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Collection Management Resource

Vassar College Libraries Collection Development Policy

The Libraries collection policy is formulated to establish guidelines for the continuing development of exceptionally deep and expansive collections of materials that provide a foundation for the instructional activities of the college, expressed in the Vassar College Mission Statement, as well as provide a fundamental basis of support for faculty research.

The quality and character of the Vassar Libraries collections is the result of a number of factors, including a history of generous support, close cooperation from faculty in collection building, physical remoteness from other institutions with substantial academic collections, and the breadth and flexibility of a curriculum that emphasizes innovation, diversity, and self-directed study in the context of the larger historical, physical and social environment. The importance of collection-building as a foundation for education was recognized by Matthew Vassar in his acquisition and gift of books to the College at its founding, and by the original Trustees of Vassar College, whose library committee in 1861 reported: "the value of a good library . . . can scarcely be overestimated. That this branch of our apparatus is only second to the living teachers, the Faculty of the College, and greatly assistant to that." To insure that the Libraries continue to provide a rich milieu for resource-based learning and research into the foreseeable future, this tradition will be augmented by new and developing opportunities for access-based electronic information delivery.

Explicit criteria for materials selection by subject are articulated in individual department and program collection policy statements. To foster the development of a coherent, flexible, and balanced collection, these individual statements will advance and adhere to the following goals:

1. Provide support for a dynamic, multi-disciplinary and diverse curriculum.

In order to provide sufficient depth and breadth of support for a changing, innovative curriculum that emphasizes student exploration and self directed study, and to prepare students for possible study at the graduate level, the library collects in most curriculum-defined areas at the Advanced Study Level defined in the ALA Guidelines for the Formulation of Collection Development Policies. This provides for the maintenance of complete collections of the works of all major authors, a wide selection of materials from minor authors, critical and theoretical studies, bibliographic apparatus, an expansive selection of journals, and the relevant publishing output of the English language university presses. In addition, the Library collects at this level materials that fall between or across disciplines or that otherwise have curricular value. Multiple copies and textbooks are generally not purchased.

2. Provide substantial support for faculty research.

In order to establish a critical mass of materials to provide a basis for faculty research, as well as provide for in-depth student research and preparation for graduate study, the library will collect those research tools fundamental to the scholarship of each discipline where a potential use is indicated. This would include major reference sets and scholarly and critical apparatus in various languages, including bibliographies, variorum editions, corpus editions, research reports, government documents, subject dictionaries, indexes, and other materials central to the conduct of informed research. The library does not, however, collect at the Research Level as defined in the ALA Guidelines for the Formulation of Collection Development Policies, that is, at a level adequate to sustain dissertation-level scholarship. The library will develop a program to gradually acquire or provide efficient access to large collections of primary materials in electronic form or microform as budget constraints and use dictate. The library will continue to strive to make materials that are not in the collection available to researchers through electronic access, interlibrary loan, and other forms of document delivery.