Developing and Managing the Brown University Library Collections
Selection Responsibility and Procedures

• Selectors, Listed by name and by Academic Program
• Modes of Acquisition
• Ordering Material
• Gift Guidelines (pdf)

Because our mission is to support curricular and research needs, we organize collection development responsibilities according to the current departments, centers, and programs of the University. Ideally, then, each academic unit should have a collection development librarian (CDL) assigned to develop our collections in its support. In practice, however, many of these units overlap in their interests and needs, and it is often more effective for the Library to combine some of them with other units of similar interests, or even to subsume them completely within the support for another unit.

Collection development responsibilities are handled by many librarians in various units of the Library. For some, collection development is a major role within their position description, and they may be responsible for several subjects. For others, collection development responsibility is not formally a part of their position as defined, but they "volunteer" in this role because they have the education, knowledge, and interest to contribute.

These "volunteers" normally cover only one subject, but their collection development role and responsibility are no less important. Selectors are responsible for selection of all information resources for the Library, in all formats. By necessity, they work with the faculty and students to do so, and will solicit and accept recommendations for purchase from these users. The ultimate responsibility for decision-making, however, lies with the selector, who is charged with building the best collection that s/he can within constraints of the materials budget. Resources are actually ordered by the Acquisitions Department, based on the selector's selections.

• Firm Orders are orders placed by selectors for known, specific items from specific dealers.  Most firm orders are for foreign or older materials.

• Notification and approval plans. The Library maintains plans with various vendors to provide notification of new books, and sometimes even the books themselves. Such plans, when they work well, save much time and effort on the part of both the selectors and the acquisitions staff. Here are some of the vendors with which the Library has such plans:
  • Yankee Book Peddler (YBP). Our major approval and notification plan for books distributed in the U.S. This includes both university press and trade publications, mostly in English, but sometimes in other languages.
  • Touzot. This is our major French vendor, sending us notification slips of new French books in all fields (but mostly humanities and social sciences).
  • Casalini. Our major Italian vendor, sending us notification slips of new Italian books.
  • Harrassowitz. Our major German vendor, from whom we receive notification slips of new German books. We also have an approval plan with them for contemporary German literature.
  • Puvill. Our major Spanish vendor. Sends us notification slips of new books from Spain and Portugal.
  • Erasmus. A Dutch vendor who sends us slips about new books from the Netherlands, Belgium, and also Germany. These are mostly in the subjects of art, history, and Classics.
  There are other more specialized plans, such as an approval plan with Atlantis Livros for contemporary Brazilian literature, Victor Kamkin for Russian material, or lists that we receive from Middle Eastern dealers, offering new books from Syria, Lebanon, or Egypt. In general, the books and slips from YBP arrive once a week. The books are placed on shelves each Monday, to be reviewed by selectors that same week. On Friday (or the following Monday morning) they are taken down again to be processed. Most of the other vendors send books and/or slips about once a month.

• Subscriptions and Standing Orders.  A subscription is an order placed for a periodical title which is intended to continue indefinitely.  A standing order is a commitment to purchase all volumes of a serial, monographic series, or multi-part item as they are issued by the publisher.

• Gifts.  See Gifts

• Depository Programs.  See Government Documents

Library selectors select material to be ordered. The actual ordering, receipt, payment, and processing are carried out by the Acquisitions Department. Orders may be forwarded to Acquisitions in various formats, but it is most important to be clear about certain things:

• What is the actual item to be ordered, bibliographically? Need to provide accurate citation, with edition, year of publication, etc. The more information, the better. Best is to provide a record from OCLC, with accession number, as that same record can be used to create the order record.
• Relation to other items in the collection. The Acquisitions Dept. is charged with verifying whether an item is already in the collection, and avoiding duplication. Thus, it may be important to indicate if the item to be ordered is a reprint or other edition of an item already in the collection, or if it is meant to be an additional copy. If it is an added volume to an existing set, it is helpful to include the JOSIAH record number, as the order record will then be attached to that record.
• Price. This is especially important if the price is unusually high for the type of resource you are ordering. If the price is unknown, Acquisitions will input an estimation, but they may contact you later if the actual price turns out to be much higher. For most common types of books, the price is not so important.
• Location and fund. It is important to indicate where the item will reside when it is cataloged: library, and location within library (e.g.: Rock Ref, Orwig). Also which programmatic fund to charge it to (e.g.: Religious Studies, Portuguese & Brazilian). Acquisitions will normally decide which fiscal fund to charge, but if you have a specific one in mind (because of restrictions), it is good to indicate it in addition to the programmatic fund.
• Authorization. Your orders must be signed or initialed. Acquisitions is not authorized to expend any funds except by authorization of the selector for that discipline.
• Rush or notification information. If the order or processing of the item are to be rushed, this should be indicated. Also indicate if someone is to be notified when the item has been processed.