Duke University Law Library: Collection Development Policy: Introduction
DEFINITIONS OF COLLECTING LEVELS
The definitions used here are adapted from the Association of Research Libraries and Research Libraries Group and have been refined to reflect collecting levels for the Duke Law Library's
collections more accurately.
0 - OUT OF SCOPE:Updated 9/1/99
The library does not collect in this area.
1 - MINIMAL:
A subject area in which few selections are made beyond very basic works. It also includes works specifically requested by faculty members.
2 - BASIC:
A collection of up-to-date general materials that serves to introduce and define a subject and to indicate the varieties of information available elsewhere. It may include dictionaries, encyclopedias, access to appropriate bibliographic data bases, selected editions of important works, historical surveys, bibliographies, handbooks, a few major periodicals, in the minimum number that will serve the purpose. A basic information collection is not sufficiently intensive to support any advanced undergraduate or graduate courses or independent study in the subject area involved.
Generally, reliance is on other libraries. It also includes items requested by faculty members.
3 - INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT:
A collection that is adequate to support undergraduate and MOST graduate instruction, or sustained independent study; that is, adequate to maintain knowledge of a subject required for limited or generalized purposes, of less than research intensity. It includes a wide range of basic monographs, complete collections of the works of more important writers, selections from the works of secondary writers, a selection of representative journals, access to appropriate non-bibliographic data bases, and the reference tools and fund- amental bibliographical apparatus pertaining to the subject.
An instructional legal collection includes most primary sources, important monographs, selected looseleaf treatises, a selection of specialized journals and one or two looseleaf services in the field. Excludes most practitioners' guides (unless essential to the area), and materials from other states. Expensive monographs and serials are collected very selectively. Access to sources through LEXIS and WESTLAW is assumed.
4 - RESEARCH:
A collection that includes the major published source materials required for dissertations and independent research, including materials containing research reporting, new findings, scientific experimental results, and other information useful to researchers. It si intended to include all important reference works and a wide selection of specialized monographs, as well as a very extensive collection of journals and major indexing and abstracting services in the field. Pertinent foreign language materials are included. Older material is retained for historical research.
A research level legal collection has collects enough materials to allow for extensive research. Includes more specialized secondary sources, a large number of monographs and most specialized journals. Excludes most practitioners' guides, and materials from other states, unless needed because of curriculum or faculty research interest. Not all looseleaf services need to be collected if they are duplicative. Expensive monographs and serials are collected selectively. Access to sources through LEXIS and WESTLAW is assumed.
5 - COMPREHENSIVE:
A collection in which a library endeavors, so far as is reasonably possible, to include all significant works of recorded knowledge (publications, manuscripts, other forms), in all applicable languages, for a necessarily defined and limited field. This level of collecting intensity is one that maintains a "special collection"; the aim, if not the achievement, is exhaustiveness.
The law library's collection is reserved for subjects for which the library has or seeks to have historically extensive collections. Dissertations are included.
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