Acquisitions inform IS if there are access problems for the resource. Systems staff will consult with you on access issues, and approaches to solving them, if necessary.

• When the connection is active, contact the Library Online Systems Committee if you would like the resource added to the DCIS Navigator. Supply a short description of the electronic resource and a list of the appropriate Navigator subject categories.

• Once the resource is established, consider appropriate publicity efforts. Messages to colleagues, posting on the Library Announcements bulletin, posters and online demonstrations are all possible approaches.

5. Duplication

Library policy is to avoid duplication of materials; however, the following circumstances may justify the acquisition of multiple copies:

Reserve titles

Titles that fall into subject areas of joint interest among the libraries

Titles which are bestsellers, or which have been prominently reviewed in major journals

Basic reference or bibliographic sources

Electronic versions of print journals (and vice-versa)

B. Collection development policies

Policies exist for most subject areas; those not yet documented are in the process of completion. Collection development policies are desirable as planning documents and working tools for bibliographers, as a means of facilitating communication and cooperation among the libraries, and for assuring balanced growth of the collections. Bibliographers review policy statements relating to their collection areas every three years in order to accurately reflect existing circumstances. Policies needing major revision may come back to the Collection Management and Development Committee at any time.

Collection development policies are used by bibliographers for two purposes: to select titles which fit the academic and research needs of Dartmouth College and to document areas which are actively collected and those which are excluded. Policies may also be used to assist in developing adequate budget resources.

Policies are developed and evaluated by the individual bibliographer responsible for a subject area and are then approved by the Collection Management and Development Committee, after review by the Collection Policies Subgroup. These policies may be modified to reflect a change in the academic curriculum or in the research interests of the faculty. External events which may necessitate modification of a policy include cooperative collecting agreements arranged by RLG, significant changes in publication formats, etc.

The numeric values expressed in the RLG Conspectus reflect the content of the collection development policies within the Dartmouth College Library.

See also Chapter. III for a discussion of the bibliographer's role in the formulation, implementation, and revision of collection development policies. As noted, a list of collection development policies and the Guidelines for Writing Collection Development Policies are available at this site.

C. Related publications and policies

(Please note: Items marked with an asterisk (*) are located on other websites, and may require some navigation to return you to this page.)

1. Related publications and policies for Collection Development

*Process for Establishment of New Endowment Funds

Gifts policy

Guidelines for ordering library materials (not in HTML format as of 7/98)

*Procedures for handling Out-of-Print materials

2. Related publications and policies for Collection Management

Bibliographic Control of Computer Files (not in HTML format as of 7/98) *

Classification/Location assignments

Discard, withdrawal and replacement policy (not in HTML format as of 7/98)

Dartmouth College Library Binding Manual (not in HTML format as of 7/98)

Dartmouth College Library Disaster Manual (not in HTML format as of 7/98)

Guide to Bibliographic Treatment of New Standing Orders

Preservation manual (not in HTML format as of 7/98)

Reclassification/recataloging guidelines (not in HTML format as of 7/98)

RUSH and HOLD guidelines (not in HTML format as of 7/98) *

Serials fund accounting

Storage Library guidelines:

a) Collection guidelines (not in HTML format as of 7/98)

b) Technical guidelines (not in HTML format as of 7/98)

Transfers: guidelines for bibliographers (not in HTML format as of 7/98)



3. Related publications and policies for User Services

Services to outside users (1986) (not in HTML format as of 7/98)

Online search service policy statement (1985) (not in HTML format as of 7/98)

Interlibrary loan services: DCL Interlibrary loan policies (1987) (not in HTML format as of 7/98)

Circulation policy (not in HTML format as of 7/98)

D. Manual and automated files

1. Dartmouth College Library files:

Card Catalog

Until June 30, 1989, the card catalog in Baker Library was a union catalog for the system (excepting manuscript and map records); each of the other libraries maintained a catalog containing holdings for that particular library, with the exception of Paddock Music Library , which has relied entirely on the Online Catalog for several years. On July 1, 1989, the Feldberg Library and the Special Collections Dept. closed their card catalogs. On July 1, 1991 the remaining catalogs, including the Baker union catalog, were closed.

Shelf Lists

There are several shelf lists for material in various classification schemes.

The Library of Congress shelf list, located in the Bibliographic Records Management area contains both serials and monographs. Separate shelf lists for serials and monographs in both the Dewey and Old Dartmouth classifications are also located in the BibRecs area. Several small, individual shelf lists exist for material in accession number classifications.

