Collection Development Policy
Table of Contents
- Mission and Goals
- Selection Principles: Methodology, Standards, Selection Criteria Based on Jurisdiction, Selection Criteria Based on Content and Use, Selection Criteria Based on Format
- Gifts
- Package Plans and Standing Orders
- Memberships and Consortia
- Specific Collections: Archival and Rare Materials (Special Collections Room), Casual Reading, Government Documents, Ohio Room, Professional and Study Skills Collection, Reference, Reserve
- Retention, Weeding, and Withdrawal of Materials: Standards, Remote Storage
- Faculty Allowance Program
I. Mission and Goals
The primary mission of the Cleveland State University Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Library is to support the curriculum and research needs of the students and faculty of the College of Law. The Law Library also serves as a legal research center for the Cleveland State University community. In addition, the Law Library is available for use by the local bench, bar, and general public for the purpose of conducting legal research.
The goals of the Collection Development Policy are to guide in the acquisition and provision of materials and resources that support the academic needs of the College of Law, as well as to articulate the scope of our collection and general responsibilities toward its management. Among the subject areas of particular strength in the Law Library collection are: Constitutional Law, Employment and Labor Law, Jewish Law, Islamic Law, Law Careers, Legal Research and Writing, Ohio Law and Practice, and Urban Law.
Although a core of legal materials remains constant, academic programs, as well as faculty and student research interests, continuously develop and change. External conditions - such as electronic access to primary and secondary resources - also continuously change, thereby affecting collection development policy and procedures. To help ensure it supports academic needs and addresses external conditions, the Collection Development Policy and its accompanying procedures are reviewed annually.
II. Selection Principles
A. Methodology
The Law Library Director, Collection Development Committee, and other Library professional staff select materials, with the final decision being reserved to the Director. Members of the Law Library staff, including faculty liaison librarians, initiate direct contact with faculty seeking their input in developing the Collection. In addition, Law Library professional staff consider circulation statistics (ie, usage) and local demand, with particular emphasis on the needs of College of Law faculty and students.
B. Standards
The Law Library adheres to the standards of its accrediting organizations, the American Bar Association and Association of American Law Schools, as well as the standards of the United States Government Depository program.
C. Selection Criteria Based on Jurisdiction
The major jurisdictional emphasis of the collection is on Ohio and federal law. The Law Library collects materials and resources for the other 49 states at levels required by ABA and AALS standards, with higher concentration on the states comprising the Sixth Circuit. Foreign, international, and comparative law resources are collected at introductory levels, as well as in subject areas complementing collection strengths and curricular emphasis. English language materials are preferred.
D. Selection Criteria Based on Content and Use
1. In particular, the Law Library collects materials and provides resources which support the current curriculum, advance the goals of the teaching staff, and/or support student learning and skill-building.
2. Selection considerations include relevance to our jurisdictional guidelines as well as currency, timeliness, reliability; coverage in areas in which the collection is lacking; authorship by writers of scholarship, merit, and reputation; high research and/or historical value; treatment of legal issues either new or of returning interest; coverage in a subject only infrequently treated; and uniqueness/rarity.
3. The Law Library very selectively collects materials and resources of sociological, economic, and historical value in non-law disciplines when these materials support the teaching and/or research needs of Cleveland-Marshall College of Law faculty and students.
4. The Law Library generally does not acquire materials already held by the Cleveland State University Library unless special circumstances exist.
E. Selection Criteria Based on Format
Technological developments periodically add new publication and production formats and media (eg, CD-ROMs, DVDs, and Web sites) to traditional library collection formats and media (eg, books, microforms, audiovisuals). Each of these new formats and media present advantages and challenges for collection development and library service. The Law Library seeks to select material formats most appropriate for the needs of our patrons. Considerations include probable demand, technology platform support, licensing guidelines, financial ability to keep current, availability of alternate and/or back-up source, and projected longevity.
III. Gifts
The Law Library sometimes accepts gift materials when they are given without restrictions. We reserve the right to review all gifts, select materials of interest, and decline offers of materials. All gift materials become the exclusive property of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Library and are added to the collection, sold, or otherwise disposed of as appropriate to the needs of the Law Library. Potential donors are urged to provide a list of the items considered for donation. The Law Library acknowledges receipt of any donation with a letter as soon as possible after receipt of the gift, but, pursuant to IRS Rules, we cannot appraise the value of, nor itemize, the donation.
IV. Package Plans and Standing Orders
Vendors and publishers offer package plans and standing orders as a mechanism to automatically ship their materials, sometimes at discount prices. The Law Library subscribes to package plans and standing orders, such as those of the Ohio State Bar Association, Practising Law Institute, and the American Bar Association. These plans help to ensure that the Law Library receives, in a timely manner, significant publications considered essential to the collection. These plans are reviewed annually.
V. Memberships and Consortia
The Law Library is a member of several law and library related organizations and consortia. Consortia and memberships provide discounted costs for some materials as well as facilitate resource-sharing for member institutions. Currently, the Law Library is a member of the Law Libraries' Microform Consortium (LLMC), and, in partnership with the CSU University Library, is a member of OhioLINK, the resource-sharing consortium for most of Ohio’s academic libraries. Through an expedited Interlibrary Loan program, OhioLINK provides CSU faculty and students with access to materials held by other OhioLINK members. OhioLINK membership presumes that member institutions will maintain collections of value to be shared among consortium members.
VI. Specific Collections
A. Archival and Rare Materials (Special Collections Room).
The Law Library seeks to acquire all official publications and productions of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law including law reviews, audiovisual materials, program materials, promotional and informational materials, and final reports resulting from College sponsored celebrations and special events, as well as all publications of the Law Faculty.
