Archive for the ‘Collection Management’ Category
October 29th, 2009 by Terry Simpkins
I was asked this today, and it seemed like such an innocuous question. So I decided to do some investigating. I was expecting, oh, I don’t know, maybe 5,000 or so. Was I ever wrong!
First, the definition of the question took some untangling. Does this mean current subscriptions? Does it mean individual subscriptions that we choose specifically to receive, or does it count the titles we receive as part of “big deals” from vendors like Elsevier? Does it mean stuff we pay cold hard cash for, or does it include freebies, such as the 4000+ open access journals that are readily accessible on the web (and which are all included in the library catalog)? Or does it mean just the print stuff we receive in hard copy?
After some hemming & hawing, I decided the most interesting questions were: 1) how many journal titles do we have access to altogether, both current & ceased? and 2) how many journal titles do we currently subscribe to, regardless of format, regardless of cost?
With help from the cataloging, acquisitions, and serials departments, I discovered that:
1) we currently have access to an astounding total of approximately 42,443 journal titles; and
2) of these, approximately 38,000 are current.
Furthermore, about 5,100+ are print titles (current & ceased) and we have free web access to about 4,300+ titles from the Directory of Open Access. Catalog records for all of these titles are in MIDCAT.
This is an incredible resource for our students and faculty (and staff!), and many thanks to all the people — acquisitions & collection development folks, catalogers, systems people, infrastructure people, librarian liaisons & selectors, etc. etc. — who have worked hard over the years to make this possible. And this is just one small part of the many many many services LIS provides. Really amazing.
October 29th, 2009 by Hans Raum
Horace Ward Bailey was a native Vermonter who served the state in many capacities, from state Senator and U. S. Marshall to State Railroad Commissioner and member of the Champlain Tercentenary Commission, but he may well be best remembered for his collection of Vermont pamphlets, which “was one of the most complete in the country and included some of the rarest known specimens of the early days of the history of the State,” according to a memorial volume written by his friends.
After Mr. Bailey’s death in 1914, his collection of Vermont pamphlets was purchased from his estate for the library at Middlebury College. For many decades this collection of 130 bound volumes of pamphlets had a paper index, but was otherwise uncataloged and unused. Thanks to a recently completed ten-year project by the Catalog Department, the pamphlets have been cataloged, and the most unique and interesting pamphlets are being digitized as well.
The earliest pamphlet in the collection dates back to 1794 and other pamphlets date from the very early 1800’s to Bailey’s death in 1914 and cover a broad range of topics, from town histories to railroad annual reports and a report on the Dred Scott decision on slavery. As we celebrate the quadricentennial of the discovery of Lake Champlain by Samuel de Champlain in 1609, it is worth noting that there is an extensive collection of materials on the Lake Champlain and Hudson River Tercentenary among the Bailey Pamphlets.
All of the cataloged pamphlets (well over 900) can be found in Midcat by doing a title search on Bailey’s Collection of Vermont Pamphlets. The pamphlets are shelved in the locked portion of the Vermont Collection, which is in Special Collections.
Many thanks go to the staff of the Catalog Department for their hard work and tenacity in completing this ambitious project.
October 23rd, 2009 by Barbara Merz
First in an occasional series of posts from the archives of the LIS eNewsletter. November 2008
If we don’t have a book you want, we can get it for you quickly. Through Interlibrary Loan, Middlebury College students, faculty, and staff can use books, journal articles, and other research materials owned by libraries across the country. Here’s how to make an interlibrary loan request:
1) Search for the item in the NExpress catalog (shortcut: http://go.middlebury.edu/nexpress). If you find the item there, click on the “Request” link and fill out the form. Books should be delivered to the Main Library within a week, articles should be delivered to your email inbox within a few days.
2) If your item is not available in NExpress, fill out the Illiad form (shortcut: http://go.middlebury.edu/ill). Books and articles should be delivered to the Main Library within a few weeks.
Tips:
- In MIDCAT and other databases, look for the blue “NExpress” button. It’s a shortcut that searches NExpress for you.
- In FirstSearch databases such as WorldCat, MLA and PsycInfo, try the button first. If Middlebury does not own the item then you can request it from NExpress or traditional Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad).
- Always try to order from NExpress first. Article requests that cannot be filled by NExpress are automatically forwarded to ILLiad for ILL processing.
