Collection Development Policies

Contact: Information Desk (509) 372-7430

Collection Development Policy and Procedures, March 2005

Mission

In response to advances in technology and the changing needs of users, the Hanford Technical Library (HTL) endeavors to develop collections, resources and services that meet the ongoing and emerging programmatic needs of all Hanford contractors. In support of this mission, the HTL acquires information resources in a variety of formats. Acquiring electronic resources that make information accessible at users' desktops is of high priority. We also acquire access to information, through direct licensing from authorized providers, or by making consortial agreements with publishers, libraries or other national laboratories. While the primary emphasis is placed on scientific and technical information, secondary emphasis is placed on providing administrative or support needs. The Library also attempts to acquire and maintain the relatively expensive reference resources that are of general use or whose cost prevents them from being purchased directly by a program on-site.

Roles and Responsibilities

The Collection Development Committee consists of the Collection Development Coordinator, the manager of Electronic & Technical Services, and the information specialists assigned to subject areas. This professional library staff determines what resources should be added to and removed from the collection.

Subject Area Specialists:

Communicate with researchers in the subject area(s) to make contacts, find out about new programs, and solicit requests for materials.
Monitor professional literature for appropriate library acquisitions.
Monitor subject area expenditures to ensure allocation is spent.
Keep the collection development coordinator informed of new programs and special library needs of the collection.
Assist in collection evaluation and weeding activities in the subject area(s) of the collection.

Collection Development Coordinator:

Works with the Library Director, the Assistant Director for E&TS, the Collection Development Committee, and research staff to coordinate the implementation of the Collection Development Policy.
Oversees the development of the collection as a whole to ensure adequacy, timeliness, balance, and quality.

Selection Process

Selection Guidelines

The materials selection process involves professional judgment, knowledge of the collection, and an ability to assess current and future needs.

General Criteria

Material should be evaluated for its accuracy, authoritativeness, importance of subject matter to the collection, and cost.

Relevance to actual or potential needs of research programs at Hanford and PNNL.
Scope and content. Selectors must gauge each acquisition in terms of the breadth and depth of information needed by our primary users. Generally speaking, we do not purchase textbooks or "popular" literature.
Reputation of author and publisher, detail of bibliography and index, etc.
Price. Anything over $1,000 must be approved by the entire CD committee. When evaluating "free" materials, the cost of acquisitions processing, cataloging, shelving and preservation must be considered.
Format. The format of the item should be taken into consideration. For example, if it is offered only on CD-ROM, decisions need to be made about whether it would be circulated or put at a user station in the Library.
Multiple Copies. If there are a high number of requests for an item the CD specialist should determine whether a second copy is needed. The purchase needs to be approved by the CD Coordinator and the Manager, Electronic & Technical Services.

Tools

Sources for determining what should be added to the collection should include the following:

Publishers' announcements
Professional review media
Circulation and interlibrary loan activity patterns
Contractor publications and an awareness of Hanford research directions
User input. This is very valuable and the HTL acquires a high percentage of the suggested items

The Collection Development Coordinator sorts through advertisements and distributes them among the subject specialists. These reference specialists make preliminary recommendations, which are reviewed by the coordinator.

Special Collections

Standing Orders

Titles on standing order have two characteristics in common: they are seldom reviewed in the professional reviewing journals and/or they are important enough to the collection that receiving them automatically without evaluating individual volumes is better than missing them. However, the use/contribution of standing order and continuation titles should be evaluated annually by the subject specialists who may recommend their cancellation.

Online Resources

Internet resources (databases, websites, and "free" or open access online journals) may be suggested to the appropriate subject specialist who will be responsible for evaluating their selection and writing a description for the webmaster. The following criteria should be considered for their inclusion:

Coverage and relevancy of the resource's information
Credibility and reputation of the producer
Compatibility with our existing equipment and servers

Gifts

Gifts of books and other library materials are gratefully accepted with the understanding that they will be considered for addition to the collection in accordance with the selection policy. The HTL reserves the right to dispose of gift materials not added to the collection. The Collection Development Coordinator (or appointee) will review this material as to its relevancy to the HTL collection and/or will offer other valuable material to the WSU Library director. Any material not added to the collection, which is marked with a Government Property stamp, must be excessed.

