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Government Documents Collection Development Policy |
The James G. Gee Library is located in the First Congressional District of the State of Texas. The Library has been a federal depository since 1937. The Government Documents Department selects a majority of items available (between 55 and 60 percent in recent years) and makes accessible materials reflecting the information needs of most patrons, both university and community.
The James G. Gee Library’s Mission Statement states that the Library will ‘provide quality library services to Texas A&M University - Commerce constituencies. This includes provision of access to print and electronic information resources, both directly and indirectly through partnerships with other libraries, instructional support on the use of library collections, owned and accessed; and collaborative collection development activities that support faculty and students in curricular areas and associated research areas’. This Statement serves as the Mission Statement of the Government Documents Department. Government Documents is committed to providing free and unimpeded public access to government information provided through the federal and state depository programs.
The Government Documents Department administers and develops the collection according to the requirements of Title 44, Chapter 19, of the United States Code and the guidelines in "Instructions to Depository Libraries," "Guidelines for the Depository Library System," and "Federal Depository Library Manual (plus supplements)," all issued by the Library Programs Service, Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office.
The Government Documents Librarian, with the advice of the Department staff, has the responsibility to select classes of government publications that will meet the needs of the general public and the Texas A&M University - Commerce community. Efforts are underway to coordinate the Department’s selections with those of the Library, through regular communications with the Library’s Collection Development Librarian. Other librarians, especially those in the Reference Department, are consulted on a frequent basis. Faculty of the institution may be contacted on specialty publications (especially those that are in an electronic format). The written Government Documents Collection Development Policy is re-examined annually by the Government Documents Librarian during the annual review of the List of Item Selections. The Policy will be posted on the Gee Library’s Government Documents web page, and an e-mail message will be sent annually to all librarians asking them to review and comment on the Policy.
The federal documents collection is arranged by the Superintendent of Documents classification system. Selected series in law and taxation have been reclassified into the Library of Congress system. Law materials are arranged as a separate collection within the Government Documents Department. Selected tax materials have been pulled and placed within the Reference Department.
Some documents are housed in other Library Departments, especially Reference and Special Collections. Most of these publications contain statistical or directory information. Depository monographic publications are occasionally catalogued for the general collection. These titles are pulled on a case by case basis and are exceptions to normal practice.
Many depository serials have been incorporated into the Library’s serial holdings. Current issues of these titles are housed alphabetically in Current Periodicals and retrospective volumes are shelved in the Bound Periodicals collection. This arrangement holds true for titles in both paper and microform formats.
Depository materials are collected in various formats: paper, microform, and machine-readable. All publications are selected in the appropriate/available format considering content, usage, service, and storage. The Department receives monographs, periodicals and other serials, maps, and pamphlets in any format. Paper copy is preferable since it is more easily used by the general public and the student body; but due to limited space, microfiche is selected when feasible and when recommended by the Library Programs Service.
Machine-readable format will be selected regardless of the Library’s ability to run the disks or provide software. Because CD’s circulate, patrons who have more advanced or specialized needs are still able to use these materials. Efforts are made to select machine-readable publications that are quick and easy to use in terms of searching and search logic, viewing, printing, and downloading. Consideration is also given to ease of use by patrons, and the financial and computer resources needed to run the product.
Approximately 60% of the materials distributed through the Federal Depository Library Program are selected for inclusion in the Gee Library’s documents collection. This percentage will have minor fluctuations due to the addition of new item numbers and changes made to reflect the changing informational needs of the community. Retrospective collection development relies on obtaining materials from discard lists of depository libraries. Selections from discard lists are driven by needs of the existing collection; either to replace non-received or missing publications or retrospective development of areas where an available item number had not been selected.
Item number selections are primarily based on the following considerations:
Current or potential community informational needs;
Support for the University’s academic programs;
Fulfillment of responsibility to keep citizens informed;
Compatibility with the Library’s total collection;
Uniqueness from the Library’s total collection;
Degree of technicality;
Potential frequency of use;
Amount of shelf space that will be required to house the material.
