Collection development policies in university libraries: a space for reection

Barbara Susana Sanchez Vignau

Faculty of Communication, University of Havana, Havana, Cuba, and

Grizly Meneses
Ofce of Information, Central University of Las Villas Marta Abreu, Santa Clara, Cuba
Abstract Purpose To identify the necessary components in the formulation of collection development policies. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on both research about collection development policies and data compiled as a result of a survey of 16 centers of higher and technical education in Cuba. Findings Although the directors of university libraries and managers of collection development were aware of the process of collection development, few have collection development policies, and few have carried out user studies. Originality/value A model for a collection development policy for the system of university libraries is proposed. Keywords Collections management, University libraries Paper type Case study

Introduction
Traditionally, in the information life cycle, collection development has been considered an essential element of the system. Nevertheless, the actual reections that converge in it are one of the most signicant processes in the effective performance of any unit of information. For that reason, it becomes necessary to establish the theoretical aspects the concepts of collection development as the initial phases of the library-information activity. The process of collection development is dened as: . Collection development: a process that permits the library to develop a collection of materials that respond to the information needs and service requirements of the users (Negrete Gutierrez, 1993). . Collection development: a process that allows for the identication of the strengths and weaknesses of the materials collection of a library in terms of the needs of the users and the resources of the community (Evans, 1987, p. 13). . Collection development: a system of public services, which characterizes the process of making decisions that determine the suitability of acquiring and conserving materials in the library (Osburn, 1979). . Collection development: a universal process in the library world in which the library professional assembles a variety
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of materials in order to satisfy the demands of the users. This dynamic and constant cycle brings together six elements: user study, policies, selection, acquisition, weeding and evaluation (Evans, 1987, p. 7). Collection development: a process which assumes that the information needs of the users are satised in an economic fashion and inside of a reasonable period of time using resources as much internal as external to the organization (Sanchez Vignau, 1999).

In the denitions previously detailed, a common factor is the consideration of the needs of the users for which the collection is designated. The stated common factor appears as a distinct element for collection development and at the same time differentiates the selection and acquisition that until now has been considered the genesis of the information life cycle. The antecedents of collection development rose in the decade of the 1970s in the university libraries of Anglo-Saxon countries. There were factors international and external that caused the aforementioned change: . The economic crisis on a world scale. It is in this period that ination began directly affecting the publishing world. This produced the rise in the cost of paper, printing and composition. Librarians were obliged to ration the use of money to develop their collections. . The increase in the number of publications. Scientic research increased, and periodicals became the support for excellence to mould these studies. . The advances in community technology. It is attributed to the explosion of new information technologies and

Translated by Alexandra Gomez and Kay Cassell.

Collection Building 24/1 [2005] 35 43 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0160-4953] [DOI 10.1108/01604950510576119]

Received: 22 September 2003 Reviewed: 18 February 2004 Accepted: 24 May 2004

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communication that have penetrated into the large sectors of the social life including universities, rms, publishing houses. The variety in the format of the presentation of information. As a result of the new technologies, information does not only appear written on paper, but in electronic formats such as: CD-ROM, online databases, DVDs and for the universities constitutes a new challenge to establish such collections.

Collection development allows itself to be used in the consulted literature, parallel to the management of collections. However, it is a process that comprises the management of collections, being understood as a more general activity that includes the planning of the collection, development, organization, availability, access, evaluation, preservation, conservation and restoration of the collection. Edward Evans creates six postulates that govern collection development in this period (Cadavic Arango, 1994, p. 19): 1 it ought to be geared principally to the needs of the community, more than an abstract standard of quality; 2 to be effective it ought to respond to the total needs, more than the needs of specic users; 3 it ought to be carried out with knowledge of and the participation in cooperative programs at local, regional and national levels; 4 it ought to consider all kinds of formats of materials for inclusion in the library; 5 it has been, is and will be always a subjective work and consequently prejudiced and subject to errors; and 6 it is not something that is learned completely in class or in a lecture hall, but that it is by effective practice and making errors that a person becomes efcient in this process. In the later postulates, Evans follows the precept of the functioning of the organization oriented to the users more than to the processes. It keeps in mind the inuence that the revolution of the new information technology and communication have had in the different sectors of society and its implication in the different mediums of presentation of the information. It assumes that collection development, as an intellectual process carried out by humans, ought to devise diverse forms in order to offer suitable information to the user. It refers to cooperation as a necessary activity for encouraging collection development, so it allows libraries as a group to count on materials in more areas of knowledge, as well as more specialized ones. Nevertheless, it is not easy to make a successful cooperative project of collection development, because conicts between the needs of the individual libraries and the needs of the group may arise, this is one reason that characterizes collection development as a subjective work in constant correspondence with the information needs of the users. Collection development as a process, according to Evans, is composed of different elements: . Community. A group of people (readers, library users) to which one ought to give service, either this group is a political unit (a country, a state, a municipality) or an entity more specialized (a university, a school, a research center, a rm). . Analysis of the community. They supply data for the planning of the library that allows them to establish a

