Purpose

The purpose of the Collection Development Policy is to provide a framework along with specific policies and guidelines for the selection, retention, and deaccession of all information resources that comprise the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library's (HSL) collection. These guidelines will ensure adherence to the HSL’s mission and promote consistency in selection decisions, and ultimately meet the biomedical information needs of the University of Virginia. 

 

Selection Responsibility

Members of the HSL’s Collections Committee, a team of librarians with subject matter expertise, collaborate with the Electronic Resources Librarian who has overall responsibility for determining which items will be added to or removed from the library's collection. 
 
UVA faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to use the HSL’s Purchase Recommendation Form to recommend and suggest new resources. Recommendations are evaluated according to the guidelines outlined in this policy. Selection decisions are based on the relevance of items to the clinical practice, curriculum, and research needs of the greatest number of UVA faculty, staff, and students, as well as other guidelines specified in this policy.

 

Overview of the Library's Collection

The following sections comprise HSL’s collection:

• General Collection: Current, circulating book and journal titles (print and digital) that support curricula, clinical, and research programs. 

• IDEA Collection: A circulating book collection that represents the healthcare concerns, experiences, and perspectives of historically, persistently, or systemically marginalized (HPSM) groups.

• Historical Collections: The Historical Collections and Services (HCS) department is the repository of special collections materials in the HSL. HCS maintains its own collection development policy, available here.

• Reference Collection: Non-circulating biomedical and nursing print resources located in the lobby on the main floor of the HSL. 

• Reserve Collection: A limited print collection of some core biomedical reference resources and some titles requested by instructors not available for institutional eBook access. Such resources are typically held as reserves. These resources do not circulate and are limited to 2 hours of use at a time.

 

Materials Collected

• Journals

• Monographs

• Bibliographic databases

• Nursing core curriculum monographs

• Decision support/Evidence based medicine tools

• Datasets

 

Generally Excluded Materials 

• Introductory undergraduate textbooks

• Association-specific resources (e.g. clinical practice guidelines)

• Loose-leaf publications

• Newsletters

• Pocket-sized books

• Self-instructional texts

• Spiral-bound publications (with some exception) 

• Syllabi and workbooks

Collection Development Guidelines

 

Overview of the Collection Development Process

The HSL’s current collection development policy governs the funding, selection, acquisition, and retention of library materials and information resources applies to all formats. The HSL gives priority to the acquisition of digital resources. HSL works collaboratively with other UVA libraries to provide the broadest possible access to licensed digital resources for all current faculty, students, and staff. 

 

Resource Formats

While digital materials are preferred, each acquisition is considered carefully by several factors like cost, availability, and access.

 

Acquisitions

Acquisition involves the discovery of needed resources along with analysis to determine credibility, usefulness, and cost-effectiveness for the constituencies served. Selection decisions reflect various criteria, including but not limited to the following: 

 

Journals

• Relevant to biomedical and nursing research, education, clinical practice

• COUNTER 5 standardized usage reports

• Bibliometrics

• Citing and publishing patterns of UVA Health authors

• Interlibrary loan (ILL) statistics

• Cost-effectiveness

• Backfiles

• Perpetual access

 

Books 

• Relevant to biomedical and nursing research, education, clinical practice 

• Currency of Core Texts

• COUNTER 5 standardized usage reports

• ILL statistics

• Circulation reports for previous editions in print

 

Databases, Platforms, Tools, Datasets

• Relevant to biomedical and nursing research, education, clinical practice

• Value in collection beyond use in a specific program or department

• Privacy Concerns/User Data

• COUNTER 5 standardized usage reports

• Environmental impact

• Ethical concerns

• Mobile optimized/mobile application

• Resource reputation

• Technical access/ease of use

• Sustainability; resource is maintained

• Cost-effectiveness

• Licensing agreement requirements/restrictions

• Vendor's customer support and reliability

 

Renewal and Retention 

When it comes time to renew a resource or during the deaccession process, numerous factors are considered, including but not limited to the following:

• Relevant to biomedical and nursing research, education, clinical practice

• Cost

• Resource reputation (questionable practices, bibliometrics, Journal Impact Factor)

• Alternative access options (ILL, Copyright Clearance Center)

• COUNTER 5 standardized usage reports

• Usage statistics

• Damage

• HSL staffing support

• Vendor's customer support and reliability

 

Course Reserves

The HSL relies on electronic course reserves, which provide students with 24/7 access from any location.

Due to budget limitations and what publishers make available to libraries, the HSL cannot purchase nor subscribe to every course reserve request. 

