The following definitions of collecting levels are employed for describing collection levels both for policy development and for collection evaluation purposes. These definitions are consistent with the collection development codes established by the Research Libraries Group and adopted for the United States and Canadian NCIP (North American Collections Inventory Project) Conspectus surveys. They are based on the American Library Association's Guide for Written Collection Policy Statements (1989) with some modifications from the work of Elizabeth Silvester at McGill and Anthony Ferguson at Columbia.
The subject fields within each discipline need to be defined in sufficient detail to discriminate among collecting levels. The Library of Congress classification may be used as a guide for organizing headings, but terminology may need to be up-dated. In other cases it may be preferable to use the classification scheme established in a standard bibliography of the discipline.
For each subject field the "Current Collecting Level" and the 'Desired Collecting Level" are defined as follows:
- 0 -- Out of Scope
The library does not collect in this subject. - 1 -- Minimal Level
A subject area in which few selections are made beyond very basic works. - 2 -- Basic Information Level
A selective collection of up-to-date materials that serves to introduce and define a subject or directs one to the varieties of information available elsewhere. It may include dictionaries, encyclopedias, access to appropriate bibliographic databases, selected editions of important works, historical surveys, bibliographies, handbooks, and a few major periodicals. Supports beginning course work. - 3a -- Study or Instructional Support Level, Introductory
Provides resources adequate for imparting and maintaining knowledge about the basic or primary topics of a subject area. The collection includes a broad range of basic works in appropriate formats, "classic' retrospective materials, all key journals on primary topics, selected journals and seminal works on secondary topics, access to appropriate digital sources and the reference tools and fundamental bibliographic apparatus pertaining to the subject. Supports undergraduate courses. It is not adequate to support master's degree programs. - 3b -- Study or Instructional Support Level, Advanced
Provides resources adequate for imparting and maintaining knowledge about the primary and secondary topics of a subject area. The collection includes a significant number of seminal works and journals on the primary and secondary topics of the field; a significant number of retrospective materials; a substantial collection of works by secondary figures; works that provide more in-depth discussions of research techniques and evaluation; access to appropriate machine readable data files: and reference tools and fundamental bibliographic apparatus pertaining to the subject. This level supports all courses of undergraduate study and master's degree programs. - 4 -- Research Level
A collection that includes everything at 3 plus the major published source materials required for dissertation and independent research, including materials containing research reporting new findings, scientific experimental results, and ot her 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. Older material is usually retained for historical research and actively preserved. Pertinent foreign language materials are included. Minor writers collected widely.High or low level 4 collections are indicated by using a 4- or a 4+ in addition to a plain unmodified 4. Since the interest in retrospective materials, especially of secondary works, varies from one field to another as does the perceived value of "foreign" scholarship it seems excessively difficult to establish guidelines for the assignment of high or low level 4 ratings. The "informed subjectivity" of the experts amongst faculty and library staff is the practical way to determine the range of a four level collection.
- 5 -- Comprehensive Level
A collection in which a library endeavours, so far as it is reasonably possible, to include all significant works of recorded knowledge (publications, manuscripts, other applicable formats), in all applicable languages for a necessarily defined and limited field. This level of collection intensity is one that maintains a "special collection"; the aim, if not the achievement, is exhaustiveness. Older material is retained for historical research with active preservation efforts.
Last updated 1996-03-01