Collections: Overview

Size:

As of 2011, the Library provided access to approximately 240,500  catalogued monograph volumes and 792,626 microform units. In addition the Library has access (as of 2011) to approximately 391,000 e-books with the Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (ECCO) representing the largest component.

In 2010/2011 the library added 1,500 print monographs and monograph series volumes to the collection, including 940 books transferred to the Canadian Children's Book Centre Collection.

The library maintains current subscriptions to 226 print periodicals. If purchased periodicals include electronic journals from publishers (Springer, Wiley, OUP etc.) the total is 10,284 current subscriptions. In addition, the library provides access to full-text articles from close to 34,000 periodicals provided by aggregators such as Ebsco, ProQuest, JSTOR and Project Muse.

Interests:

In the American Library Directory the subject interests of the collection are listed as: Education, Child and Youth Studies, Cultural Studies, Family Studies and Gerontology, Information Technology, Applied Human Nutrition, Public Relations, Tourism and Hospitality Management, and Women's Studies.

None of our subject collections approach the Research Libraries Group definition of a level 5 collection used for the Conspectus Outline: "5: Comprehensive level: A collection in which a library endeavors to include all significant works of recorded knowledge ...for a necessarily defined and limited field."

The Women's Studies collection, of all the library's collections, approaches most closely the definition of a level 4 collection: "4: Research level: A collection that includes the major published source material required for dissertation and independent research ...", and was designated as such in a CONSUL survey of ALA level 4 collections. More realistically, it should be currently assessed as a Level 3b collection: Study or Instructional Support Level, Advanced when the collections of Novanet partner institutions such as Dalhousie Killam and Saint Mary's University are included.

Costs:

In 2011/2012  MSVU budgeted $623,203  for Library materials - 85.5% of the Library's operating (i.e. non-salary) budget. The total represents the core acquisitions budget, endowment income, and a separate budget line to support CRKN National Site Licence, but does not include the Novanet membership fee.

In 2010/2011 the Library committed 90% of the total acquisitions budget to electronic resources (e-journals, databases, e-books) and 10% to print monographs, dvds, and print journal subscriptions. As recently as 2002/2003 the Library spent only 15.4% of its acquisitions budget on e-resources.

The average cost of a print monograph acquired by MSVU is $45 Cnd and the average cost of a print serial is $179 Cnd.

Senate Policy on the Materials Budget:

On March 1, 1993 the Senate of Mount Saint Vincent University passed a motion that the library's acquisitions budget, as a percentage of the operating budget of the University, be maintained at the Maritime Provinces average as reported to the Canadian Association of University Business Officers and published in the annual CAUBO Report

Mount Saint Vincent University Library

Overview of Procedures re:  Acquisitions, Budget Allocations, Cancellations, and Discarding of Books

Revised January 2012

Acquisitions

Faculty selectors may use the online order recommendation form or send their requests directly to the Library’s Collections Assistant or the Liaison Librarian assigned to their discipline.

The last reported annual purchase, provided to the Statistical Survey of Canadian University Libraries 2010/2011, is 333 print monographs and 218 electronic books. With the loading of records for electronic books in the Novanet online public catalogue and the institution of Patron Driven Acquisition, more opportunities for ebook selection will be available and more funds will be used for the rental and purchase of ebooks.

The same trend towards increased electronic access is evident in our serials subscriptions. As of 2010/2011 the Library maintains a subscription list of 226 print journals. The Library provides electronic access to the full text of articles in 10,284 journals from publishers’ web sites and to the full text of articles in 33,872 journals to which there are links provided from online abstract and indexing services.  A subscription to a print journal is  maintained if there is no viable electronic equivalent, or full-text articles are only available after the embargo on recent volumes /issues expires, or there are features available in the print issues which are unavailable online.

 Access to the majority of the subscriptions to electronic journals has been licensed under the University’s agreement with the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN), a partnership of 75 Canadian universities dedicated to expanding digital content for the academic research enterprise in Canada.

Budget Allocations

The Library allocation by discipline-based fund groups, each with a designated liaison librarian, was moved for adoption, initially as a 12 month pilot project, by the Senate Library Committee on September 22, 2006.

Five fund groups of equal size, Humanities, Sciences, Social Sciences, Educational Studies and Business Studies encompassing 24 departments and programs, provide for print and electronic purchases, subscriptions and licenses.   In addition to the five fund groups, there are four special grants designated for Library materials purchasing: Learning and Leading (multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary), Education, Education PhD, and Petro-Canada (women and gender studies).

Each University department and program chooses a member of its faculty to serve as a Library coordinator who will work with the liaison librarian to ensure that the curricular and research needs of the department or program are met within the constraints of the acquisitions budget, and that members of the department select according to the priorities set forth in the Faculty Handbook.  

Cancellations

The Collections Assistant will notify the requestor if books or audio-visual materials are out of print or otherwise not available.  As a general rule, print books duplicated in Novanet member libraries’ holdings are not ordered unless such duplication is justified by the requestor and communicated to the Collections Assistant.

Discards

It is the goal of small university libraries to keep their collection up-to-date without increasing optimum space needs.  This goal necessarily involves weeding. Throughout the year discarded material will be placed in a designated area in the Library’s Technical Services area for review by faculty members who may request that a book be returned to the collection.  Once the review is complete the books will be offered for sale once or twice yearly, donated to another library or organization, or discarded outright.