Collection Management Division

George A. Smathers Libraries

Collection Management Bulletin 6.1

November 3, 1986

The Collection Management Process for
Selectors and Bibliographers


The Collection Management Policy is the essential document upon which the library will build and manage its collections. It is the culmination of a collaborative effort on the part of both the faculty and the library to reach a consensus regarding research resource needs and priorities, and it is a commitment to utilize allocated budgets to gather, organize, maintain, and preserve library materials. The policy documents the library's intent to build its collections and manage its valuable resources with serious regard of the academic program needs.

Program Profile

1. Preliminary Profile

Compiled from published information and statistics which provide a programmatic overview in narrative form, the preliminary profile should include information on the number of faculty, the courses taught, the number of undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students, a review of the patterns, if any, in the doctoral dissertations and masters theses, and the patterns, if any, in sponsored research. The preliminary profile represents the selector's judgment of what programmatic research and instructional emphasis exists now, a brief history of the program (from published sources), and the anticipated directions that both research and instructional responsibilities are expected to take in the future. The preliminary profile is circulated, as a draft, to the appropriate faculty on an individual basis just prior to the interview.

2. Discussion with the Dean, Chair, and Program Head

The discussion with the dean and chair is primarily to ensure an understanding of the collection management program, to alert the administration that the faculty will be interviewed and to allay fears that the program may jeopardize resources heretofore allocated by the library. Essentially, the discussion should encourage the understanding that collection management is an attempt on the part of the library to enhance its ability to provide the materials and services needed by the academic program. Solicit support--quite often the dean and chair will write letters to the faculty encouraging cooperation. It would be a good idea to review the preliminary profile with the dean and the chair during the meeting.

3. Faculty Interviews

Schedule and complete the faculty interviews. Complete the Faculty Profile Worksheets, insofar as the information is available (remember the database can be updated at any time), and forward the forms and interview write-ups, after they have been approved by the appropriate bibliographer, to the Associate Director for Collection Management.

4. Draft Program Profile

Make a conflation of the faculty interviews and preliminary profile narratives. The resulting narrative is the Draft Program Profile. This profile, containing the selector's description of the current program, including judgments concerning the relative importance of particular research and instructional endeavors, will be circulated among the concerned faculty. Once approved by the concerned faculty, the department chair, the appropriate bibliographer, and the Associate Director for Collection Management, the Draft Program Profile becomes the Program Profile. This profile forms the basis upon which the selection guidelines will be defined.

Selection Guidelines

Selection guidelines are directly related to the academic program needs. Since no library can build to the research level in all areas, it is the selector's responsibility to relate the published universe to the program profile, define needs and priorities, and recommend guidelines for developing the collections in all formats. It is the responsibility of the selector to encourage and welcome faculty communication concerning the research resource needs and to maintain the timeliness of the selection guidelines.

Developmental Steps:

  1. Define the universe of LC Subject Headings and Classifications.


  2. Define the universe of RLG Conspectus Headings.


  3. Define the publication universe.

Evaluation Steps:

  1. Isolate the major LC and RLG Conspectus Headings and Classifications relative to the Program Profile.


  2. Establish the Existing Collection Strengths (ECS) for the major RLG Conspectus Headings. Include all formats and locations in your ECS evaluations, as well as geographic and language codes. Use the Conspectus Manual.


  3. Isolate the minor and out of scope RLG Conspectus Headings.


  4. Establish ECS for the minor headings.


  5. Based upon the publication universe, establish Current Collecting Intensities (CCI) for the appropriate headings.


  6. Reviewing the Program Profile, the ECS's and the CCI's, establish the Desired Collecting Intensities (DLC's) for the appropriate subject headings.
The Guidelines:
  1. Convert, if necessary, the LC Subject Headings to "Keyword" language; i.e. terms the appropriate faculty will understand. Define the CCI's in terms the faculty will understand.


  2. Assocate defined CCI's and LC Classifications to the keywords.


  3. List the terms, the classifications, the CCI's, which will contain the geographic and language codes. Establish location and format codes, and primary and secondary collecting responsibilities. These collecting responsibility judgments, which will have to be negotiated with other selectors and bibliographers, will be especially important when acquisitions budgets are developed and for public services, especially when the research resources span several locations and disciplines.


  4. Distribute the draft list to the appropriate faculty. Upon the approval of the faculty, the bibliographer, the Associate Director for Collection Management, and the Director of Libraries, the draft guidelines become the approved guidelines.

The Collection Management Policy

With the approved program profile and selection guidelines, the selector is now ready to make the final judgments and to distill (the policy will be short) the gathered data into a publishable collection management policy for the academic program. The parts of the policy are as follows:

  1. The purpose of the collection
  2. The history of the program
  3. A description of the current program and perceived trends in the program
  4. History of the collection (all formats)
  5. A description of the current collection
  6. Estimate of the number of holdings
  7. Primary collecting responsibilities
  8. Secondary collecting responsibilities
  9. Coordination with format collections and special collections
  10. Chronological guidelines
  11. Geographic guidelines
  12. Language guidelines
  13. Format guidelines
  14. Location guidelines
  15. Cataloguing guidelines
  16. Preservation guidelines
  17. Other major ARL/Special Collections upon which the library should rely for support
  18. Selection guidelines:
    Keyword or LC Subject Heading
    LC Classification
    RLG Conspectus Heading
    ECS for each LC Heading
    CCI for each LC Heading
    DLC for each LC Heading

The policy will be distributed to the appropriate dean(s), chairs, and faculty following approval of the policy by the bibliographer in charge, the Associate Director for Collection Management, and the Director of Libraries. Upon faculty approval, the policy will be established.