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Mailing Address

Claire T. Carney Library — Acquisitions Department
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
285 Old Westport Road
North Dartmouth, MA 02747

Acquistions & Collection Development Staff

   

Responsibility for Collection Development

The library has a system of shared responsibility for the selection of library materials. Each of the academic departments receives an allocation to purchase materials in its specific subject areas. The library staff also selects materials they deem appropriate for inclusion to the general collections. Both of these groups of selectors are guided by the Collection Development Policy Statement. Material falling outside the scope of these policies is acquired only in extraordinary circumstances. The library, rather than participating in extensive approval plans, relies on review materials for selection decisions. Selectors use a wide range of reviewing sources in making informed choices. The journals Choice and Library Journal remain the foundation review sources for the book collection. A liaison system for collection development expedites the handing of faculty requests, and informs and advises the faculty on collection development matters. To maintain a collection that is timely, it is essential to purchase materials as they are published rather than retrospectively. Preference will always be given to current publications over dated ones. At all times, the library retains the final right and responsibility of selection for all materials to be housed in its facilities.

A department-based liaison program, consisting of librarians and faculty, collaborate to select and guide the growth of the collections by discipline. The Collection Development Committee comprised of the entire professional staff and the Library Dean, meets monthly to create policy, discuss issues and make final decisions on all matters concerning the collections.

Materials covered by collection development include traditional print formats of serials and monographs, microforms, electronic databases and audio-visual resources, particularly video and audiocassettes and sound recordings. All library materials purchased by the library are housed in the library building. There are no satellite collections.

Collection Statistics

As of July 2007

Total Library Materials Expenditure FY 2007: $ 1,315,141
Library Volumes as of June 30, 2007: 467,843

Print Serials

Electronic Databases

Electronic Serials

Microfilm Serials

$ 552,154

$ 300,313

$ 345,670

$ 29,056

Firm Orders Total FY 2007: $ 161,037

Books

Audio Visual

$ 86,379

$ 1,569

Volumes Added and Current Subscriptions:

Book Volumes Purchased FY 2007

Serial Subscriptions FY 2007 (Incl. 900+ titles from Science Direct)

1,995

2,800

Liaison System for Collection Development

The Library Liaison System for Collection Development was established to ensure an orderly flow of information between the library and academic departments concerning the growth of the library’s subject collections. It matches a librarian and a faculty member from each department to oversee the growth of the subject collections on an annual basis.

Each year the library solicits from each department the names of one faculty member to serve as faculty liaison for that department on collection development matters. That person is responsible for coordinating the requests for materials in all formats to be purchased for the library’s permanent collections. Items deemed suitable for the library’s collection are forwarded to the library liaison assigned to that subject.

The responsibility of the library liaison assigned to a subject area is to advise, coordinate requests for acquisition and generally inform the faculty liaison and ultimately the entire department on collection issues. It is the library liaisons’ role to act as a resource for the department.

See the Librarian Liaison for your department.

All orders for materials in all formats are received by the library from the faculty liaisons. The faculty liaison forwards requests to the appropriate library liaison who then sends them to the collection development librarian.

Department Allocations

None awarded due to budget contraints.