Collection Development Guidelines

JPS Health Network
John S. Marietta Memorial Medical Library

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Introduction

Audience

All JPS Health Network affiliated staff, residents, students, and clinical contractors are the primary audience for the John S. Marietta Memorial Medical Library. Collections and acquisitions decisions are
made by prioritizing their needs.

Purpose of the Policy

The principal function of the Collection Development Policy is to inform acquisition decisions regarding the subjects, publication types, formats and languages collected as well as to direct the removal of materials from the collection in a consistent and logical fashion. The policy also facilitates transparency in regards to collection and management of library funds and demonstrates collection alignment with institutional research initiatives and academic programs. The Collection Development Policy will be periodically reviewed to ensure continued alignment with JPS Health Network organizational programs, research initiatives, clinical operations, and institutional goals.

Selection Criteria

Selection decisions are made by the library’s Collection Development Committee. The committee
considers the following criteria when selecting materials: alignment with network academic programming and research objectives, price, historical inflation, format options, platform stability and functionality, licensing terms, perceived importance within a given field or discipline, clinician and resident requests, product reviews and budgetary factors.

The committee uses various tools to assess the efficacy of adding, retaining, or withdrawing resources. These include but are not limited to vendor-provided usage statistics, institutional metrics, product reviews, journal metrics such as JCR and SCImago (Impact Factor), core journal and book lists, scholarly research articles and accreditation documentation.  Additionally, all resources will be reviewed for compliance with state and federal accessibility guidelines and measures.  A copy of accessibility requirements are available upon request.  JPS Health Network serves a complex patient population with wide a variety of health needs.  The library collection is representative of the patient population served and in alignment with the ALA Code of Ethics.

Requests for additions to the JPS Library collection can be made through the Library Purchase Request Form.  Each request is reviewed by the Collection Development Committee.  Requests for purchase are not guaranteed and are dependent on the availability of funding as well as the clinical content and relevancy of the requested item.  If purchased, renewal is not guaranteed.  Purchases made are for all JPS Network affiliated members and cannot be limited to specific clinical areas or departments. 

 

General Collection

Collection Types and Exclusions

The general collection consists primarily of current, authoritative books, journals, reference works, databases and online tools that are in scope for the academic, clinical, and research programs of the health network.

Subject Scope

JPS Medical Library acquires materials to support the current academic, research, outreach, and clinical
programs of the JPS Health Network. Thus, a wide variety of biomedical topics are collected, including the major medical specialties. Additionally, social science materials are collected to the extent that they support current research and teaching. Emphasis is placed on the collection of materials that correspond to current institutional research initiatives.  Attention is paid to diversity of the collection in both subject matter and authorship to coincide with the clinically relevant patient population served by JPS Health Network and the ACGME accredited medical residency programs.

Formats

At the time of this document’s creation, the JPS Medical Library’s physical space is limited.  Due to these space constraints no library shelving can be purchased for a print collection. Digital format is preferred for its flexibility as well as accessibility. Books and journals are collected almost exclusively in electronic format.  When collecting e-books and e-journals, the preference is for perpetual access and unlimited simultaneous use. Additionally, licensing terms must be sufficiently flexible to allow for conventional use and the platform must be stable and functional.

JPS Medical Library does not collect DVDs, CDs, streaming media, physical media, or computer software.  The library may collect audio-visual content as a component of subscriptions to databases, point of care tools, journal subscriptions, or e-books.  Use of audio-visual content is subject to the licensing agreements of the corresponding platform.

Electronic Resources

JPS Medical Library collects a variety of e-resources, including electronic books and journals, databases and point of care tools, among others. Like all resources within the general collection, e-resource acquisition is guided first and foremost by alignment with the academic, research, and clinical programs of the health network. However, e-resources exhibit features unique from print resources that necessitate additional selection criteria. In general, JPS Medical Library considers subject, content, terms of use, platform stability, interface functionality, and search logic algorithms when acquiring e-resources.

E-resource licensing is a complex subject with clear and profound ramifications for library collections. JPS Medical Library actively negotiates with vendors to obtain the best pricing and terms of use for all electronic resources. Whenever possible, the library secures price caps or multi-year pricing (with a 3- or 5-year limit) as a hedge against product inflation. Additionally, the library negotiates for flexibility in
interlibrary loan (ILL) lending, preferring email, or secure electronic delivery. When feasible, the library negotiates for perpetual access to purchased materials, whether via local archiving methods or a hosting fee paid to the vendor. Off-campus access and the ability to print or save individual copies of articles or chapters are considered necessities.  E-resources that prohibit such activities are rarely purchased.

Electronic books and journals share the same general selection principles of subject scope, currency and authoritativeness as their print equivalents, but with the added complexity of assessing the terms of use discussed above as well as platform stability and functionality. In terms of database acquisition, emphasis is placed on uniqueness of indexed content as compared to other resources in the collection,
searching functionality, availability of full text, and link resolver integration. Perpetual access to the resource upon cancellation or loss of access is not usually possible with databases.

The library assesses and provides links to authoritative, freely available databases, Open Access (OA) Journals, and Open Educational Resources (OER), such as those produced by the National Library of Medicine (NLM).  Open Access, and Open Education Resources are subject to publisher changes and addition of these resources to the JPS Medical Library collection must meet the same collection development criteria as subscription resources. 

The library provides subscription access to point of care tools for clinicians, residents, and students, for use at their discretion and patient care. The library purchases point of care tools based predominantly on the quality and scope of content—its sources, coverage, and frequency of updates and the availability of JPS Health Network financial support. Ease of use, affordability, and mobile accessibility are also important considerations. 

Languages

The library overwhelmingly collects English language materials.  Occasionally articles are purchased in other languages, based on clinician requests or user need. Foreign language journals are generally collected only when part of large, publisher-specific packages or consortia purchases, where the library does not have the ability to choose individual titles.

Publication Date

In general, JPS Medical Library collects recently published in-scope materials. Clinical and biomedical materials are usually purchased within 10 years of publication. Regarding social science materials, subject specificity generally supersedes publication date, though recent publications still comprise the bulk of purchasing.

Donations

JPS Medical Library does not accept physical book donations at this time due to library space limitations.

Created 6/27/2022