The online catalog, commercial discovery layers, the open Web, and books available for browsing in libraries all aid in the process of discovery of resources. An absence of books means one fewer discovery method available. It is important, therefore, that libraries retain physical books in open stacks to offer communities a hands-on opportunity to…

In the competitive Higher Education environment, it is no longer sufficient for special collections to rely on the "uniqueness" of a collection as its unique selling point--it must be supported by a service and strategic plan that is both proactive in anticipating the demands of future researchers and responsive to current researchers'…

Many research libraries are looking for new ways to demonstrate value for their parent institutions. Metrics, assessment, and promotion of research continue to grow in importance, but they have not always fallen into the scope of services for the research library. Montana State University (MSU) Library recognized a need and interest to quantify…

University College Dublin became the first library in the Republic of Ireland to trial patron-driven acquisition (PDA) as a collection development tool in 2013. A total of 42% of UCD Library's book budget was allocated to the project, which included both electronic and print books. This article describes the twelve month project from the tender…

"Research Library Issues" ("RLI") focuses on current and emerging topics that are strategically important to research libraries. The articles explore issues, share information, pose critical questions, and provide examples. This issue includes the following articles: (1) Special at the Core: Aligning, Integrating, and…

Science and engineering libraries have an important role to play in preserving the intellectual content in research areas of the departments they serve. This study employs bibliographic data from the Web of Science database to examine how much research material is required to cover 90% of faculty citations in civil engineering and computer…

Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Florida, is celebrating a fifty-year anniversary in 2007. Maintained by the library, the school's archives represent the historical contributions on a local and national level. Gulf Coast Community College library is ensuring the school's historical significance through the digitization of its…

Public health librarians face many challenges in collection development because the field is multidisciplinary, the collection's users have varied needs, and many of the essential resources are grey literature materials. Further, little has been published about public health selection tools. However, librarians responsible for these areas have a…

A historical overview of the Pontifical College Josephinium and the A. T. Wehrle Memorial Library from 1888 to 1993 is presented. This is the only pontifical college outside Rome, Italy. Pontifical status reverses the tradition of local control by the bishop of the diocese. The college supports a curriculum of liberal arts and the School of…

Collection development in the highly specialized area of the United States merchant marine, which includes navigation, marine engineering, shipping, naval architecture and shipbuilding, and seamanship, requires familiarity with the national and international organizations, governmental and other, which regulate and oversee the marine industry.…

Discussion of Harvard University libraries' preservation efforts highlights the contributions of Carolyn Clark Morrow, the preservation librarian. Topics discussed include book decay; identifying important research collections to be preserved; chemical technology to deacidify paper; microfilming projects; components of a good local library…

Since the organization of the United States Bureau of Education in 1867 statistics of public libraries have appeared periodically in the annual reports. It has been the purpose to gather such statistics every five years, but it has not been possible to carry out the plan with perfect regularity. For forty years every annual report of the bureau…

As part of its function of providing information about all kinds of educational activities, the Bureau of Education, beginning with its report for 1870, has periodically collected and published statistics of public, society, and school libraries, recently at intervals of about five years. This bulletin is comprised of statistics gathered from the…

Reviews survey responses from 127 nonmedical academic libraries in Nebraska, Iowa, and Kansas regarding their vertical files (e.g., acquisitions, weeding, size, nature, collection management, frequency of use, maintenance of statistics, types of users, circulation, and security), reporting that 109 had vertical files, with most emphasizing topics…

This report describes the collection management and development policy of, and the diverse collections housed at, Jacksonville State University's Houston Cole Library. The first part of the report consists of a detailed collection management and development policy statement, beginning with the history of the library, the physical disposition of…