mechanism for participation in the collection development process. Collection policies. They ought to cover such aspects as donations, de-selection or discarding and cooperation. Selection policies. They ought to be more concrete as to facilitate the decisions about what materials to buy, to accept or to include in the collection if they are donations. Acquisitions. The business operation in which the community has little or no participation except donating money, but the library does purchase orders, the selection of the vendor, the reception and revision of the materials acquired. Discarding policies. It is necessary to reect throughout a policy. Evaluation of the collection. It determines the quality of the work that is carried out in the library, having accounted for the needs of the community.

Other approaches are employed to represent the process of collection development and between them distinguish the proposal by the authors Sanchez and Guerrero, in their work, Algunas consideraciones sobre el alcance conceptual de los terminos desarrollo de collecciones, completamiento y seleccion y adquisicion de fuentes de information, they consider the following processes: . Formulation and/or revision of the policies. It is the rst aspect of extreme importance to collection development since it is the intellectual activity that involves planning. . The study of the needs of users. It allows knowledge of the new expectations and level of users demand, as well as their interests and needs as far as the information requires. . The study and evaluation of the collection. It allows the analysis of the composition of the collection by subject area, obsolescence, language and type of document, the increase of the collection in a time period, its use, its availability and its accessibility as well as the covered needs. . The evaluation of information sources. It will contribute to the selection of the appropriate literature for the satisfaction of the users information needs, through library and infometrics methods like the Law of Bradford, analysis of citations, the Law of Lotka. . The planning and evaluation of resources. It is the method of optimizing the resources of what is available, of realizing a reasonable distribution of the assigned budget for the collections, of knowing and dening the resources for the selection of information sources, and of determining the formats in what information is acquired. . Decision making. It is a dynamic process that reunites in a given moment a large number of future alternatives. . Acquisition. It is where it is necessary to determine the acquisition methods (purchase, exchange or donation), the procedure to be utilized by acquisitions, and the management of the vendor for the delivery of information. Both approaches reect in different terms the same process. There does not exist a contradiction between them because the authors maintain the idea that a deep knowledge of the universe of users for which the collection is developed is vital. They raise the need to write policies that govern this work so that they do not allow for improvisations within this activity.

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The analysis of the collection this covers study and evaluation is also a feature that repeats in two forms. Evans attributes the central role in collection development to the personnel of the library since from it starts all the processes that shape to the cycle. In the case of Sanchez and Guerrero it does not appear explicitly, but they expose aspects that depend to a great extent on the workers of the center to implement, for example, the decision making for acquisitions or the planning of the resources, still the general form of the role of the librarian is indispensable for the successful development of this activity. Collection development is an active process that involves a generation of new ideas for acquiring information in correspondence with the information needs of the user; thus, it currently establishes various trends: . The satisfaction needs of the users. It is one of the fundamental aspects, because they are the reason of being of any unit of information. Here in a great extent depends the successful development of the organization of information; and collection development as an initial activity inside the library ought to be based on this thesis: to select and acquire literature that in the rst place satises the needs of the users. . The use of the intranet and new technologies. The intranet has become a vital work tool throughout its very rapid development. It has particularly contributed to the new information technologies and facilitated a generation of rapid and easy access to information. Through intranets, the activity of collection development is favored since it directly supports its operation. A clear example of its contribution to this process could be the distribution method through the institutions local acquisition network or document inquiries relevant to the users. . To increase the plans for cooperation. The increase in the plans for cooperation is an essential method of selection and acquisition of bibliographic material inside the library. Collection development depends on the aforementioned plans, therefore, the price of information is each time higher and the union of various entities of information can replace in great measure this obstacle. Also they make access to a broader volume of information possible. . The forms of presentation of information. Being collection development the managed process of the treatment of documentary heritage inside the libraries, it ought to essentially contemplate all existing support of information as well as the different routes for its acquisition. No longer is paper the medium for excellence, the electronic hardware is also playing a fundamental role inside the publishing market; therefore, collection development ought to be prepared to face these challenges. . To increase the technological and nancial resources. Collection development is directly proportional to the resources that are available. While the bigger the budget and the technological material assigned to the library for this activity, the greater the possibilities that the librarian has to develop the collection in an optimal way.

