Dartmouth College Library
Collection Management & Development Program
Collection Development Policy
NURSING
- COLLECTION AREA
- GENERAL PURPOSE
- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE PROGRAM
- GENERAL SUBJECT BOUNDARIES
- LANGUAGES
- GEOGRAPHIC AREAS
- TYPES OF MATERIALS COLLECTED
- FORMAT OF MATERIALS COLLECTED
- OTHER RESOURCES AVAILABLE
- CREATION DATE
- REVISION DATE
- LC CLASS
- BIBLIOGRAPHER
- COLLECTING INTENSITY CHART is located on a separate page.
Nursing
The Biomedical Libraries, comprising the Dana Biomedical Library in Hanover and the Matthews-Fuller Health Sciences Library in Lebanon, are two units of the Dartmouth College Library system. The mission of the Biomedical Libraries is to provide information resources and services in support of the educational and research programs of the Dartmouth Medical School and the Department of Biological Sciences of Dartmouth College, as well as the patient care programs of the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital and The Hitchcock Clinic. The Libraries accomplish this mission through broad, relevant and accessible collections, appropriate facilities and quality service by helpful and expert staff using current technologies, collaborative strategies, and expanding information networks.
The nursing collection supports the patient care, nursing research, continuing education activities at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) and to some extent, educational activities for DHMC nurses pursuing higher degrees. Funds for this collection are allocated from a fee-for-service contract between the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital Department of Nursing and the Biomedical Libraries. The emphasis is on currency of materials rather than historical or research level materials.
The nursing collection is almost entirely housed at Matthews-Fuller Health Sciences Library; exceptions are the United States government depository materials at Dana, and the small collections of special and historical materials housed in the Dana Special Collection Room and the Special Collections Department at Baker Memorial Library.
There are no degrees offered in nursing at Dartmouth College nor from any of the components of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. The Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital School of Nursing closed in 1980, at which time a library service arrangement was made between Dana Biomedical Library and the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital (MHMH) Department of Nursing. This agreement essentially specifies that the Biomedical Libraries hire a nursing librarian, manage a collection for nursing resources, and offer specialized library services such as photocopying, table of contents photocopy services, and educational services. For its part, the MHMH Department of Nursing allocates a part of its annual budget to the Biomedical Libraries for this service. The Biomedical Libraries reviews this agreement with the MHMH Department of Nursing annually. See the Biomedical Libraries Fact Sheet #10 for more information on the Nursing Library Program and library services to nursing personnel.
The MHMH Department of Nursing contracts with several area colleges and universities to offer clinical rotations for their students:
- Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH
- Vermont College, Montpelier & Northfield, VT
- New Hampshire Vocational Technical College, Claremont and Berlin, NH
- University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
- University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH
- University of Massachusetts, Amherst & Worcester, MA
At this time these students do not have borrowing privileges and are not considered primary clientele.
The general subject area is nursing. Specific areas include: Administration, Ambulatory care, Anesthesia, Cardiovascular, Community Health, Critical care, Emergency & Trauma, Ethics/Decision-making, Geriatric, Gastroenterology, History, Informatics, Maternity & Midwifery, Medical, Neonatology, Neurology, Oncology, Pediatrics, Pharmacology, Philosophy, Practical, Psychiatry, Renal, Research, Respiratory, Surgery, Techniques and procedures, Theory, and Urology.
Other libraries in the Dartmouth College Library system maintain resources of interest to nursing. They are primarily the Business & Engineering Library for business and management materials and the Baker Memorial Library for psychology, education, and sociology. Other college resources such as Project CORK and the PILOTS indexing project are important to note.
Presently, only English language materials are collected.
The material in nursing describes subjects which are generally independent of geography. Possible exceptions are materials relating to the nurse practice acts and technical reports on nursing in Vermont and New Hampshire.
Standing orders for publications with the American Nurses Association and National League of Nursing are maintained.
Nursing dissertations, technical and grant reports are excluded unless they pertain to the Vermont and New Hampshire region and/or are donated to the library.
Print, audiovisuals (predominantly VHS format videocassette), electronic files, such as computer assisted instruction computer files (Macintosh format preferred), and CD ROM are collected. All types of realia are considered: an example of this is the Heart Sounds Tutor, which reproduces heart and breath sounds via the stethoscope.
Special collections and manuscripts are not actively collected; a limited amount of materials is kept in the Dana Rare Books area in Dana Biomedical Library and the Special Collections Department at Baker Memorial Library. Consult the polices from those units on the handling of these materials.
See list of area colleges which offer nursing degrees in Dartmouth College Program section. Other resources include United States Government Depository, the VA Hospital in White River Junction, Vermont, and worldwide computer networks such as the Internet.
April 1981 (Shirley Grainger-Inselburg)
January 1994
RT(all), RC(select), RD(select)
Fred Pond
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Last updated February 17, 1999 by: CMDC@Dartmouth.Edu (jdh)