Periodicals & Newspapers Collection Development Policy
Users & programs supported
Periodicals and newspapers are collected and maintained by the library to provide the campus community with up-to-date information on events, trends, analyses, and current research in those areas supporting the curriculum. The holdings supplement the general collection by providing information not available in books, as well as serving faculty and staff as selection aids, reviewing media, and professional reading. The library attempts to provide periodicals especially in those fields in which books are not the predominant format for conveying information, or in which the information changes rapidly.
Selection responsibility
Continual evaluation and selection for the collection is the responsibility of the library faculty under the leadership of the Director. All segments of the EOU community, however, are participants in the process. The librarians enlist input from all Colleges, disciplines and individual faculty on periodical or newspaper cancellations, additions, and other collection development matters.
Selection criteria
Pierce Library defines serials as those publications, which appear on a regular basis such as annuals, monthlies, quarterlies, etc.and have an annual subscription cost. This includes both print and electronic publications.
The library's principle priority is to select periodical titles which directly support the undergraduate and graduate academic programs. Greater consideration will be given to periodicals having value to programs of more than one academic department. Periodical acquisitions will emphasize the titles represented in the Library’s online indexes. Depending on funding, a limited number of general, cultural, recreational, and international periodicals not directly related to academic programs will be selected.
Ocassionally, lists of new serials titles, selected for review by the library will be distribute to interested departments by the library liaisons. Departments are invited at the time to review the lists. If new serials are desired, departments should consult with their liasions to determine which titles of equal or greater value might be canceled in order to add new titles considering the factors prioritized below.
Whenever possible, periodical subscriptions will be scheduled to start at the beginning of the calendar year or volume. When a newly published title is requested, if the title meets the selection criteria the library will place an order to begin with the first numbered issue. If the requested periodical is not a new publication, the subscription will begin the current volume unless funds allow the purchase of back file volumes. The library will obtain and retain only one copy of a periodical title.
The following criteria are to be considered, in the order in which they appear, when reviewing periodical titles for possible inclusion in the collection:
- Coverage by indexing/abstracting service or by a title specific cumulative index;
- Relation to curriculum and user needs;
- Departmental enrollment and number of graduates;
- Included in a core collection
- Number of journals being received in the subject area;
- Scope of content;
- Projected frequency of use;
- Needs of new programs;
- Cost of title;
- Opinion of reviewers and subject experts
- Intellectual level of publication
- Reputation / authority of publisher and editor
- Intrinsic value: Quality of paper, binding and printing
If reserve monies in the aquisitions budget are sufficient, the Director of Libraries will allocate a small amount to address special serials needs. During the annual or bi-annual serials review, the Libraries will evaluate requests for this discretionary funding based on such priorities as:
- Needs of newly hired faculty
- Cost
- Requests from depts. which have not added new titles in the past three years
- Conversion from print to electronic format
- Other compelling circumstances
- On occasion, the Libraries may authorize reducing departmental monograph budgets to fund new serials subscriptions
Collection Arrangement
Periodical back issues are arranged by Library of Congress call number. For a small number of periodical titles with high general or current interest, the latest issues are available in the periodicals Current Display area, arranged roughly by genre. Current issues and recent back issues of newspapers can be checked out from the Electronic Research Center student desk. Older newspapers are available online or on microfilm.
Collection Scope
The Library will collect primarily scholarly, peer reviewed journals, covering all disciplines taught at Eastern Oregon University. Some periodicals of more general interest will be purchased, particularly periodicals focusing on news or current events coverage. Periodicals with broader disciplinary scope will be given priority over those with very narrow scope or expected audience. When purchasing, preference will be given to the electronic format when all other factors are equivalent. Except as needed for foreign language instruction, periodicals and newspapers will be purchased in the English language. A small number of newspapers are collected, including a limited selection of local papers, and the most important national newspapers.
Collection Maintenance
Maintaining the collection is critical to quick and comprehensive research; material that is missing serves no one. The goal of the inventory/shelf-reading process is to ensure that materials are on the shelf and in the prescribed location. Often material is intentionally or accidentally miss-shelved, when this happens the items appear as available in the catalog, while in fact they are missing. The library staff will arrange for regular, ongoing shelf-reading of the periodical back issues, with the goal of shelf reading the entire collection every year.
Collection Preservation
When binding costs for back issues exceed the price of microfiche the Library will normally order micro-fiche instead. Back issues thus replaced will be disposed of after the fiche has been received. Exceptions may be made as follows:
- Journals subjected to unusually severe use and wear may be purchased on microfiche without regard to savings;
- Journals in which graphics and color are a major asset, or in which conditions of use mandate retention of the material in its original form, may be bound without regard to savings.
Replacement of lost issues or volumes will, where possible, be accomplished through the duplicate exchange system. If replacement by purchase is necessary, microfiche will normally be ordered.
Collection Retention
In addition to the criteria cited for selection, the following additional circumstances will be considered when reviewing periodical titles for cancellation/weeding:
- Current availability – has the title ceased publication? Is the title available from the Library in another format such as online or microfiche?
- Indexing – Is a cumulative index available in print or online, does the Library subscribe?
- Holdings - Has the Library accumulated a long run (over 50 or 60 volumes)? Has the Library experienced consistent non-receipt of a publication, are the holdings incomplete?
- Usage – How often is the title currently being used? For low use titles, would Document Delivery be more cost-effective?