unique aim of the libraries, it is certain that at the present time it is an essential element so that they can provide the services that they offer. To develop a collection in a university library requires measures that avoid taking arbitrary or subjective decisions that do not respond to specic qualities. Also in collection development of a university library where the information ought to be the most current possible, that justies the accelerating process of a generation of knowledge, it is necessary to take into account what format of presentation of information is appropriate. It is indispensable, moreover, to identify the suitable method of acquisitions all the time since the electronic market has increased considerably and publishing has changed in a virtual environment so that databases are online and so that journals appear in digital format. To have collection development as a key activity within the university library, an indicator of the great importance owed to the quality of the library collection, is an essential aspect for the optimum function of its information services. In it one must count on as many specialized collections as groups of disciplines recognized in the institution for obtaining titles, as well as fundamental lines of research, reason that gives credit to collection development as a necessary process within the library-information activity. The creation, development and evaluation of the aforementioned collection are processes within the university-owed to the great wealth of information that ought to be acquired and its diversity-could not be improvised because they could commit errors in the selection of bibliographic material. Collection development implies, in this sense, a plan that deserves and guides the development of this activity within the university library. Therefore, it is advisable to count on a collection development policy that governs the selection and acquisition of documents. The policy ought to be clear, that it indicates the same objectives, is exible, and establishes the aspects for its later evaluation. Another important reason that justies the elaboration of a policy is the revolution of new information technologies and communication with which has appeared new mediums of information (CD-ROMs, online databases, etc.); moreover, the subscriptions to electronic publications and presses are made through agencies that are mostly on the web. Therefore, it is no longer essential and necessary to visit the publishing house to consult its catalogues or registries of new acquisitions, everything can be executed in electronic form. As a result, the collections that undergo this change and are indispensable for the university community ought to be developed in a coherent format, minimizing the risks of confusion. This is only possible with a collection development policy that reects departmental interests of the person in charge of this activity within the institution.

Collection development policies in university libraries: experience and reality

Pauline Atherton denes policy as a formulation or general declaration of intention that helps to translate the objectives of the programs into realization, supplying administrative guidelines for making decisions and its implementation (Atherton, 1978). 37

Collection development in university libraries

With the thesis that characterizes university libraries in these times as managers of information and knowledge, collection development plays an essential role, although the formation, development and maintenance of the collection are not the

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.

If one starts from policy rules or general outline, it can be afrmed then that they imply planning. They permit the organization of the work not only of a department but also any other information system. The editing of a policy is not a simple enumeration of tasks that must be fullled. Aspects of extreme importance exist that characterize the policies as a tool that contributes successfully to the accomplishment of the objectives raised by the institution: . they are a description of what it intends to fulll; . they are an arranged effort to better the services and programs of the institution; . they indicate an arranged and reasoned change; . they provide for making decisions; and . they normalize activities. The policies could differ from one organization to another in the sense that each one has its own requirements and priorities. Moreover, they ought to edit in a manner that obliges and facilitates. To oblige in the sense that they ought to be restrictive, that they not give an opportunity for nonfulllment and facilitate in the measure within that predetermined margin, they can have various opinions, and they are permitted to make their own decisions, always suitable to the interest for which they prepared the aforementioned policy. The coordinators of the activities in diverse units, Atherton said, are the essential factors of efciency in the operation. The elaboration of a collection development policy for a university library besides fullling the characteristics before mentioned ought to take into account factors that determine in a given moment the effectiveness of the operation: . In the internal order, elements such as the objectives of the institution, the studies of the specic community, the size and character of the actual collection, the kind of plans of study, the extension of the programs of research, the available resources, the selection of the materials and the responsible person of the same as well as the acquisitions, its process and managers. . In the external order aspects such as the dynamic of information, the forms of distribution, the changes that are produced in the publishing and information market, the technological development that permits access to information and cooperation that exists with other libraries. The selection policies ought to collect the general principles of this activity, that includes the person responsible, the possible participants (professors, any students or researchers with which they guarantee in a certain way the information needs of the users). Also there are other criteria to bear in mind for selection (quality, subject content, usage, language, suitable format). Acquisition policies ought to express the preferred acquisition method (exchange, gifts, purchase, legal depository). Moreover, it ought to establish the more convenient option in order that the information arrives the quickest possible way at its destination. It is necessary to explain the methodology to follow for the acquisition plans. The discard policies or de-selection ought to explain the reasons under which discarding happens, to establish a time between one de-selection and another, as well as the state of the discarded documents. The Committee on Collection Development of the American Library Association (ALA) thinks that a collection development policy ought to be an instrument that (Poveda, 1981, p. 40): 38