Each library may have a shelf list for its holdings, and individual departments within Baker, such as Reference and Manuscripts, may have card shelf lists. Some libraries, such as the Feldberg Library, have chosen to rely on the Online Shelflist entirely. The Baker shelflist functions as a union file with two exceptions: the manuscripts shelflist is maintained in Special Collections only, and the Map Room shelflist is not fully duplicated in the Baker shelflist.

Dartmouth College Library Online System

INNOPAC acquisitions module

As of July 1, 1987, the INNOPAC acquisitions module is used to manage the acquisition of library materials, paid and gift. Acquisitions Services staff prepare purchase orders ("travel slips"), generate claims, pay invoices, monitor funds, and prepare reports at bibliographers' requests. Beginning in 1995, invoices are being transferred to the Controller's Oracle system via an EDI process.

INNOPAC serials management module

As of July 1, 1988, the INNOPAC serials module is used to manage serials check-in, claiming, routing, binding, and labeling. In 1994 the project to convert the 18,000 current serials titles from manual to automated records was concluded, allowing the complete elimination of manual Kardexes. Electronic claiming is also operating in a joint EDI project with Innovative Interfaces, Dartmouth, and the Faxon Company, one of our major serials vendors. Expansion of EDI projects to other major vendors is planned for 1995.

INNOPAC local processing module

Implementation of the Innopac local processing module for cataloging, catalog maintenance, and authority control was started in 1993. Full local processing was implemented in July 1994, after the development of a mechanism to load data directly from Innopac to the Online Catalog was completed. A mechanism to load bibliographic data from Innopac to RLIN is under development. Authority control implementation is planned for 1995.

INNOPAC circulation module

The Innopac Circulation module was implemented in 1993, replacing the SIRSI circulation system. The addition of this module provides the library with an integrated technical processing system.



2. External Files

Research Libraries Group (RLG); Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN)

RLG is a non-profit corporation owned and operated by its members. The membership consists of major universities and research institutions in the U.S., as well as "programmatic members" - institutions that participate in one or more of the corporation's programs.

RLIN is the automated information system established by RLG to support its cooperative programs in collection management and development, preservation, shared resources, and library technical systems and bibliographic control. The Network provides a central bibliographic data base holding cataloging records from MARC, CONSER, the U.S. Library of Medicine, and the U.S. Government Printing Office, as well as original cataloging and acquisitions records created by Network users. The cataloging data base holds more than 20 million records, including books, films, maps, sound recordings, musical scores, serials, archives and manuscripts, and authorities files. RLIN also includes special data bases in the fields of art and architecture, 18th century literature, the humanities, and special collections of RLG members.

Additionally, the Network provides an online ILL system, an electronic mail system, acquisitions products, reports and machine readable tapes.

A one page introductory guide to searching the system is entitled RLIN Searching Basics (see Appendix) and is kept near each terminal as is the RLIN Manual. Terminals are located in the acquisitions and bibliographic control areas, in ILL, and in the Reference departments of other libraries in the system. The RLIN database is also available, through the Connect command, through the Online Catalog. Bibliographers may use the system for pre-order searching, citation verification, and general reference work. The Bibliographic Records Management department can provide a list of RLIN publications and manuals to any interested bibliographer.

OCLC (Online Computer Library Center, Inc.)

OCLC is a not-for-profit computer library service and research membership organization. Dartmouth is a "tape loading" member of OCLC (one of three general membership categories) which gives the Library access to the ILL sub-system, and allows it to do retrospective conversion through the system. Currently, the Library processes very little cataloging through OCLC; nevertheless, the majority of our holdings are entered in the data base. Projects are currently being planned for increased utilization of OCLC in bibliographic control operations.

OCLC operates an international computer network that libraries use to acquire and catalog materials, order catalog cards, create machine readable data files, arrange interlibrary loans, and store location information on library materials. The system supports resource sharing among more than 4900 libraries in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, and several other nations. The core of the system is the OCLC Online Union Catalog containing more than 13 million bibliographic records in eight formats - books, journals, manuscripts, maps, music scores, sound recordings, films and machine readable data files. It also holds the LC Name-Authority and Subject Files and other online administrative files. Terminals are located in Baker (Acquisitions, Catalog Maintenance, Serials and ILL) and Kresge libraries. Bibliographers use the system for verification and general reference work.

Lists of OCLC publications are available in Bibliographic Records Management Services.