October 14th, 2009 by Terry Simpkins
On Tues, Oct. 6, 2009, a group of us met to discuss how LIS support for the Middlebury@Mills language schools program went this summer. Notes from the meeting are below.
Terry
——————————————–
Present: Terry Simpkins (notes), Joseph Watson, Joy Pile, Michele McHugh, Rachel Manning, Bill Warren, Dan Frostman, Abbie Bennett (phone), Alma Garcia (phone)
Positives
The information (segue) page for Middlebury at Mills was helpful – Mills linked to it from their catalog page. Mills folks wondered if there was a need to password-protect it in case there was any sensitive information on the site.
The process of shipping books to California and emailing the MARC records to Alma generally worked well. Mills placed colored “Middlebury at Mills” stickers on the spines of the language materials sent to them, in part to help their staff recognize these materials.
ILL requests were generally processed and received quickly.
The program as a whole seemed to go reasonably smoothly
Room for improvement
There were a couple of minor errors with the items/MARC records we sent that Mills caught and corrected on their end. E.g. missing locations (on some reference items); some of the items we sent had our Browsing call no. in the record, not an LC number.
The Spanish collection was rather modest – we should consider beefing up for next year.
Middlebury acquisitions noted that the process of purchasing materials for the Middlebury at Mills program via using money from the Language School budget and specifying a variety of fund codes (vs. having additional money transferred into the LIS budget) was burdensome and inefficient. For next summer, they advocate strongly for simply transferring money to the LIS budget, and LIS can provide any reports and information the Language School program might desire for tracking purposes.
Some of the URLs in the student handbook for off-campus access to resources differ from the on-campus URLs. This was noted at the beginning of the handbook, but the examples throughout the handbook tended to use the on-campus URL. We should review these and make sure the links are not misleading to students.
Mills mentioned a few problems after registration in seeing available classes.
Mills noted that a handful of faculty (primarily in the French program) were not included in the Banner feed, which required adding them into the library system on the fly. Dan noted this also happened here.
Mills noted that there were some student concerns about the Mills library hours. They will review their staffing needs/abilities before next summer, with an eye toward possibly extending hours somewhat. The only pay copier is in the library, which contributed to the demand for evening access to the library.
Mills noted a few patrons had difficulty generating requests for items held by Middlebury. They will send more details when Michael (Mills) is back from vacation. We need to review and possibly revise this process before next summer.
Open questions
Will the student handbook be printed again next year, or just online?
ILL received ca. 20 total requests from ca. 6 patrons, although a couple patrons did not pick up their requested items – perhaps a result of the accelerated class schedule of the Language Schools.
We have asked Mills for circulation statistics for the Middlebury at Mills materials we sent, and also any issues that come to light once the evaluations have been reviewed.
October 14th, 2009 by Terry Simpkins
Thanks to everyone who attended my humble presentation on Monday. The presentation (without my comedic asides, of course) is available at: http://prezi.com/nyazdtf-1z0o/ (Flash 9 or better is required)
The URLs for the various sites I mentioned are clickable from within the presentation itself. Please feel free to let me know if you encounter problems or would just like to talk about cool music sites (or cool music).
Terry
PS – if you have a favorite “free, legal” music site to add, why not post a comment?
October 8th, 2009 by jtoth
The library purchases most of its big-ticket items in June, the end of the fiscal year, after invoices for expenditures have been received and paid, when we know precisely what’s left to spend. In May, we sort through requests to purchase databases, journals and other resources and rank them by need as best as we can; we also review low-use subscription resources to determine if we may cancel any to clear space in this account for new acquisitions. (At present, there are two ways to acquire a new subscription database: to cancel an old one or to reduce the book fund permanently by the cost of the new database.) Here are big-ticket items acquired last June for FY10:
Periodicals Archive Online Collection Extensions.
PAO is an archive of hundreds of digitized, full-image articles published in journals of the arts, humanities and social sciences, providing access to more than 200 years of scholarship. Earliest PAO journals begin in 1802; we advanced coverage of this collection by five years, from 1995 to 2000.
Link: http://biblio.middlebury.edu/record=b2117470~S2
Oxford Encyclopedia of Popular Music Online. The 10-volume Encyclopedia of Popular Music is a comprehensive reference work devoted exclusively to popular music. In addition to being regularly updated, it will also be fully cross-searchable with Grove Music Online in the new Oxford Music Online gateway.