trains all sectors to work with the greatest consistency in the achievement of dened goals; informs the users, administrators, managers on the range and nature of the existing collections and on the plans for the continual development of the resources; supplies information that contributes to the process of the allocation of budgetary funds; and allows the comparison with other institutions because it is necessary that they consider policies sufciently standardized.

The writing of a collection development policy can vary from one form to another, in correspondence with the characteristics of its university library or its system of libraries. For example: . In Spain a collection development policy elaborated on the network of libraries of the University of Santiago de Compostela stated in the rst place the denition and scope of the same and advocates for the design of subprograms of collection development for different faculties. It describes in detail the aspects that brings in the program and each subprogram, divides the policies of selection and acquisition by type of document (monograph, periodical publication, audiovisual and electronic resource, electronic journal). It suggests as it ought to choose the supplier. It also reects the policy of expurgation (synonym of discard) according to the determined criteria. . REBUIN has published a collection development policy with elements much more general than the previous, respecting the format of general consideration, the policies of selection and discarding, conservation and evaluation of the collection. . The University of Monterrey Library, in Mexico, has a collection development policy the same as previous, divides its collection into reference works, reserve books, general heritage, digital library, music collection, audiovisual collection, maps and art galleries. However, the acquisitions policy subdivides in the different existing methods (exchange policy, gift policy and purchase policy). It includes also budgetary policies, what is the normal for the period between purchases, the money destined for the aforementioned purchases. It establishes inventory policies, that is to say, dictated the time to carry out the inventory, the person in charge as well as the planning. . The National System of Medical Science in Cuba also has a collection development policy, that although it is not of university libraries exclusively, it does include them, therefore, of interest for this study. The policy is divided into three fundamental elements: the collection (type, language, scope), the process of selection, acquisition and discards (methodologies, process) and the application of the policy (which are the entities that ought to be governed for the aforementioned policy). . The University Libraries of Notre Dame, in Indiana (USA), has elaborated its collection development policy for the format of the document. It establishes specic guidelines to acquire the electronic documents and print documents. . The University of Montreal Library, in Canada, the University of Pennsylvania Library and the New York University Library, in the USA, have a collection

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development policy described by subject or by the area of knowledge of the university to which it pertains. It carries out activities according to the different career elds. The University of Auckland Library, in New Zealand, has a collection development policy of a general form. It describes its own purpose, the person in charge, how selection and acquisitions ought to be done, but in contrast to the others it has established individual policies for electronic formats. The Virginia State University Library, in the USA, has elaborated a general collection development policy but very comprehensive that also includes the mission of the policy, purpose and tools of collection development, person in charge, selection priorities, cooperative work, students involved in the process of collection development, selection policies by type of material, criteria for the selection of each kind of material, how to evaluate the collection, its maintenance, and the evaluation of the collection development policy.

bound to the scenario where the university libraries develop: . mission and purpose; . the entities that govern; . the person in charge to carry out the policy and watch over its application; . the elements of the collection (content, language, format); and . the policies of selection, acquisition and weeding.

