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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:  

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, the Community and Technical College of Shepherd, 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 college 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 as outlined in the Instruction to Depository Libraries.

Cooperation

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

General Subject Boundaries of the Collection

Curriculum

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

Accounting Music
Art Nursing
Biology                             Paralegal
Business Administration Studies
Chemistry Political Science
Communications Psychology
Computer Programming Recreation and Leisure Studies
Criminal Justice Safety Technology
Culinary Arts Social Welfare
Dependent Care Sociology
Early Childhood Specialist Women’s Studies
Earth Science Economics
Education - elementary and secondary Emergency Medical Services
Engineering English
Environmental Studies Fine Arts
Family and Consumer Science Graphic Design & Visual Communications
Health and Safety History
Information Sciences/Office Technology Languages

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.    Blacks 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

The Library will select those documents in the basic collection as outlined in the Federal Depository Library Manual.

Selection

Selection tools will be utilized such as the Documents Data Miner, List of Classes of U.S. Government Publications Available for Selection by Depository Libraries, "Suggested Core Collection: Academic Library", in the Instructions to Depository Libraries, and the Guide to U.S. Government Publications (Andriot).

Types of Publications

Emphasis will be given to statistical publications, directories, U.S. Code, Supreme Court decisions, Congressional materials, and rules and regulations.

Geographical Coverage

U.S. summaries and documents on West Virginia and, when appropriate, the surrounding jurisdictions (Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and the District of Columbia) will be emphasized. Because of the College's proximity to Washington, D.C., priority will be given to aids that emphasize the capital region and its amenities.

Formats

All formats will be collected: paper, online, videocassettes, DVDs, CD-ROMs, floppy disks, and microfiche. Paper is the preferred format for highly used materials such as reference works. Electronic versions will be selected for those documents that are not heavily used but are time sensitive such as the Federal Register, Congressional Bills, and Slip Laws.

Web Pages

The Documents Librarian maintains a federal documents web page with links to online publications. The International Trade Resource Center (ITRC) web page also links to many federal government sites.

Cataloging Documents

Selected documents will be 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 Max, 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 will be 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 will be evaluated annually when selections and deletions are made.

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.

Revised July 2005