Federal Government Documents Collection Development Policy

Introduction

Shepherd University Library is a selective depository for United States Government Documents. Established in 1971, the library is one of seven depositories in West Virginia's 2nd Congressional District. The other six depositories are all selective depositories:

Davis and Elkins College in Elkins
West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Montgomery
West Virginia State College in Institute
and three in Charleston:
- Kanawha County Public Library
- West Virginia Library Commission
- West Virginia Supreme Court Law Library

West Virginia University in Morgantown is the Regional Depository. Shepherd University Library is the largest library in the Eastern Panhandle and the only depository in the Eastern Panhandle. The closest West Virginia depository is the regional, which is a three-hour drive from Shepherdstown. Other local libraries include the public libraries in Shepherdstown, Charles Town, Bolivar-Harpers Ferry, Martinsburg, and Summit Point. Local federal libraries include the National Fisheries Center Library in Leetown, the VA Medical Center Library in Martinsburg, the National Conservation Training Center Library in Shepherdstown, and the library at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in Harpers Ferry.

Users

The library's primary users are the students, faculty, and staff of Shepherd University, and the general public in the surrounding areas. Specifically, Shepherd University serves the Eastern Panhandle and the northern Shenandoah counties of Jefferson, Berkeley, Morgan, Mineral, Hampshire, Grant, Hardy, and Pendleton. All of these counties are in the 2nd Congressional District with the exception of Mineral and Grant counties, which are in the 1st Congressional District. To a lesser extent, the users include the general public in the remaining counties of the 2nd Congressional District: Braxton, Calhoun, Clay, Gilmer, Jackson, Kanawha, Lewis, Mason, Nicholas, Putnam, Randolph, Roane, Upshur, and Wirt.

Service Objective

The service objective is to provide quality reference and information service to the university community and area residents with a government documents collection tailored to meet the current and anticipated needs of the users.

The selection policies will support the university curriculum, faculty and administrative research, and local needs.

Cooperation

Every effort will be made to cooperate with nearby depositories to avoid needless duplication in selection and to encourage information exchange.

Curriculum

Materials will be selected that support the following curriculum at Shepherd University:

Accounting	History
Art	Journalism
Biology	Languages
Business Administration	Mathematics
Chemistry	Music
Mass Communications	Nursing
Computer & Information Sciences	Physics
Earth Science	Physical Education
Economics	Political Science
Education - elementary and secondary	Psychology
Engineering	Recreation and Leisure Studies
English	Social Work
Environmental Studies	Sociology
Family and Consumer Science	Theater
Graphic Design	Women's Studies
Historic Preservation

Faculty and Administration

Materials that support faculty and staff research and grant proposals will also be selected.

General Public

Demographic data will be used to analyze the information requirements for the general public and to select appropriate documents.

The 2000 census shows the West Virginia population to be 1,808,344 up .08% from 1990. There are 635,965 people in the 2nd Congressional District. Of these, 31.9% are 62 years old or over. African-Americans make up 3.2% of the state population. Counties with higher percentages are: Jefferson (6.1%), Berkeley (4.7%), and Kanawha (7.0%). Asians made up 0.5% of the state's population with higher percentages in Jefferson (0.6%) and Kanawha (0.8%). Hispanics made up 0.7% of the state's population with higher percentages in Jefferson (1.7%) and Berkeley (1.5%).

International Trade Resource Center (ITRC)

In April 1997 the ITRC was established by a partnership between the West Virginia International Trade Development Council (ITDC) and Scarborough Library together with Martinsburg/Berkeley County Public Library. The ITRC provides local tri-county businesses with current trade information. ITRC's mission is to assist companies who wish to establish overseas markets. The ITRC is open to the public. As a depository, Scarborough Library will select materials to support the ITRC, such as the STAT-USA and other materials from the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, the Treasury, and the International Trade Commission.

Basic Collection

Selection

The Library selects documents in the basic collection as outlined on the FDLP website and in the FDLP Handbook. The library will also utilize the Documents Data Miner and the List of Classes of U.S. Government Publications Available for Selection by Depository Libraries.

Types of Publications

Emphasis will be given to statistical publications, directories, Congressional and legislative materials, and rules and regulations.

Geographical Coverage

The collections focuses on U.S. summaries and documents concerning West Virginia and to a lesser extent, documents relating to the Capital region and contiguous states.

Formats

The library selects all formats although there is a preference for electronic documents such as the US Code, Statutes at Large, Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Register, Congressional Bills, US Reports, and Slip Laws.

Web Pages

The Documents Librarian maintains a government information web page that links to sites for federal government information and online policies and documents.

Cataloging Documents

Selected documents are cataloged into the main collection when they meet all the following criteria: 1) book length, 2) enduring content, and 3) substantially supplement the curriculum or local needs. Most documents are located in the documents collection. All documents have records in the online catalog.

Gifts

Gifts of federal documents will be accepted according to the library's general gift policy.

Replacement of Documents

Every effort will be made to fill in gaps and replace missing documents utilizing the "Needs and Offers List" and/or copies made from interlibrary loan. If the missing documents are highly used, replacement documents will be purchased.

Retention of Documents

Selected documents are retained after the mandatory 5-year period based on the same policies used for the general collection. Some heavily used material such as periodicals may be bound. Those documents not retained will be disposed of following the Instructions to Depository Libraries.

Evaluation

The documents collection is continually evaluated, and deletions are made throughout the year while additions are handled annually during the summer update cycle.

Interlibrary Loan

Interlibrary loan is available for government documents not selected by Shepherd University Library. Requests are usually made to the Regional Depository.

Revision of the Collection Development Policy

This policy statement will be reviewed annually and amended as required.

June 2009