Dartmouth College Information System (DCIS)

DCIS is an electronic information retrieval system that brings local and remote, national and international data resources to users at their personal computer workstations. The DCIS Navigator provides a means of viewing a list of local files, including the Online Library, as well as remote files drawn from the Internet.

Several files from the Internet are directly accessible on DCIS. They include several college or university library catalogs, compilations of poems and song lyrics, weather information, and more. The Navigator also provides access to the Wide Area Information Service (WAIS), a gateway to other files, gophers, and archives on the Internet.

Vendor databases

Each of these systems contains bibliographic and acquisitions information for materials available through the particular vendor. Several of the systems are used for ordering sample issues, checking publisher dispatch data, sending electronic mail, and checking back-number files.

Each of the major vendors also provides multiple copies of its printed price guides which are made available to various units of the library system

Academic Book Center approval plan database

As of Spring 1995, bibliographers and acquisitions staff will have access to the approval database of the Academic Book Center, the vendor for the Library's University Press approval plan. Bibliographers will be able to verify titles, and determine publication and shipping status. Acquisitions staff will be able to order, claim, cancel, and track histories electronically. Access to the database will provide information previously available only in the order control report.

New CIP Announcements

New CIP (Cataloging in Publication) Announcements give information and availability data in a catalog card format for titles expected through the Library's university press approval plan; the cards are divided by LC class numbers and distributed to the appropriate bibliographers. If a bibliographer does not wish to receive a title on approval he/she should return the CIP Announcement to Acquisitions with the notation "cancel/(initials)".

Book Forms

Forms are received for titles from approval university press publishers that fall outside the library's profile. If a bibliographer wishes to receive the title the form should be coded with his or her fund/selector code, e.g. GOVT/U, and returned to Acquisitions. Otherwise the form can be discarded or filed.

Choice

Since 1992, bibliographers receive individual cards representing titles in the selection areas as reviewed by Choice magazine. Cards should be marked with selector code and fund and returned to Acquisitions for ordering. Paper issues of Choice continue to be circulated among bibliographers who wish to receive them.

Books In Print

Books in Print is available as a file on the Online System. The file includes information on current, forthcoming, and out-of-print publications. The file does not contain the Publishers volume of BIP. We continue to rely on a print directory for publisher addresses.

E. National standards, published guides and guidelines

Dartmouth College Library adheres to one specific national standard, that of the Library Binding Institute. Other national standards, published guides and guidelines, such as those listed below, function as resource material for the bibliographer:

RTSD guidelines

ACRL standards

ARL minimum preservation standards

Print copy available in Special Collections

RLG Preservation manual

Print copy available in Special Collections

F. Coordinated or cooperative activities

RLG and OCLC

As a member of RLG and of OCLC, the library shares in cooperative ILL , collection development, and cataloging programs. Both the RLIN and OCLC databases are also used for bibliographic searching and verification. Membership in RLG allows Dartmouth students and faculty easier access to member collections.

For a more detailed description of these utilities, contact the Library's Main Office.

Vermont Law School

The Library does not have formal ties or agreements with the Law School although an informal, cooperative relationship is maintained. Dartmouth students and faculty are referred to the Law School for law reviews, state statutes and regulations, and reporter services. VLS students and faculty come to Dartmouth to use those portions of the Library's collection that supplement their law materials.

Western New England College Rare Book Librarians

Members are librarians at small colleges in the Connecticut River Valley. The group meets to discuss purchases, questions about collecting, special collections, etc.

New Hampshire Political Papers Committee

The NHPPC is composed of representatives from Dartmouth, the University of New Hampshire, the New Hampshire State Library, the New Hampshire State Archives, and the New Hampshire Historical Society who meet periodically to discuss strategy and policy in the acquisition of the papers of New Hampshire political figures.

U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (USA CRREL)

Since 1982, the Thayer School of Engineering has had a cooperative program of graduate studies in Cold Regions Science and Engineering with CRREL. The research collections at CRREL are an important source of scientific and technical information for students and faculty working on polar and cold regions studies.

Dartmouth/Middlebury College Sharing Electronic Information Resources Project

This project developed a means by which the MLA bibliography database is shared between the two schools. A magnetic tape copy of the database is mounted at Dartmouth and the MLA file is available through the Online Catalog or through DCIS. Middlebury is passworded to access the file via the Internet.

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Last updated August 19, 1998 by: CMDC@Dartmouth.Edu (jdh)