When budget allocations permit, the Law Library seeks to acquire Ohio law-related historical imprints and other law-related materials of special interest or historical value.
B. Casual Reading
The Law Library collects a number of legal and general interest periodicals and newspapers. In addition, the Law Library acquires through gifts a sampling of popular fiction and non-fiction that has some relationship to legal issues or the legal profession.
C. Government Documents
The Law Library is a designated United States Government Depository Library, and selects government publications and productions to support the subject areas of administrative and judicial law, as well as legislative and legal-related topics addressed by a variety of government agencies (eg, Department of Commerce, Department of Justice, Department of the Treasury, Federal Communications Commission, Internal Revenue Service, National Labor Relations Board). As the University Library is also a member of the Depository program, the two libraries began an initiative in 2005 to collaborate on selection decisions and ensure that the two collections comprehensively meet curricular and research needs university-wide.
D. Ohio Room
It has long been Law Library policy to collect extensively in the area of Ohio primary and secondary legal materials. In 2004, the Ohio collection was reorganized to put in one easy to access space all current and retrospective Ohio legal primary and secondary materials, Ohio practice materials, as well as materials on Ohio state and local politics and government, thereby providing students and other patrons with access to a comprehensive collection of Ohio legal materials. To support teaching programs, some duplication of resources is necessary, so additional copies of selected materials are kept in the Reference and Reserve collections.
E. Professional and Study Skills Collection
This collection assists students to master fundamental legal concepts and practice skills. It includes research and writing texts, study skills materials, law exam and bar exam preparation guides and sample tests, career materials, materials on how to set up and manage a legal practice, as well as circulating copies of study aids and faculty-donated casebooks. Particular emphasis is placed on substantive areas covered by the Ohio bar examination. Since this collection is intended to emphasize current texts and methodologies, it is weeded on a regular basis.
F. Reference
The Reference collection includes key high-use federal and Ohio primary and secondary materials, as well as selected non-law ready reference titles such as dictionaries, directories, encyclopedias, and handbooks.
G. Reserve
The Reserve collection includes noncirculating copies of hornbooks, nutshells and other study aids, faculty designated course reserve materials drawn from the Law Library collection or provided by the faculty member, bound volumes of course examinations, current faculty evaluations, current issues of periodicals and newspapers, unbound or current binders from selected high-use loose-leaf services and reporters, selected high-use Ohio practice materials, the audiovisual collection, as well as selected treatises consistently referenced in multiple areas of the curriculum and designated by faculty or library staff as requiring Reserve status to ensure their availability.
VII. Retention, Weeding, and Withdrawal of Materials
A. Standards
The Law Library weeds onsite and remote storage materials on a continuous basis, considering the current value, permanent value, potential for use by patrons, multiple copies, alternative formats, other local or OhioLINK availability, and physical condition.
B. Remote Storage
The ability to send materials to remote storage as done in the past is currently under evaluation and discussion by the Directors of the Regional Depository at Rootstown. Our policy will have to conform to the new policy whenever it becomes effective.
The Law Library seeks to keep the most current and significant materials onsite for the immediate use of faculty and students. Items sent to remote storage are those considered of high research or historical value, as well as having significant import for and relevance to the onsite collection, but no longer of current or immediate utility. Items sent to remote storage may also include duplicate copies of onsite materials needed for future replacement purposes. Items transferred to the remote storage facility remain completely accessible to patrons through the use of the Law Library electronic catalog. Turn-around time for any request is approximately 48 hours.
VIII. Faculty Allowance Program.
The Law Library offers a program to Cleveland-Marshall College of Law faculty whereby they may select office copies of material of high interest. Materials acquired by the Law Library at the specific request of a faculty member, and kept in the faculty member's office, are acquired with institution-provided funds, and belong to the Law Library. A faculty member may keep these items in his/her office so long as he/she remains at the University. Upon termination of employment or upon retirement, all items acquired for the faculty member must be returned to the Law Library collection. See also the 9/12/95 "Faculty Office Allowance Guidelines" Memo from the Law Library Director to the Law Faculty, as well as the Memo footnote indicating the 2001 reduction of the Faculty Allowance.
Faculty Allowance Policy
To: Members of the Law Faculty
From: Michael J. Slinger, Law Library Director
Date: September 12, 1995
Subject: New Service Which Establishes a $750 Office Allowance for Each Tenure Track Member of the Law Faculty
The Law Library is establishing this New Service to permit each member of the faculty to have materials purchased for their office which she or he will use on a regular basis to support teaching and/or research interests.
Faculty Office Allowance Guidelines
1. As a result of Budget Limitations no more than $750 1 can be spent per faculty member in any one year;
2. If several Faculty Members wish to pool their allowances to purchase material they may do so;
3. Although each Faculty Member may keep the material that is purchased for them under this plan as long as he or she wishes, the Library retains ownership over the material;
4. All orders must be placed by the Law Library;
5. All requests for purchases must be sent to the Law Library Director.
PLEASE NOTE: This new Service is meant to supplement previous Library Policies. We continue to welcome Faculty requests to purchase material for the Library Collection, and as per usual, Faculty may charge out to their office virtually all material found in the Library collection.
1 This amount has been reduced to $500 since 2001. Serial titles whose cost now exceed the $500 limit have been grandfathered into the program. However, faculty are now held to the $500 budget, and have been encouraged to cancel subscriptions where needs have changed and restrict requests to monographic purchases