COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY

                                    NAME OF LIBRARIAN: Candace Peterson   DATE Nov. 6, 2002

                                    NAME OF DEPARTMENT OR SUBJECT: Periodicals

GENERAL OBJECTIVES

            The primary purpose of the San Antonio College Library and Media Services Department periodical collection is to support the curriculum of the college.  The collection should support the general research needs of the students in all areas of the curriculum.  The collection should also provide a limited amount of materials for leisure reading for students and faculty.

PHILOSOPHY

            Periodicals represent a long-term commitment.  They are costly to acquire, process, house and physically maintain.  Space for growth of the paper- and microform-format collection is limited.  Therefore, careful consideration needs to be made when adding new subscriptions or reviewing current holdings in these formats.  With the advent of periodicals in electronic format, the need to acquire materials in paper and microform format needs to be addressed.

CRITERIA AND PRIORITIES

            The needs of the Library and Media Services users for materials will always exceed the capacity of the Library to meet those demands.  Some criteria for acquisition are required and the Department must apply consistent practices and priorities in the expenditure of its finite resources.

            The following criteria will be applied to the acquisition of periodical titles:

1. Direct curricular needs of our students

2. Inclusion in appropriate periodical indexes

3. Cost of the subscription

4. Necessity in relation to accreditation requirements

5. Appropriate level of treatment of materials, that is, neither too elementary, nor too specialized

6. Duplication or near duplication of materials already received, including in electronic format

7. Past demand for interlibrary loan

8. Interests of the faculty and students

9. Number of years in existence

10. Reputation of the editorial board and editors

11. Reputation of the publisher

12. Uniqueness of the information found in the journal

GENERAL POLICIES

1. The Department does not purchase more than one paper subscription of any title

2. The Department does not acquire paper or microform periodical resources for any purpose other than on-site use within the college library.  In no instance does the Department acquire any title and route that title directly to an off-site location

3. Newspapers are selected to provide local, regional, national, and international coverage, and on the basis of both their geographic location as well as the documented quality of their journalism.  The Department does not purchase “home town” newspapers in paper or microform format.  Most newspapers are available in electronic format.

4. All titles that are received will be evaluated on a periodic basis in order to ensure that current needs are being met.

5. Subscriptions offered as gifts to the Department will be subject to the same criteria as any other subscription.

SCOPE OF COVERAGE

            Language:  English will be the primary language of the collection, unless there is a special request from a student or faculty for materials in another language, especially Spanish language material.

            Geography:  United States publications are emphasized, with some world subscription purchased.

MATERIAL TYPES

            All formats may be considered for purchase.  Periodicals are heavily relied upon for current material.  Paper format will be purchased when necessary.  Microfilm formats may be purchased to replace the paper for long-term storage and access.  Periodicals available in electronic format are an increasingly important component of the collection.

RETENTION AND WEEDING OF THE PERIODICALS COLLECTION

PHILOSOPHY

The establishment of retention periods provides a mechanism for yearly removal of journal volumes.  This provides control over the growth of the collection, identifying deadwood, recognizing candidates for microfilm, discovering titles replaced by electronic formats, and reflecting changes in research interests.  It also eliminates out-of-date information that is potentially misleading.

GENERAL GUIDELINES

1. Back files should be long enough to support the research of the student population

2. Generally, journals on the sciences are vital as soon as they are published, but their usefulness drops dramatically after a period of a few years.  Library literature recommends the retention period of 15 years for physics, chemistry, and medicine.  Botany and zoology should be retained 25 years.  Education methods, social work, or experimental psychology should be retained for 15 years.  Political science and anthropology should be retained for 30 or 40 years.

3. Journals in the humanities may be of less value when first published than they are after a few years.  Heavily used titles in the humanities will be retained indefinitely, duplicated by microform or electronic format when possible.  In some cases, even when microform or electronic format is unavailable, paper issues that have deteriorated beyond repair will be discarded.

4. Heavily used weeklies will be duplicated by electronic or microform format and the paper issues discarded after two years.

5. Titles that are duplicated in microform or electronic format will be retained one year.

6. Newspapers with both paper and microfilm subscriptions will be retained only until the microfilm is received and processed.  Newspapers not replaced by microfilm will be retained only a few months.

7. Newsletters will be held for two years.

8. Titles of local interest will be given special consideration for retention.

9. Other criteria to be considered are:

a.  How basic to the curriculum is the title?

b. How often is the title used?

c. How much shelf space does the title require?

d. Is the title also held in microform or electronic format?

e. What is the physical condition of the title?

WEEDING

GUIDELINES

            In addition to the guidelines above, the following guidelines should be followed when weeding back files.

1. Back files that are unindexed will be considered for weeding

2. Back files of titles that have been cancelled will generally be held for no more than 5 years after the date of cancellation for the title, unless the cancellation was necessitated by the cessation of the title.  In these cases, the use of the back files will eventually determine the maintenance or disposal of those volumes

3. Back files with incomplete or scattered runs will be considered for weeding

4. Where back files are available on microform or electronic format, paper issues will be retained generally for one year.

5. Other factors to consider in determining retention or weeding or a periodical are:

a. Use.  Retain heavily used titles longer than less heavily used titles

b. Cost.  Purchase cost plus handling costs, including shelf space for storage

c. Relation to curriculum and user needs.  Evaluate the obsolescence factor by estimating the number of years a current issue of the title will remain useful in the subject area

d. Accessibility.  Is it indexed or full-text in an electronic database?

e. Language of the publication

f. Availability

g. Currently published

h. Completeness of the set

i. Quality of paper and print

j. Early volumes of serials, especially in longer runs of fifty or sixty years.

DEACQUISITION OF PERIODICALS

            All periodicals on subscription to the Department must make a contribution to the curriculum, research, or cultural efforts of the institution.  Little used items are subject to scrutiny with the objective of cancellation if use is judged insufficient.

            The Department faces the same budgetary restriction and pressures as other departments.  Two pressures of particular significance in relation to periodicals are price increases and the need for new subscriptions.

            Efforts will be made to eliminate from the subscription list, titles for which these is no longer a need, or insufficient need to justify their expense.

            Holdings will be reviewed on a regular basis.  All titles will be reviewed, including government document and microfilm subscriptions.  Usage is an important factor in the retention of a periodical title.  Circulation statistics will be studied for each title and those, which consistently fall in the lowest percentage of usage, will be considered targets for evaluation and possible deletion from the collection.

            Also to be considered for evaluation and possible deletion are those titles, which are part of aggregated databases and appear there in full-text format.

Updated: 01/23/2004