Link: http://biblio.middlebury.edu/record=b1569964~S2
Godey’s Lady’s Book Folios. Godey’s Lady’s Book, a 19th century magazine for women, was the most successful women’s magazine in the United States by the outbreak of the Civil War, with a circulation of 150,000 and an estimated readership of a million persons. We acquired folios VII (1886-1889) and VIII (1892, 1893, 1896) to complete the run of this publication.
Link: http://biblio.middlebury.edu/record=b2129257~S2
–Joe Toth
October 8th, 2009 by jtoth
To cope with the recent economic decline, the College asked all units to cut operating budgets by 5% last winter, followed by news that FY10 budgets would at least be flat-funded, a de facto roll back. Since the library hasn’t experienced such deep cuts in decades–if ever–we thought it would be useful to state how we prefer to build collections in the midst of smaller fund accounts and modest prospects for budget growth.
By obligation, the Library collects information resources to support the curricular needs of the College’s academic departments. We strive to provide relevant materials for established programs and to assemble, to the extent possible, retrospective core collections for new College-sponsored academic initiatives. Collection subjects reflect the undergraduate curriculum, and collection developers are informed by class enrollments, intensity of use, new course offerings, and areas of study which must be supported by strong local holdings.
The primary way we build subject collections is by acquiring materials we think will be used by those teaching and taking courses presently offered by the College. This process is a year-by-year layering of new course materials upon older ones, perhaps best described as follows: in year one, professor X (in addition to her textbook order) submits requests to the library for books that augment required readings for a course she is currently teaching; in year two, professor X submits requests for additional books that further augment readings for this same course. Over the years, as X continues to teach this course, the library steadily shapes a collection around this curricular subject. We try to avoid the opposite approach, to expend large sums of money on a single course all at once, because creating an “opening day” collection means significantly reducing acquisitions in other subjects, and because by having sustained curricular activity drive collecting levels, we’re advancing collections incrementally according to needs of students and teachers.
–Joe Toth
September 1st, 2009 by Doreen Bernier
Submitted by Joe Toth
Here’s an illustration of some of the benefits of our new Bookeye scanner and BSCAN software. With this software ILL staff will now be able to scan two very large pages at one time–with the BSCAN splitting them into two distinct, reasonably sized images. The program automatically corrects errors, smoothes the curvature of the book, straightens crooked pages, and even removes fingers from the image. With the addition of cover sheet recognition, automatic updating and color imaging, this new setup will streamline the ILL scanning process and permit readers to read more easily.
August 14th, 2009 by Michael Warner
Submitted by Michael Warner
In case you were wondering what all those little orange flags are that are peeking out of many volumes in the Bound Periodicals section on the lower level in the Main Library—fret no more!
Collection Management staff and the Collection Development Librarian, in concert with the Liaisons, have done a major review of our periodical collections, with a focus on withdrawing most titles to which we have online access. These journals, primarily available online via our JSTOR, Project MUSE and PAO collections, are being withdrawn and removed from the collection. And, the orange flags indicate which sets of volumes will be withdrawn as the project progresses.
Begun last spring, we are now about 25 % of the way through pulling JSTOR titles—which represent the largest portion of the project. It is time consuming as many different records for each title involved have to be edited to assure consistency (in MIDCAT: bib, item, and serial-holding records are changed, and in WorldCat holdings records are updated as well.) One important thing to note: Currently, our local holdings, on the A to Z List are becoming more and more out of sync with what is in the collection—that is because it is impossible to update it as we move along. (Electronic Assess does remain current!) A more up-to-date list of local holdings will be generated before the Fall term commences.
Electronic access has proven to be more convenient for both student and faculty researchers, and removing the bound volumes from the shelves provides the library with more flexibility as to how the library space is organized. We expect that this will free up significant space—at latest count, close to 700 shelves will be emptied—allowing for significant consolidation of the Bound Periodicals collection. Titles of particular historic value (e.g., those with important illustrations) will be retained and transferred into Special Collections. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Joe Toth or Terry Simpkins.
July 16th, 2009 by Elin Waagen
Submitted by Elin Waagen
Middlebury now participates in the VCAL reciprocal borrowing program. This program allows faculty from Middlebury to walk-in to participating libraries in the state and borrow materials from them as if they were full guest borrowers of that library.
*Faculty need to fill out a form and get a VCAL card from Main Circ
*Faculty are expected to return borrowed items to the owning library
*Faculty are expected to abide by the owning library’s guest circulation policies
Please feel free to contact Terry with any general VCAL questions and Elin with any specific borrowing questions.
July 16th, 2009 by jtoth
Submitted by Joe Toth
LIS has acquired from DLSG (http://www.dlsg.net/) a digitization system that will simplify and speed up interlibrary loan processing. It consists of a Bookeye 2 Color Planetary Scanner with overhead scan design and scan/print electronics that include auto-focus and book-fold correction to safeguard book bindings and to increase scanning efficiency. The scanner also has automatic centering and border removal, as well as text and photographic scan modes. The second component of the system is BSCAN ILL production capture software designed for interlibrary loan departments. It permits staff to scan, review, and rescan items very rapidly, while its image cleanup features provide optimum image quality. It also reads barcoded loan request sheets and automatically sends scanned articles to requestors through Ariel or ILLiad, a highly desired combining of processing steps will make ILL staffers smile! ILL will use the grayscale and color modes sparingly, as they produce files often too large for libraries to receive; however, since this refurbished machine cost less than a new black and white model with a smaller bed, we thought the additional size and features could be used to support in-house projects. The scanner has a 400 DPI maximum, as it is not the manufacturer’s newest model.
June 15th, 2009 by Cynthia Watters
Large gifts from the late Professor Hiroshi Miyaji and from Robert and Take Dean have increased Middlebury’s Japanese Collection by 50%; we now have approximately 4500 items in the collection. (In addition, items containing some English as well as Japanese (including bi-lingual dictionaries) are in the regular stacks and video materials are in the video collections.)
While cataloging the new acquisitions, we recataloged the items already in the collection. The call numbers were changed from a non-standard system to the standard Library of Congress system used in the rest of the library. In addition the Japanese characters were added to the records so now the description contains both the romanized forms and the characters themselves. We hope these enhancements will make our catalog and our collection more usable and rewarding. Someday we may even be able to search MIDCAT using characters!
The Japanese Collection has extensive works of Japanese literature and works on Japanese literature, philosophy, religion, and history but also includes resources on almost any subject imaginable.<
For the first few weeks of the Japanese summer school, a significant selection of recently added titles is displayed in the New Book shelves section of the Main Library. Books we did not add to the collection or which have been removed from the collection will be displayed separately for sale beginning in late June; these books are chiefly duplicates of items already in the collection and may well be of interest to individuals.
The items on the new bookshelves are in call number order–even though bookjackets prevent the call numbers from being visible. If you or a patron needs to find a particular book, you need to partially remove the jacket to see the spine or to look in the back of the book where the call number is written in pencil. Note also that, although I say ‘back’ because we think of it as back, it is indeed the front of the book for Japanese and other languages written right to left.
–Cynthia Watters
June 5th, 2009 by William Warren
Submitted by Bill Warren
As many already know, Mary-Ruth Crawford has decided to retire from her position as Senior Bibliographic Searcher (and doyenne of the Library Acquisitions Department). Her last day will be Friday 12 June.
In her three decades of exemplary service, Mary-Ruth has become a library legend. She is a consummate worker, a treasured resource—both professional and personal—and a cheerfully-humanizing presence among us.
All who work or interact with Mary-Ruth in any way regard her with admiration and affection, and will feel a sense of wistfulness at her departure. With her goodwill, optimism, and resolute spirit, to rely on, Mary-Ruth will undoubtedly enjoy the satisfying and fulfilling retirement to which her laudable career has entitled her.
June 5th, 2009 by Michael Roy
Submitted by Mike Roy
I’ve started a blog called (following Tim Spears’ lead ) “Another Dean’s View” and recently posted a piece about cooperative collection development inspired by a recent meeting with my colleagues from other library’s in the northeast. The piece is called “The Dream of a Single Library” . I’m hoping this might serve as a springboard for conversations about our views on the future of our library collection in particular, and library collections in general.
- mike
May 8th, 2009 by Elin Waagen
Submitted by Elin Waagen
In collaboration with NExpress partner libraries, LIS has recently implemented a couple of very nice enhancements to the NExpress service we offer.
NExpress now offers a third renewal to accommodate research needs.