The following publications are utilized in the selection process:
List of Classes of U.S. Government Publications
Union List of Item Selections
Federal Depository Library Manual
-Appendix A: Suggested Core Collection Annotated for Medium Public and Academic Libraries and for all Law Libraries
-Appendix C: Basic Collection
-Appendix B: Maps Available for Selection
SIGCAT CD-ROM Compendium
Monthly Catalog of United States Publications
Publications Reference File (PRF)
GPO Subject Bibliographies
U.S. Government Subscriptions
Monthly Product Announcements
Non-Depository:
GOVDOC-L
MAPS-L
TXDXN-L
DTTP: Documents to the People
University/commercial publishers catalogs
Local/National newspapers/television programs
Patrons
LION (TAMU-C online public access catalog)
The Government Documents Department does not maintain any deposit accounts for replacing/purchasing publications and has not purchased any commercially available retrospective or current supplementary collections.
The Government Documents Department works with neighboring depositories and libraries to facilitate use of the resources of the documents collections, federal and state. Since the Texas A&M University-Commerce Library is a member of Phoenix (a consortia of nine North Texas research libraries) AHE (Alliance for Higher Education) and NORDOC (North Texas Documents Group), our cooperation with other federal depositories has been greatly facilitated. This cooperative effort is enhanced by a daily courier service within the AHE libraries, by the presence of telefacsimile machines (including ARIEL), microfiche/microfilm printers, e-mail and telephone access. The Government Documents Department will load available retrospective records (Summer 1997) and will begin a subscription with Marcive for loading ongoing records for its government documents collection into the Library’s online public access catalog LION. Through Auto-Graphics Government Documents Catalog Service on CD-ROM, holding libraries in the Texas A&M - Commerce region can be identified.
Using the annual arrival of the List of Item Selections as a catalyst, the Government Documents Librarian uses a copy of the March List of Classes for an annual zero-based collection review. Government Documents Department staff is consulted for any profile changes.
Item selections are reviewed throughout the year as appropriate. New survey selections are made as appropriate. Shipping lists with notes identifying new item numbers, classes, titles are passed to the Government Documents Librarian for reviewing.
Concentration will be given to the following states for item numbers that use geographical breakdowns:
Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas. Secondary consideration will be given for the state of New Mexico.
The collection is maintained in accordance with the guidelines set out in the "Instructions to Depository Libraries." An accurate shelflist of all depository publications is maintained to the piece level. All depository publications are clearly marked with the depository property stamp and the SuDocs number.
Superseded documents are withdrawn according to the Superseded List and its updates in Administrative Notes. Other depository publications may be reviewed for retention after five years. Emphasis will be placed on retaining publications that are regionally based. Those publications no longer needed will be offered to other libraries or discarded with the permission of the regional depository.
Badly damaged, brittle, or worn depository publications are evaluated for weeding or replacement if these publications cannot be preserved after examination by the Government Documents and Serials Department staff. Examination of the collection for weeding and maintenance is an ongoing process. The collection is continuously monitored for expansion or shifting to allow for growth and prevent overcrowding on shelves. Map cases are purchased to accommodate proper housing of sheet maps.
The Department is committed to the principal of the federal depository program. Government Documents in the Gee Library are located on the south west wing , second floor in front of the Current Periodicals Area. Government Documents, maps, paper, and microfiche collections are housed together. The depository documents are available for in-house use to all.
Circulation privileges extend to Texas A&M University - Commerce faculty, administrators, currently enrolled students, and staff, as well as AHE and TexShare card holders. Members of the general public who present a photo id, Social Security Card, and that are at least nineteen years of age, out of high school, and live within a 50 mile radius of the campus, or ex-students, may get a free library courtesy card with which they can borrow depository publications.
Government Documents lends documents to other institutions though Interlibrary Loan. Should the Department be unable to readily obtain/provide a document not received in the program, patrons will be given the best possible bibliographic information and referred to an appropriate source. This may include referring the patron to his/her affiliated library for Interlibrary Loan Services.
The Government Documents Department selects the publications listed as the "Basic Collection" from the Guidelines for the Depository Library System in the Federal Depository Library Manual. It also receives the majority of the publications identified in the "Suggested Core Collection" list appropriate for academic libraries. Publications that because of their heavy demand have been placed on reserve at the Circulation desk are available to all.
The Library provides equipment for reading of and printing from microform, change and card machines for photocopiers, and photocopiers. The Library also provides facilities for reading, printing or downloading from CD-ROMs and floppy diskettes received through the depository program. If the necessary software or equipment is not available onsite, the Government Documents Department will arrange to loan the disks/diskettes.
The Texas A&M University - Commerce Gee Library’s commitment to access to federal documents is demonstrated by:
Prepared by David Larkin, Government Documents Librarian
Sections of this collection policy were adapted from policies written by Peggy Walker, Florida Atlantic University; Larry Romans, Vanderbilt University