Toward a comprehensive collection development policy for partial U.S. depository libraries

Abstract

Library literature has long ignored the problem of collection development for U.S. Government Publications. Regional depositories, of course, are not adversely affected by this oversight. However, the partial depository library suffers the consequences. Often in the past, the sole criterion for the building of a partial depository collection has been accretion without regard for other salient factors. At present and in the foreseeable future, fiscal exigency will cause increasing demands to be made on the library's budget and space. These hard facts, juxtaposed with the continuing prolificacy of the U.S. Government Printing Office, mandates the making of difficult decisions by librarians, especially documents librarians. In order to make judicious decisions which will permit the depository collection to grow in a manner responsive to its own needs, as well as to various curricular and community needs, a framework of policy must exist. It is in this context that the following policy statement is presented. Although this policy statement was developed in response to the idiosyncratic needs of one institution's curriculum, general collection, and table of staffing organization (plus the presence of another partial depository library in the same city), the generic concerns addressed ought to be of interest to all documents librarians and to all librarians concerned with collection development. In spite of the local limitations of this policy statement, it may serve as a template for those libraries desiring to integrate U.S. Government Publications into a comprehensive collection policy. The reader will note that the author has relied liberally on the documents, Guidelines for the Depository Library System and Instructions to Depository Librarians. Reliance on these documents is intended to insure responsiveness to the intent of the Depository Act, and to maintain a continuing degree of accountability in decisions relating to the U.S. Government Publications Collection. The acquisition policy of Iowa State University (as published in Library Acquisition Policies and Procedures, ed. Elizabeth Futas, Oryx Press, 1977, pp. 174–197) was also useful in the formulation of the policy statement. The statement of policy has been structured in such a way that it may serve as a modular component of an overall policy statement—not as an acquisition policy, but rather as a guide to the process of collection development.