Midd now loans out DVD’s from the Browsing Collection – and we can now request DVD’s from NExpress partner libraries.
Books – 28 day loan
DVD’s – 7 day loan
Pass the Word!
Midd staff, faculty and students who will be living or traveling near our NExpress partner libraries during the summer can borrow directly from them – Colby, Bates, Bowdoin, Northeastern, Williams and Wellesley – with their Midd ID.
April 10th, 2009 by William Warren
Submitted by Bill Warren
We have recently started purchasing materials for the new Middlebury summer-language program at Mills College, which will start this year. Courses will be offered in Arabic (all levels), and French, Italian, and Spanish (lower levels). The items we buy will be received and paid for here. Then, after cataloging and processing, they will be shipped to Mills (in Oakland, California). Fortunately, the money to pay for these resources is not coming from the library materials budget, which has suffered a reduction of almost 6% this year because of the lamentable state of the economy. The necessary funds—a relatively modest amount, since lower-level language courses tend not to be very library-intensive—are being furnished by the language-schools administration. Thanks to colleagues in the language schools and the financial offices, we have received the necessary authorizations to directly expend money from the budget lines involved, rather than having to resort to cumbersome internal transfers of funds from one budget to another for each purchase. About 10% of the money allocated has been committed so far.
March 2nd, 2009 by Elin Waagen
Submitted by Elin Waagen
The cost of replacing library materials has gone up.
After careful consideration and collaboration between Collections Management and Circulation Services, we have updated default replacement values to match the increased cost of replacing lost or damaged library materials.
Please note that effective March 1, 2009, the following changes will be in effect:
Books (including ILL and NEXpress), Music scores, Gov Docs – $100
Media – $40
Browsing Collection Books – $30
Equipment – $25-$2000, depending on the item
Default replacement values include a processing fee of $20
February 20th, 2009 by Doreen Bernier
Conference Report – ALA Midwinter Meeting
January 23-26, 2009 – Denver, CO
Joe Toth
A. Committee Work:
I’m a member of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), an ALA subdivision. In the Collection Management & Development Section (CMDS), I serve on the Collection Development and Electronic Resources (CDER) committee, which I will chair from July 2009 through June 2010. (Soon, I will be schooled in ALA protocols of note-taking, submitting program proposals, sponsoring e-forums, and the like, all of which will imbue in me the spirit of administration I thus far lack.) CDER had two scheduled activities:
1. CDER Committee Meeting Topics:
o preparations for CDER-sponsored program at 2009 Annual
o ALCTS E-Forum (we’ll host one in the Spring)
o brainstorming Program Topics for 2010 Annual
o CDER Committee Chair nominations and other member business
o professional matters on our minds (”It’s the economy, stupid”)
o CMDS Executive Board Discussion Topic: “Organizational Adaptability”
At ALA Annual in July, we’ll host a program entitled “Collecting for Digital Repositories: New Ways to Disseminate and Share Information,” in which speakers from institutional (Nebraska), disciplinary (NLM), and data (Johns Hopkins) repositories will present perspectives on the state of their endeavors. Our E-Forum probably will concern e-books, and the subject of our next program might be on “big deals”.
2. ALCTS Collection Development in Academic Libraries Discussion Group / CDER meeting:
CDER co-sponsored a meeting to discuss issues raised at the 2008 Charleston Conference; the topics were usage statistics and e-book issues. Eighty (80) people attended, a good turn-out for midwinter. Half the room gathered to speak on usage stats, the other on e-books. Topics included: policies on how usage statistics are used in collection development; methods of gathering usage stats; making sense of e-book packages; use of e-books by faculty & students; and models for academic libraries and consortia.
3. ALCTS CMDS Executive Board Meeting:
I sat in as CDER representative for our committee chair. The executive board has a secretary who takes exhaustive notes, so I was relieved of that burden. We spoke of the new web site, of past action items, and most importantly, of “organizational adaptability,” a topic proffered to all in ALCTS for discussion. Given the advancing age of ALA members, the relative dearth of new enrollees, and the structures of the current economy, ALA and all of its subgroups have to examine how they plan to do business in the future. We must reorganize to reflect the organization structures of contemporary libraries, and we must unbundle sections so librarians have the option of joining smaller groups.
B. Program Attendance:
I attended a few programs and discussion sessions before and after my committee chores.
