Winona Government Documents Collection Development Policy

Winona State University
Government Documents Area

Collection Development Policy Statement
March 3, 1993, reviewed July 2, 1995

Governmnet Documents Librarian: H. Vernon Leighton

These guidelines are established to articulate Maxwell Library's policy toward the development of the government documents collection and to specify responsibility for document collection management. The Maxwell Library recognizes the authority of the U.S. Government Printing Office to regulate federal depository libraries, as stated in Title 44, Chapter 19, of the U.S. Code, and acknowledges it responsibility to adhere to the rules and regulations set forth in the Instructions to Depository Libraries, the Guidelines for the Depository System and the Federal Depository Library Manual.

Mission Statement
Service Area and user profile
History
Selection of Government Documents
Organization of and Access to the Collection
- Access to federal documents and information
Cancellation of items
Withdrawal of Items from the Collection

Appendix A
Appendix B

I. Mission Statement

The primary mission of the Government Documents Department is to provide access to state and federal publications for the students, faculty and staff at Winona State University and the general public. Toward this end, the Department's goal is to acquire, house, organize, and manage government documents which either meet the curricular and academic needs of Winona State or support the political, social and economic interests of the citizens and organizations of the area. For Winona State students, faculty, alumni and staff with valid university identification, the Maxwell Library will borrow documents held at any library in the Minitex system, including the regional depository at the University of Minnesota. For other patrons, bibliographic information will be provided with referral to the local public library for interlibrary loan from the regional depository.

II. Service Area and user profile

The Department serves as a selective depository for the southeast portion of the First Congressional District, and as the area's regional depository for state documents. A majority of the users are students, faculty and staff of Winona State. Within the University, most users come from the social sciences, and the most heavily used area of the collection is our collection of Congressional Hearings. Outside of the University, the collection is used by the local government agencies, by local businesses, by other colleges in the area and by local individuals. By far, the most heavily used part of the collection by the community are the laws and regulations of the federal government.

Other federal depositories in the area that are closest to Winona State are in Wisconsin. They are the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse, with a 50% selection profile, the LaCrosse Public Library, with a 25% selection profile, both within 35 miles, and the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, with a 50% depository at 70 miles away. The selective depositories closest within Minnesota are Carleton College, with a 20% selection profile, and St. Olaf College, with a 17% selection profile, both 80 miles away. Carleton and St. Olaf coordinate their collection development, so that the combined coverage is quite high. The regional depository, the University of Minnesota, with a 100% selection profile, is roughly 120 miles away.

III. History

The Federal Depository at Winona State University has a long, checkered history. In the book Semi-Centennial Historical Sketch and Notes, Winona State Normal School, 1860-1910, it says, "In 1884, thru the courtesy of Congressman Mark H. Dunnell, this library was made a depository for Federal documents for the First Congressional District." In 1910, there were 4,000 documents in the collection. No record exists from that period in the modern Documents Department, and none of the old documents remain. Apparently, the Winona State University Library lost its depository status after that book was written.

The current depository was begun on February 24, 1969, when the Maxwell Library at Winona State Teacher's College was granted selective depository states by Albert Quie, who was the district's representative to the U. S. Congress at the time. The Maxwell Library has selected between 20 and 25% of the available selection classes for most of our recent history. Until 1980, the library purchased the entire depository collection on microcard from the Readex Corporation and discarded most of the paper format.

IV. Selection of Government Documents

A. Responsibility for Federal Selection

The government documents librarian is charged with the responsibility for the selection of depository items as stated in section 7-2a of the Guidelines for the Depository Library System (1988).Suggestions and comments concerning the quality and development of the depository collection are welcome from students, staff, faculty and the public at large. However, all decisions to add or subtract from the depository selection list shall be made with the approval of the Government Documents Librarian, in consultation, when necessary, with appropriate staff or faculty and the Library Dean.

U.S. government publications which are not available through the depository program will be acquired selectively as any other library materials are selected, through a request to the acquisitions department. Payment may be made through the Library's GPO deposit account when practicable.