Collection development in Cuban university libraries

For the study of the process of collection development in Cuban university libraries, an example of 16 centers of higher and technical education was used, and a poll was the technique employed for the gathering of the data. The same gathered the principal indicators included in collection development. The results tabulated across the techniques proposed by the authors Baptista Lucio, Fernandez Collado and Hernandez Sampieri in their book Methodologia de la Investigacion (Methodology of Research). The results obtained could be generalized as follows: . Of the directors of university libraries or managers of the activity of collection development in libraries, 100 percent know the term collection development. This result conrms the tendency to manage and direct the work of selection and acquisition of the sources of information over and above the processes that collection development considers. With it a very common quotation demonstrates in this term, where selection and acquisition previously spoke today speaks collection development. The knowledge of the term enables the use of new resources, tools and methods that guarantee a better rigor in making decisions for later acquisition. . Of the population polled, 87.5 percent makes use of a departmental unit for the activity. The process of collection development in the country goes through a period of reform and change and even though all the centers interviewed recognize collection development as an activity inside their library, all do not give it enough importance. . It veries the existence of limits that offset a successful collection development, especially the availability of a stable budget on which depends the majority of the libraries. In this research the results uctuate, since the university centers did not have a national budget limit in order to use in collection development, others have not set aside a budget and others do not have a xed budget, and the majority of these centers represents between two and ninety percent. Although other approaches exist to acquire information sources such as, exchange and donation, it is necessary to rely on a minimal budget to plan the necessary purchases for each center. . Of the university libraries polled, 100 percent own in their collections all types of information sources that bibliographically support the needs of its users. Among them the collection of serials, monographs, theses and reference works stand out. It has been substantiated how the use of new electronic resources has permitted the creation of new types of collections such as: videos, online databases and megabases of data. Translations are a type 39

In order to reach a consensus resulting in elements that ought to be considered a Collection Development Policy for the university library system, it is necessary to identify the more relevant aspects of each policy analyzed and that at the same time the results coincide. By order of frequency, the general considerations-that include the scope of the policy, the person in charge of the same, the mission as well as the institutions that they ought to manage-the selection, acquisitions and weeding policiesthe elements that appear most frequently in the revised policies. According to the characteristics of the prevailing collection the indicator dedicated to the format and type of document that has been selected in the libraries and though the language is not identied in the majority of the policies examined, we consider it of great importance for the present study. The ALA proposes a guide for the formulation of collection development policies that include in the following elements (Poveda, 1981, p. 43): . Analysis of the objectives of the institution. It includes the needs of the users (research, educational, recreational, general information, reference) the general limits of the collection subject, the priorities and limitations that govern the selection (language, format, etc.) and the regional, national or local cooperative agreements. . Detailed analysis of the collection development policy by subject elds. It is carried out across the classication in order to know the collection. . Detailed analysis of the collection development policy by format. It is here where there is to bear in mind the different types of documents (magnetic tapes, audiovisual materials, periodicals, microforms, manuscripts, ofcial publications, maps) in order to establish developmental procedures. . Indexes. As a policy ought to be accessible by a wide variety of purposes, it ought to add at the end the index that correlates with the subject terms. From the analysis carried out to the different policies presented and the inspection of the contents that the ALA proposes, it concludes that a collection development policy for university libraries must consider the following elements, although it could be enriched with other components closely

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of collection that does not abound in the centers that were polled. The implementation of user studies is not carried out in a uniform manner in the libraries analyzed. The user studies the rst aspect to be considered in order to carry out successful collection development- succeeded in being implemented in 100 percent of the centers studied. In the majority the studies were carried out in all class courses that proved to be advantageous in order to fulll the objectives of the collection development process. Nevertheless, although it does not include the majority of the centers, the rest offer statistics that affect the development of the activity. Because of the importance that users studies have, they ought to be carried out in a systematic form. No previous study substitutes for a new one. This process allows us to nd out with accuracy, which areas of collection development need to be addressed. For the characteristics of the academic institutions user studies take on a special importance, given the great volume of information generated and needed to guarantee the fundamental functions of the same. It was veried that serial publications are the type of document most rapidly updated. The publications pertaining to the decade of the 1980s and 1990s prevail, besides these of the period of 1990-2000. The situation puts at a disadvantage the university institutions that, knowing the value of this information resource, cannot guarantee the updating required for the users. Similarly the non-serial publications behave in the same way. This situation is the result of limitations in the acquisition of resources due to economic problems. The newest information does not appear as numerous as those pertaining to previous periods. The predominant languages in the collection of the library are gathered in three fundamental groups. The Spanish and English languages predominate over the rest of the languages. The conduct of the Spanish language is logical and maintained in the majority of the collections; however, the outlook for the selection of documents in the English language have been extended which indicates the need of the students and professors in the university to consult representative bibliographies from the developed world, the majority of which are in the English language. Within the criteria considered for the selection of the collections only 31.25 percent of the centers polled have used metric studies as important criteria for selection. This conduct affects the results of the selection, thus, limits in objective form the nal decision making, which guarantees the titles that they can be acquired. The majority of the university libraries do not consider that bibliometric or informetric studies as necessary tools and do not know the procedures for obtaining the results. Metric studies determine with greatest accuracy, which publications constitute the nucleus within a subject or the most prestigious authors in a eld of knowledge or the publications and authors most cited in the bibliography for its later selection and analysis. The consultation of lines of research and specialists with a range of expertise are identied as the methods most utilized by all the centers to determine information needs, thus, it demonstrates the level of existing relationships in