1. ALCTS Continuing Resources Section College and Research Libraries Interest Group
(slides: http://wikis.ala.org/midwinter2009/index.php/ALCTS)
– Peter McCracken (Co-founder & Director of Research, Serials Solutions): A KBART Update – Improving Patrons’ Access to Electronic Resources. UKSG commissioned a research report (Link Resolvers and the Serials Supply Chain) ‘to identify the new relationships and information exchange requirements … [necessary] to maximise the benefit of OpenURL linking.’ See the KBART report at: http://www.niso.org/workrooms/kbart.
– Beth R. Bernhardt (Electronic Resources Librarian, Univ. of North Carolina Greensboro): Dealing with Free E-Journals: Are they worth the effort? Sources for free journals: HighWire; Open J-gate; Scielo; EMIS.
– Nicole E. Engard (Open Source Evangelist, LibLime): Serials Management in KOHA’s open source library software.
2. CMDS Discussion Group for Practitioners — Open Forum:
For ninety minutes, thirty to forty people sat around a large table and traded stories on how they’re coping with tough economic times. It’s clear that ARL members worry that budget cuts directly attack the definition of their mission, to collect the entire work product of academe, and that state schools are suffering through the bleak vicissitudes of state budgets. One piece of news leap out at me: UMass-Amherst will reduce its book budget over the next two years by 83%. Concomitantly, the Five Colleges will create a shared approval plan to address book buying jointly. This development displays a response/counter-response I hope is noted by NExpress members!
C. Roaming the Exhibits:
I don’t roam exhibits very well, as it smacks too much of shopping. Instead, I look for people I know to trade information with. All of this is done expeditiously–and free samples are avoided, for I hate to carry anything. However, I did have a chore to perform. I sought out the makers of BSCAN (http://www.dlsg.net/bscan.shtml), production capture software that permits staff to collapse steps in the article ILL lending process and thus improve workflow and efficiency. We’ve been in contact with DLGS, the parent company, so I met with them to follow up on our mail messages and to look at the WideTEK scanners firsthand. Interlibrary Loan has submitted an equipment request for a BSCAN/WideTEK set-up, which would cost between $17,000 and $23,000 one-time monies and $1500 to $2000 per year maintenance fees. (These prices are quotations–we haven’t pushed back on the numbers.) This request is a long-shot, to be sure, but it’s helpful to record unit aspirations so others may see in what direction we wish to grow.
January 26th, 2009 by Patricia Hornbeck
Submitted by Patty Hornbeck
Just in time for the 81st Academy Awards — for those of you who are interested — the newly revamped Web site of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was officially launched earlier this month.
Thanks to the work of graduate interns Brendan Smith and Brendan Owens, a portal to the lecture archive which allows much better access is now online at go/dla. Marlena Evans and Kristin Geoghagen have been cataloging the recent lectures in CONTENTdm.
The Film and Media Culture Department will offer a public screening of Revolutionary Road on Sunday, March 15. The screenwriter, Justin Haythe (Midd ‘96) will be on hand to introduce the film and engage in a Q-and-A about it after the screening. The film won a Golden Globe Best Actress prize for Kate Winslet a week or so ago, and now has an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Increasingly, films purchased on DVD are coming with a digital copy for the purpose of transferring to a PC, Mac, iPod, etc. We’re investigating what the options for these are, and how other libraries are dealing with them.
January 26th, 2009 by Judy Watts
Submitted by Judy Watts
Carrie MacFarlane, Jean Simmons, Cynthia Watters, and I are currently hard at work pounding out guidelines that describe and define the Reference Collection. This hasn’t been done in some time. Changes in technologies, the shift to digital formats, new curricular developments, and the need to serve students and faculty in the libraries and around the globe, not to mention the budget, are forcing us to examine everything from what should be acquired, to formats, to deselection and retention policies. We expect to have a draft ready soon so that other Reference Librarians can go over it with a fine-tooth comb.
Joy Pile is going through the same process for the Music collection. In each case we must establish the purpose and scope of the collection to guide our acquisition decisions. Then, we must enumerate and define factors to apply to each title under consideration, e.g., anticipated use, authority, audience level, cost, alternative sources for the information, and platform stability for digital sources. Our policies also must inform selectors of the procedures to follow to place requests for new resources. Finally, we’ll look at how we assess the effectiveness of the collections, and describe the process for removing items from the collections.
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