B. Selection Guidelines, Federal

Winona State will select item numbers if they meet all of the following criteria:

They are useful:
1. They support the WSU undergraduate curricula or our graduate programs, OR
2. They support faculty research at WSU, OR
3. They fill a realized or potential information need of the community.
They are in a format which can be supported at WSU, such as paper, microfiche, microfilm, A-V kits and CD-ROM.
They satisfy potential frequency of use.
They do not demand inordinate amounts of storage space, require excessive quantities of staff time to maintain currency, require the purchase of expensive software and hardware platforms for support, and require expensive complimentary resources within the Maxwell Library.

See Appendix A for an evaluation of the current selection profile.

C. Determining Needs, Federal

Federal documents selections will be reviewed thoroughly on a periodic basis to ascertain their suitability for continued inclusion in the federal selection profile. This process is to be accomplished according to the rules set forth in section 8 of Instructions to Depository Libraries.
User requests for materials will be continuously monitored for new candidate selection classes for inclusion in the federal selection profile based on demand.
Course analysis techniques will be used on programs that are likely to use the federal depository, i.e. Political Science, Sociology, Social Work, Paralegal, Marketing, etc. The results will be compared to the Monthly Catalog to isolate candidate selection classes for inclusion in the federal selection profile based on relevance to the curricula of Winona State.

D. Selection Guidelines, State

All state publications in the microfiche depository program are collected.
State documents and information not in the depository program will be acquired individually based on the four criteria listed in the Selection guidelines, Federal above.

Organization of and Access to the Collection

Organization

The federal depository collection is organized primarily by the Superintendent of Documents Classification System (SuDocs). Depository documents are filed according to SuDocs number appearing on the paper, microfiche or electronic format items. An older collection (1969-1980) of Readex microcards are filed by Monthly Catalog accession number.

A number of our depository selections have been placed in different locations in our library. Some heavily used titles are in the general reference area. Other titles which we plan to keep indefinitely are cataloged in the circulating Dewey collection. Some geological maps are located in the Geology Department.

State depository materials are located primarily in the documents microforms area. Paper documents are almost all cataloged in the general circulating collection. Miscellaneous paper state documents not cataloged are located at the end of the government documents shelves, after the federal Sudoc shelves.

Access to federal documents and information at WSU is ensured by:

Posting of the depository logo at the library door.
Open stack access to the depository collection during all hours of operation.
Publicly accessible Internet tools which are capable of accessing electronic government information.
Cataloging the publications identified as having the most potential utility to our users.
The availability of access tools. The main finding aid for federal publications is the Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications. Secondary finding aids include: Congressional Information Service's Annual Index, our in-house shelflist, Andriot's Guide to United States Government Documents, Andriot's Guide to United States Government Statistics and the on-line catalogs of other depository libraries (University of Minnesota, PALS System). The main finding aid for state publications is on-line access to the Legislative Reference Library's catalog through PALS.
The provision of reference service for documents by all reference desk personnel in addition to documents staff for both paper documents electronic resources.
Circulation of all documents to any patron with library privileges, including courtesy card holders, except for those materials in microformats or classified as reference or periodicals.
The ready availability of microfiche reader-printers, paper photocopiers and facilities for downloading electronic materials.
Unrestricted interlibrary loan of those materials mentioned above that are available for circulation to any credible requesting library.
Interlibrary loan from the regional depository for WSU students, faculty, alumni and staff. Referral with all necessary bibliographic information to public libraries for non-WSU patrons.

VI. Cancellation of items

Items will be canceled from the Library's item list at the discretion of the Government Documents Librarian. Items will be canceled in accordance with Chapter 2d. of Instructions to Depository Libraries.

Items which have been deleted from the item list will become candidates for withdrawal from the collection. Such items will be reviewed under the rationale that an item which is no longer worth obtaining is likewise probably not worth retaining. However, such items cannot be withdrawn until after five years after their receipt, in accordance with section 6-4 of Guidelines for the Depository Library System, and Chapter 4 of Instructions to Depository Libraries (revised 1992).