Budget Allocations

When the book budget is allocated the following factors are taken into consideration:

Past spending
Current needs of the discipline
Future needs as indicated by Lab initiatives or new projects

Subject Areas

The book budget has been divided into the following subject areas with one information specialist responsible for the purchases in each area. If an information specialist comes across a title that is in someone else's call number range, the information should be forwarded to the appropriate buyer.

Biology/Ecology
Business
Chemistry
Computer Science
Engineering
Environmental
Information Science
Legal
Materials/Metals
Mathematics
Medicine
Nuclear
Other Non-Science
Other Science
Physics
Reference
Standards

Maintenance of the Collection

Binding

Periodicals are prepared in-house and sent out to be commercially bound. The decision may be made by the CD Committee not to bind periodicals that are being received electronically. Books are rebound as needed.

Replacements

Lost and missing items are replaced out of a separate subject area in the budget breakdown. The CD Coordinator will follow the procedures for lost and missing books and determine whether an item will be replaced and, if so, whether it will be the same item or a newer version.

Weeding Books

Weeding of library materials is necessary because of limited space and to keep the collection relevant. The same criteria for selection should also be used for weeding the collection. In addition, the following factors may be considered:

Past and projected use as substantiated by circulation statistics and in-house use. Be sure to look at the book itself to study the stamped date-due slip.
Physical condition
Age of the titles in relation to the subject matter. Does the collection reflect the current literature of the discipline?
Multiple copies
Broken runs and short runs of dated periodicals
Obsolete media
Superseded editions of no value

Weeding Journals

The following factors will be taken into account and the following procedures will be followed when weeding the print journal collection:

Usage statistics will be analyzed and unused titles will be short listed for excessing
Subject area and relevance to current research needs will be taken into account
OCLC will be checked to ensure that the title and holdings are available at another library if document delivery is needed in the future
The subject specialist for that area will be consulted for final approval

Database Maintenance to Reflect the Collection

The online catalog and OCLC need to be updated whenever a book or journal is removed from the collection. A weeded title needs to have its bibliographic and/or item record removed from the catalog and our holdings symbol deleted from OCLC.

Journal Cancellations and Additions

If an electronic-only version of a journal is available, that is the version that we will order unless there is a reason that we need the print, such as for better graphics. If we cannot order the journal without print, we will not check-in the print issues on Horizon; these copies will be placed on the current journal shelf for a specified period of time. This period of time will be noted in the catalog record. At the end of that time, the paper copies will be removed and will not be bound or placed upstairs.

Usage Statistics

Quarterly surveys are done of print journal usage. These statistics are used by the CD committee to assist in determining if current journals are being used and if older runs of journals can be weeded.

Statistics are also kept for photocopying of in-house journals which goes on all year. This use is part of the evaluation for weeding.

Electronic journal usage statistics are collected on a monthly or quarterly basis depending on the vendor.

In addition, the annual report from the DD vendor (CISTI) is consulted, as well as the spreadsheet of ILL/DD requests.

Cancellations

Usage statistics, user feedback, Laboratory research needs and CD Committee input are used to make decisions on whether to cancel current journal subscriptions. If a journal is held electronically and there are no usage statistics the committee will err on the side of keeping the journal.

Once a decision has been made to cancel a journal the following people need to be notified:

the Electronic Library Specialist
the Acquisitions Clerks
the Catalog Librarian

Once the last issue has been received, records in Horizon, OCLC and the e-resources database will be updated.

Journal Additions

The CD Committee looks at requests for journals from researchers, ILL usage statistics, the requests recorded in Reflog, research needs of the Lab, and other sources, such as Wiley token usage, to determine titles to add to the collection.