Guidelines for Writing Departmental Policies

Purpose

These guidelines are intended to assist in developing departmental collection development statements. These statements are working tools for library and faculty information resource selectors. They are intended to aid communications between the Library and its users, assure consistent and balanced growth of the collections and assist in determining and documenting budgetary needs.

Ideally, both the Library Liaison and representatives of a Department's faculty will participate in writing the departmental statement.

Statements should be examined by the liaisons and departments annually, and revised if necessary.

General Guidelines

Each departmental statement will be written in standard format, including the following elements:

General Purpose

This provides a description of the department and its goals, including: the teaching and research program supported by the collection; the general emphasis in collecting activity; and short and long range plans for the future of the collection.

General Subject Boundaries

This defines the general priorities and limitations governing selection. It also indicates the areas not covered by the policy and should refer to other departmental or program policies where these areas are covered. The section also summarizes how collection responsibility is divided between department and/or library units. The deselection process should be described here.

Types of Materials Collected

This identifies types of materials which are excluded or intensively collected, e.g., monographs, serials, documents, indexes and abstracts, databases, etc. Include range of publication dates.

Format of Materials Collected

This identifies the format of materials that are excluded or intensively collected, e.g., printed books, electronic information resources, microforms, and audiovisual materials.

Languages

This identifies the languages in which material is collected.

Geographical Areas

This identifies the geographical areas for which materials are collected.

Chronological Guidelines

This describes any special attention given to particular historical periods within the subject area.

Special Collections and Manuscripts

This lists rare book and special collections and manuscripts that enrich and expand resources in the general collections. Check with staff in Special Collections for help in identifying materials that may not be easily found.

Other Resources Available

This describes other important information resources available to the Kenyon community which have an impact on the library's collecting patterns. Include local or regional resources which affect our collection activity. Examples of such resources are CONSORT, OhioLINK, and special regional collections.