Responsibility

    Primary responsibility for selection, cancellation, and other collection development policy issues lies with the Collection Development Team guided by the Collection Development Policy.  Librarians with expertise in specific areas informally oversee collection development in those areas.


Faculty Requests

    Requests/suggestions made by faculty members for the Law Library collection are honored unless the cost is excessive or subject matter of the item is significantly beyond the scope of the Collection Development Policy.  In such cases, the Director discusses the request with the professor and makes the final decision.  In addition, the Law Library will order and process specific items for faculty member's offices that will be paid from that faculty member's Law School Faculty Research funds upon request.  In all cases, faculty requested titles are purchased and processed as state property and expedited in processing


Requests From Other Patrons

    Requests/suggestions for items to add to the Law Library collection are welcomed from all Law Library patrons.  Suggestions will be considered by following the Collection Development Policy and taking into account budget limitations.


Selection Standards/Criteria

    Criteria to consider in evaluating materials include: 
        1. Significance of the subject matter based on Collection Policies by Subject
        2. Importance to the collection based on Collection Policies by Jurisdiction
        3. Potential for known use by patrons based on faculty research interests, curricular development or use, student requests, and other sources 
        4. Accuracy and quality of the information and data based on reviews, recommendations, evaluations, etc. 
        5. Reputation of the author 
        6. Authority of the publisher or producer 
        7. Current or permanent value to the collection 
        8. Scarcity of material on the subject 
        9. Availability of material or information in other formats in the collection, in other local libraries, or freely on the Internet
       10. Price, including initial purchase price and maintenance
       11. Language 
       12. Collection Policies by Type of Material and type of issuance, whether monographic or serial 
       13. Physical format or access method, as outlined in Collection Policies by Physical Format
       14. Longevity of physical medium
       15. Other physical qualities, including binding, print, method of access, etc.
       16. Duplication in the collection, including duplication in another format
       17. Physical space available for supporting the material in a given format

 

Definitions of Collecting Levels - Conspectus

The definitions used here are adapted from the Association of Research Libraries and Research Libraries Group and have been refined to reflect collecting levels for the Law Library's collections more accurately.

     0 - OUT OF SCOPE:
     The Law Library does not collect in this area. 

     1 - MINIMAL:
     A subject area in which few selections are made beyond very basic works.  

     2 - BASIC:
     A collection of up-to-date general materials that serves to introduce and define a subject and to indicate the varieties of information available elsewhere.  It may include dictionaries, encyclopedias, access to appropriate bibliographic data bases, selected editions of important works, historical surveys, bibliographies, handbooks, a few major periodicals, in the minimum number that will serve the purpose.  A basic information collection is not sufficiently intensive to support any advanced undergraduate or graduate courses or independent study in the subject area involved. 

     Generally, reliance is on other libraries.

     3 - INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT:
     A collection that is adequate to support undergraduate and MOST graduate instruction, or sustained independent study; that is, adequate to maintain knowledge of a subject required for limited or generalized purposes, of less than research intensity.  It includes a wide range of basic monographs, complete collections of the works of more important writers, selections from the works of secondary writers, a selection of representative journals, access to appropriate non-bibliographic data bases, and the reference tools and fundamental bibliographical apparatus pertaining to the subject. 

     An instructional legal collection includes most primary sources, important monographs, selected treatises, access to specialized journals, and sources for current awareness.  Exclude most practitioners' guides, and materials from other states, unless needed because of curriculum or faculty research interest.  Expensive monographs and serials are collected very selectively.  Access to sources through research databases is assumed.

     4 - RESEARCH:
     A collection that includes the major published source materials required for dissertations and independent research, including materials containing research reporting, new findings, scientific experimental results, and other information useful to researchers.  It is intended to include all important reference works and a wide selection of specialized monographs, as well as a very extensive collection of journals and major indexing and abstracting services in the field.  Pertinent foreign language materials are included.  Older material is retained for historical research. 

     A research level legal collection has enough materials to allow for extensive research.  Include specialized treatises, a large number of monographs, access to specialized journals, and sources for current awareness.  Exclude most practitioners' guides, and materials from other states, unless needed because of curriculum or faculty research interest.  Expensive monographs and serials are collected selectively.  Access to sources through research databases is assumed.

     5 - COMPREHENSIVE:
     A collection in which a library endeavors, so far as is reasonably possible, to include all significant works of recorded knowledge (publications, manuscripts, other forms), in all applicable languages, for a necessarily defined and limited field.  This level of collecting intensity is one that maintains a "special collection"; the aim, if not the achievement, is exhaustiveness.