Writing Collection Development Policy Statements

for a Chinese Collection:the Library of Congress Experience

Ming Sun PoonNovember 5, 2008

Hong Kong

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Contrary to popular belief the Library of Congress does not

keep a copy of every title ever published

Chinese Collectionof the

Library of Congress

• LC mission: world repository of human creativity and knowledge

• Half of LC’s book & serial collections are non-English

• Chinese among the 470 languages whose materials are collected

• Growing importance• Over 1 million physical volumes

Impossibility of comprehensiveness

中国出版年鉴 2007图书总计

新出 130,264重印 103,707合计 233,971

Objectives of collection policies

• Planning documents and working tools for selector

• Aid communications between the libraries with users

• Assure consistent and balanced growth of the collections

• Assist in determining and documenting budgetary needs

• Facilitate interlibrary cooperation and resource sharing

LC project to rewrite CPS(Collection Policy Statements)

• Collection Policy Committee set up earlier this year (2008)

• Primary goal:• Review and update• Standardization of format• New CPS drafted / Existing CPS

merged• Parallel project: Collection Overviews

updated

Each Overview consists of 7 sections

• 1 Scope• 2 Size• 3 General research strengths• 4 Areas of distinction• 5 Electronic resources• 6 Weaknesses / Exclusions• 7 Comparison with other institutions

Sections 5 and 7 are new

Present CPS (1)

• Grouped under the Acquisitions webpage• URL:

http://www.loc.gov/acq/devpol/cpsstate.html• 68 statements in one alphabetical list

Present CPS (2)

• 1 Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, 2 Agriculture, 3 Anthropology, 4 Archaeology, 5 Bibliography and Library Science, 6 Biotechnology, 7 Book Jackets, 8 Children’s Literature, 9 Comic Books, 10 Commercial Firms, 11 Developing Countries, 12 Digital Geographic Data and Information, 13 Dissertation and Theses, 14 Economics and Business, 15 Education, 16 Electronic Resources (1999), 17 Electronic Resources, Selection Guidelines (2004), 18 Ephemera, 19 Ethnic Publications, 20 Fantasy and Science Fiction, 21 Filmstrips, 22 Fine and Applied Arts – Books and Periodicals, 23 Fine and Applied Arts – Non-book Materials, 24 Folklife, 25 Folklore, 26 Genealogy, 27 General Works, 28 Geography and Cartography, 29 Government Publications – Foreign, 30 Government Publications – US, 31 Gypsy Studies, 32 History (US Only), 33 Human Nutrition and Food, 34 International Organizations, 35 Law, 36 Literature and Language, 37 Local History, 38 Manuscripts, 39 Maps, Atlases, and Remote Sensing Images, 40 Medicine, 41 Microforms – Quality, 42 Military Science, 43 Motion Pictures, 44 Music, 45 Naval Science, 46 Newspapers – Current – Foreign, 47 Newspapers – US, 48 Non-library Materials, 49 Numismatics and Philately, 50 Periodicals of General Content, 51 Philosophy, 52 Photography, 53 Political Science, 54 Psychology, 55 Religion, 56 Science and Technology, 57 Societies and Associations, 58 Sociology, 59 Sound Recording, 60 Sports and Recreation, 61 Standards, 62 Statistics, 63 Technical Reports, Working Papers and Preprints, 64 Telephone and City Directories, 65 Theater, 66 Translations, 67 Veterinary Science, 68 Web Capture & Archiving.

• For this conference paper, 21 CPS are consulted.

Who writes CPS?

● “… members of the project team had coordinated with Recommending Officers and other experts around the Library to produce draft revisions …”

● No Library-wide CPS for Chinese Studies

● Specialists of minor subjects are to:-- Write Collection Overviews-- Respond to Library-wide CPS

Flexibility for CPS of minor subjects

• Closely / partially follow the ideals• Interpretation of general guidelines

to suit local needs• Some areas inflexible

-- Clinical medicine-- Technical agriculture-- Law

Collecting levels (1)

LC adopted the RLG Conspectus

0 Out-of-Scope1 Minimal Level2 Basic Information Level3 Instructional Support Level4 Research Level5 Comprehensive Level

Detailed description of the “levels” are found at:http://www.loc.gov/acq/devpol/cpc.html

Collecting levels (2)

• Foreign materials are usually one level lower• Local circumstances may downgrade/upgrade

collecting levels• 4 types of local adjustments:• LC high / AD high (No change)

Examples: Anthropology; Philosophy

• LC high / AD low (Downgraded)Examples: Children’s Literature; Genealogy

• LC low / AD high (Upgraded)Examples: Dissertations; Translation

• LC low / AD low (No change)Examples: Comic books; Manuscripts

Comparison

• High demand on time• Not all CPS has this section• Some CPS contain information-rich section on

comparison• Requires all Collection Overviews to have this section

Publication trend

• Not required in CPS• Good CPS requires knowledge of publication trend• Ways to gain knowledge of publication trend

-- Familiarity with publisher’s catalogs-- Extensive reading of literature in publishing world-- Acquisition trips (most important)

Recommendations

• Librarians more proactiveVendor’s catalogs vs Desiderata catalogs• CPS also provide education for vendors• Encourage user participation• CPS for different types of libraries differ

National librariesAcademic librariesPublic librariesOther• Collaborative collection development

Thank You !

The paper just presented is a tentative one------

Participants who want to receivethe final paper

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