VII. Withdrawal of Items from the Collection

Withdrawal of federal depository items from the Maxwell Library will be done in accordance with the rules set forth in Chapter 4d of Instructions to Depository Libraries. Items must be retained for five years from their date of receipt unless they appear on the List of Superseded Items or are duplicates. The decision to withdraw items from the collection will be made by the Government Documents Librarian, subject to review by the Library Dean and the Regional Depository Librarian. When evaluating items for possible withdrawal, consideration will be given to amount of actual recent use, obvious lasting value, amount of space required, the availability of the item elsewhere in the state, and duplication of the information elsewhere in the Library.

VIII. Security and Maintenance of the Collection

The bulk of the paper volumes (all those over ten pages) are tattle-taped for security. The Compact Discs are kept in a staff only area, and can only be used if the patron leaves some form of identification during use. Neither microformats nor CD-ROM circulate outside the building without the approval of the Government Documents Librarian. Binding will be undertaken when deemed appropriate by the Government Documents Librarian. Usually, those books bound for long term inclusion are also those cataloged and located in the general circulating collection.

IX. Revision of the Collection Development Policy

This policy statement will be reviewed and amended as deemed necessary by the Government Documents Librarian. Major changes in the University curriculum, its mission or the needs of the community should signal the need for a major review of this statement, done in consultation with the Library Dean.

Revised 7/15/95

Appendix A. Collecting levels by agency

 
  
						Selection Classes  
					  -------------------------  
Department                    Level   Total      WSU selects          Percent  
A. Agriculture                  1       443             29               6.5%  
AE. Archives and Records        3        33             17              51.5%  
C. Commerce                     3     1,227            349              28.3%  
D. Defense                      2       721             53               7.4%  
E. Energy                       2       234             30              12.8%  
ED. Education                   4       113             60              53.1%  
EP. Environmental Protection    2       178             19              10.7%  
FEM. FEMA                       1        75              1               1.3%  
HE. Health                      3       903            307              34.0%  
HH. Housing                     2        68             11              16.2%  
I. Interior (except USGS)       2       411             75              18.2%  
I 19. US Geological Survey      4       233            102              43.8%  
J. Justice                      3       173             55              31.8%  
Ju. Judiciary                   2        45             12              26.7%  
L. Labor                        3       245             45              18.4%  
LC. Library of Congress         3       133             50              37.6%  
NAS. NASA                       4        64             29              45.3%  
P. Postal Service               2        34              7              20.6%  
PM. Personnel                   1        44              4               9.0%  
PREX. Pres. Exec. Offices       3        89             38              42.7%  
S. State                        4        68             40              58.8%  
SBA. Small Business             1        27              5              18.5%  
SI. Smithsonian                 2        34              9              26.5%  
T. Treasury                     2        75             15              20.0%  
TD. Transportation              2       328             43              13.1%  
VA. Veterans admin.             1        62              3               4.8%  
X.-Y 1.1, Y 4. Congress         4       148 (82)*       65       43.9% (79.3%)*  
Y 3,Y 10 Congress Commissions   2       193             44              22.8%  
  
* The larger total figure includes some selection classes that are duplicates of others, but in microformat.  
The figures in parentheses represent the totals without duplicates.  
  
Level refers to collecting strength based on ALA. Subcommittee on Guidelines for Collection  
Development. Guidelines for Collection Development. Chicago: ALA, 1979.  
  
0 = out of scope  
1 = minimal  
2 = basic information  
3 = instructional support  
4 = research  
5 = comprehensive

Appendix B. Acknowledgments

D. Hiden Ramsey Library. Federal Documents Collection Development policy. University of North Carolina, Asheville, 1993.

Green Library, Government Documents Department. Collection Development Policy Statement. Stanford University, 1980.

Library and Learning Resource Services, Federal Government Documents Depository. Collection Development Policy. University of Minnesota, Duluth, 1992.

McIntyre Library, Government Publications Department. U. S. Document Collection Development Guidelines. University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, 1992.

Winona State University Government Documents Area

Collection Development Policy Statement March 3, 1993, reviewed July 2, 1995