To place books on course reserve, please refer to our policy here.

 

Licensing

The HSL adheres to the following definitions and expectations regarding all license contracts. The Director of Procurement Services of the University of Virginia has the sole authority to approve and sign all finalized license agreements.

 

• The HSL’s authorized users include the students, faculty and staff of the University of Virginia and all onsite visitors to the HSL.

• "Site" is defined to encompass the University of Virginia.

• Students, faculty and staff of UVA Health and the University of Virginia, are able to access all resources from computers located throughout the HSL on the UVA network. Remote access is available by establishing an account on the University's proxy server. Remote access provisions should be included for all UVA Health preceptors and students in distance education programs.

• Pricing is assessed based on number of FTE, simultaneous users or number of seats, or a variety of other publisher cost models.

• The "fair use" provision or the U.S. Copyright Act applies to all formats.

• The purchase of digital resources should include provisions for perpetual access to that resource/information. Agreements should clearly state archival responsibility.

 

The evaluation, selection, acquisition, and renewal of digital resources is coordinated by the Collections Committee and Electronic Resources Librarian.

 

Deaccession

Using the aforementioned retention criteria, the Collections Committee will deaccession materials in the overall collection to ensure that it is current, relevant, and discoverable. 

The deaccession process will occur annually in the summer, on a project basis, or as needed.  

Withdrawn monographs and journals may be offered to local libraries, submitted to national library exchanges, or discarded per discrepancy of the Collections Committee. 

 

 

Collaborative Initiatives

Interlibrary Loan
Through interlibrary loan, the HSL supplements its collections by purchasing and borrowing low-use materials from other libraries or commercial document suppliers. Interlibrary loan services are provided through national, state, and local initiatives.
 

UVA Libraries
UVA Health faculty, staff, and graduate students can request materials from other UVA Libraries through the University's online catalog, VIRGO. These materials are delivered free-of-charge to the HSL by LEO (Library Express On-Grounds) staff.
 

Consortium
The Health Sciences Library is affiliated with VIVA, the Virtual Library of Virginia. VIVA members include over 50 libraries at institutions serving the higher education needs of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As a VIVA member, we borrow materials from other member libraries free-of-charge.

 

Endowments

The HSL has several endowed funds with donor-imposed restrictions on how they can be used for collection development. These endowments are reviewed annually to ensure maximum use of available funding.
Endowed funds can be used for the purchase of the following resources: 

• Medical books

• Medical journals

• Books and periodicals in medical research 

• Medical electronic databases

• Books, journals, and electronic data, with particular emphasis on pathology 

• Publications relating to otolaryngology-head and neck surgery

• Oncology books and other library materials 

 

Gift Acceptance Policy

Step 1: Contact the Electronic Resources Librarian with information regarding your prospective donation. Please be as detailed as possible and provide a list of the materials when possible. The Electronic Resources Librarian will make their initial assessment based on this information. If further details are necessary, the Electronic Resources Librarian will set up a phone call with the donor. Please do not mail any materials to the library without securing approval from the Electronic Resources Librarian; these materials will be returned to the donor.

Step 2: If the Electronic Resources Librarian determines the materials potentially fit within our collecting priorities and trajectories, they will ask the donor to either drop off (preferable) or mail the materials to the HSL for further assessment. The HSL does not accept liability for any materials damaged or lost in transit.

Step 3: The Electronic Resources Librarian will determine whether to take all, some, or none of the prospective donation based on the criteria outlined in our collection development policy. Any materials not accessioned by the collection will be returned to the donor.

Step 4: A formal deed of gift (DOG) process is mandatory for all material donations accepted by the HSL. A DOG transfers legal title in the materials to the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library. Thus, a donor must hold the legal title to the materials to transfer ownership. If the Electronic Resources Librarian determines the donation fits within the department’s collecting priorities and scope, they will draw up a DOG, ask the donor to review and sign, share the DOG with the designated Library official, and send the DOG to University Advancement for final review and signature.

 

Step 5: The Electronic Resources Librarian will email a copy of the fully executed DOG to the donor for their records.

 

The HSL staff cannot perform appraisals. The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library maintains a list of appraisers here. If a donor desires an appraisal for their prospective donation, they must arrange for and cover the costs of the appraisal.

 

Maintenance of the Collection Development Policy

The Collection Development Policy will be revised by the Collections Committee as appropriate and when needed to reflect changes in the emerging and constantly changing information landscape. 

 

Last revised: December 2024