General Collection Development Policy Statements
See our approach to developing and disseminating new scholarship. If you have questions or comments, please contact the current selector(s) listed at the end of the policy.
General Policy Statements
These general policy statements provide a broad overview of each guide.
General Selection Guidelines
Individual subject policies complement the Dartmouth Libraries Collection Management Policy, which together provide selectors with a road map for making the decisions that are integral to the lifecycle of collection development and management.
The Libraries' primary goal is to provide Dartmouth's current and future community with the greatest wealth of resources in the most effective and efficient ways, reflecting the Internet-enabled and collaborative environment in which Dartmouth works.
In this current environment, the Libraries is no longer exclusively self-dependent. "Collective collecting" with partner institutions now informs much of our collection development work. This strategy is reflected in the overall Collection Management Policy as well as in individual policies.
Relevance to the actual or potential needs of Dartmouth faculty and students
Selectors maintain close ties with their respective academic departments, institutes, and research programs, which are the primary stakeholders in a particular subject or interdisciplinary area.
Selectors keep informed about:
- research activities
- new and departing faculty
- grants received
- and curriculum changes in their areas of responsibility.
This information permits selectors to meet the current needs of Dartmouth faculty and students and anticipate future ones.
Selectors comprehensively collect important general monographs related to the research and teaching interests of the Dartmouth community, and selectively acquire more specialized materials.
Preference is given to serial titles that are of key interest to the disciplines as they are researched and taught at Dartmouth. Those that are of secondary interest are collected more selectively.
Depth of the existing collection in the subject and local availability of the item
When considering the purchase of a new title, selectors must also consider the strengths and weaknesses of the existing collection in which the new title will be located.
While we generally build upon strengths, unneeded redundancy is avoided. The availability of very expensive or somewhat tangential titles from partner libraries is also part of the decision-making process. For journals with documented or expected low use, borrowing from partner institutions is considered an alternative to subscription.
Quality
We evaluate the quality of a title by weighing several subjective factors collectively, including:
- its scholarship
- level of creativity
- lasting value
- author's reputation
- publisher, contributors, and editorial board
- quality and importance of the illustrations
- bibliographies included, and more.
None of these are the deciding factors alone. Together, factors contribute to or detract from the overall quality of the item.
Currency and timeliness
Research in some disciplines, such as the sciences, medicine, and engineering, depends upon access to the most up-to-date information. In these areas, preference is given to materials that report new and revised information in a timely fashion.
The social sciences, arts, and humanities also require timely access to new publications. However, in many areas they are equally committed to the significance of historical materials to support ongoing scholarship. For these subject areas, consideration is given to older materials.
Cost
We measure more than the cost of an item to determine a resource's value to the community. When evaluating a purchase, we consider the price, in addition to other criteria mentioned here. When evaluating "free" materials, we consider the cost of:
- acquisitions processing
- cataloging
- shelving
- and preservation.
Language and country of origin
Dartmouth Libraries collects social sciences and humanities materials in a number of languages to support Dartmouth's foreign language and area studies programs.
Duplication
In general, we avoid duplication of materials when practical.
Preservation and Replacement
At Dartmouth Libraries, we commit to retaining the intellectual content of materials throughout their lifecycle and managing them through their format migration as necessary.