20 · Survey Results: Survey Questions And Responses
• evaluate new e-resources as candidates for acquisition
• decide to acquire/purchase the e-resources
• evaluate e-resources prior to their renewal to determine their continued utility and
• publicize or market the new e-resources.
Background
1. Does your library have collection development policies that specifically address commercially
available e-resources? N=72
Yes 38 53%
No 34 47%
Comments
Answered Yes
Collection development policies are written for each subject area. E-resources are addressed in each.
E-resources are part of the overall collection development policy. The discipline-specific collection development policies
address e-resources.
E-resources are addressed as an integral part of each discipline’s collection development policy.
Our collection development policies are format neutral.
Our collection development policies that describe our treatment of specific subjects or disciplines do not address
e-resources. Rather, we have a general policy that guides selectors to prefer electronic over print for periodicals. We do
not have such a policy in place for print books.
Our collection development policy addresses electronic resources in the context of our overall collection development.
We also have a separate e-only policy for journal subscriptions (assuming the e-only version is available). We do not
have a detailed policy that addresses specific e-resources collection development.
Policy is old and has not been revised recently.
Related to accessibility.
The answer is really yes and no. Some subject areas have addressed this (in particular health sciences and engineering)
while some policies have not yet been revised.
These policies are not comprehensive. Individual selector policies refer to electronic resources but this is uneven. There
is not an overarching policy toward e-resources but our procedures and practices certainly infer that electronic is
increasingly the preferred mode of access for our users.
We do not have a lot that we have formally documented at this point, but there are some key policies. For example,
we will only purchase e-resources that are available for campus wide use, and we do not purchase items that are only
accessible by username and password.
• evaluate new e-resources as candidates for acquisition
• decide to acquire/purchase the e-resources
• evaluate e-resources prior to their renewal to determine their continued utility and
• publicize or market the new e-resources.
Background
1. Does your library have collection development policies that specifically address commercially
available e-resources? N=72
Yes 38 53%
No 34 47%
Comments
Answered Yes
Collection development policies are written for each subject area. E-resources are addressed in each.
E-resources are part of the overall collection development policy. The discipline-specific collection development policies
address e-resources.
E-resources are addressed as an integral part of each discipline’s collection development policy.
Our collection development policies are format neutral.
Our collection development policies that describe our treatment of specific subjects or disciplines do not address
e-resources. Rather, we have a general policy that guides selectors to prefer electronic over print for periodicals. We do
not have such a policy in place for print books.
Our collection development policy addresses electronic resources in the context of our overall collection development.
We also have a separate e-only policy for journal subscriptions (assuming the e-only version is available). We do not
have a detailed policy that addresses specific e-resources collection development.
Policy is old and has not been revised recently.
Related to accessibility.
The answer is really yes and no. Some subject areas have addressed this (in particular health sciences and engineering)
while some policies have not yet been revised.
These policies are not comprehensive. Individual selector policies refer to electronic resources but this is uneven. There
is not an overarching policy toward e-resources but our procedures and practices certainly infer that electronic is
increasingly the preferred mode of access for our users.
We do not have a lot that we have formally documented at this point, but there are some key policies. For example,
we will only purchase e-resources that are available for campus wide use, and we do not purchase items that are only
accessible by username and password.
