Resources
The primary resource for collection development is that portion of the Library’s budget set aside for it. At present no portion of the budget is devoted to any particular subject. Therefore it is up to library staff to ensure that no single department receives the benefit of an inordinate amount of the collection budget. A working outline for the expenditure of the Library’s collection budget is described below. It is a flexible outline. It will change in accordance with changes in the University’s academic requirements and the faculty’s research needs. Another resource is the time and judgment of selectors. Librarians take this role most often. Selection decisions of others in the University community, such as faculty, administrators, and occasionally students are valuable as well. All selectors make their choices based on review sources such as Publishers’ Weekly and Booklist, another resource. Still another resource is the new title announcements supplied by vendors. Occasionally, especially in the case of new subjects not hitherto taught at the University, bibliographies can be useful.
One more resource that can be used to add to the collection is gifts. Gifts are, on occasion, valuable additions to the collection. More often, however and unfortunately, the material is of limited value at best. Gifts are accepted under the following collection:
