Bruce Morton

Implementing an automated shelflist for a selective depository collection: Implications for collection management and public access

Abstract This article describes a prototype automated shelflist presently containing about one thousand records. The planning and theory behind the decision to develop the system out of readily available commercial software are discussed as are modes of use and their relation to collection development, collection management, and public access. Attention is given, as well, to help assure the evolution of the best system possible for the needs of a selective depository.

An items record management system: First step in the automation of collection development in selective GPO depository libraries

Abstract Because U.S. Selective Depository collections are built on the basis of categories of selection rather than title or subject, management of collection development presents many problems. The implementation of automated item files permits the documents librarian to perceive the dynamics of addition, deletion, rejection, and discontinuance as a continuing and fluid process by which a depository collection develops and can be managed.

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 librarys 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 institutions 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 .

Cooperative collection development between selective U.S. depository libraries

Abstract Active cooperative collection development by selective U.S. Government Printing Office depository libraries has been neglected as a means by which meaningful economies in staff and space can be realized while still maintaining, or even broadening, the quality of the depository collection. Based on a cooperative framework between the depository collections at Carleton and St. Olaf colleges, a model is offered to other selective depositories. The concept of cooperation is particularly timely during periods of fiscal exigency, as well as in light of the fact that over half of all depositories are within ten miles of another depository.