each institution with a research activity and with the specialists that they use. The plans of study and their own experience with the human resources that work in each area also result in criteria in order to carry out the selection of information sources. Within the resources for the selection of sources, the publishing catalogs are identied as the most used source, as well as the use of the Internet and the subject libraries. The performance of the libraries online, in order to develop the collections, is lower, however, its acquisition is well valued by all the libraries that form part of the subsystem of university libraries. They permit the recovery of information for the users, such as the location of other core publications for the organization. In the activity of selection and acquisition of collections they favor in the rst place the texts that are basic for the specialty, followed by the necessary bibliography to cover the information needs in the research. The acquisition of reference works, although sources of great importance, do not hold the same attention in all the centers polled, never appearing as the number one priority. Those polled do not support priorities in regards to the document formats, only three libraries afrmed establishing priorities by format and agreeing in response to prioritizing the electronic format. Due to nancial problems in the country that determine the little availability of information resources in our higher education institutions, it is recommended that priorities exist in so far as the format of documents especially those in electronic format because of the advantages that they offer. The electronic format can be used at the same time by various users and in dissimilar places unlike the paper format, it permits other conservation techniques and a saving of the physical space in the warehouses. In the use of electronic formats a technological infrastructure is needed that facilitates the process of tracking down and recovering information and in this sense the universities have directed their best efforts. In regards to the means of acquisition, donation appears to be the most used in all the centers followed by exchange, as a result of the little nancial availability of the libraries to afford the purchases that are needed. However, another acquisition procedure derived from the traditional purchase begins to distinguish between the university libraries. This procedure is called cooperative purchase. This procedure allows nancial resources between various centers to be grouped and thus, obtain the greatest quantity of quality information resources, especially megabases of data that offer a great quantity of full text information and juried journals. Thus, acquisition has very favorable experiences that indicate its systematic usage. The discarding of documents is carried out in 100 percent of the university libraries and the expressed reasons by the persons polled coincided fundamentally in the lack of thematic updating and the nonuse of the collections. However, the frequency with which this happens varies. The discarding is carried out but always considering the difculties that it could bring with it for the mobilization of the institution specialists in the tasks. In the same the specialists in Collection Development and other specialists of the institution participate.

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. .

Only three university libraries of those studied had a collection development policy and at this time had put it in a written document. It is important to point out that in order to do collection development it is necessary to establish a policy, since it not only manages the work of the institution, but it hinders the accomplishment of improvisations so helpful in this eld. All the people polled consider the following elements necessary in a collection development policy: the scope of the collection; the forms of acquisitions; user studies; languages; procedures for discarding.

the acquisitions policy; and the discarding policy.

General objective To develop collections of the university library pertaining to MHE in order to satisfy the needs of the fundamental processes of higher education (predegree, post degree, research, training of staff and the university extension) on the basis of a greater cooperation between the libraries and starting from the intensive use of the NTI. Specic objectives Specic objectives are to: . establish procedures to normalize the process of selection of the collections in order to obtain updated bibliographic material including authors of acknowledged prestige; . recommend the best approaches for the acquisition of information; . be conducive to cooperation between the university libraries of the system in the matter of collections, for its acquisition and its maintenance; . develop collections that enrich and strengthen the bibliographic heritage of our universities; . maintain the subject balance of the collections; and . determine the obsolescence of documents and establish a suitable discard policy. The person responsible The establishment of the collection development policy of the system will fall on the council of the directors of the different university libraries as a whole. The control of the same will be the role of each one of the directors of the university libraries of MHE. Scope The policy will be directed to all the universe of university libraries of the Centers of Higher Education as well as the Scientic Technical Units pertaining to MHE in the country. It has a public nature. User studies The staff of the libraries of each faculty and the central libraries are the people in charge of carrying out the user studies and with a frequency of a maximum of two years. However, the priorities of information ought to be revisited by the designated librarians in each entity at the end of each semester. The results of each revision ought to be determined by the Department of Collection Development for the future selection and acquisition of the sources of required information. Elements of the collection Elements of the collection are as follows: . Language. The selection of documents will be preferably in Spanish and English. Also documents in French, German and other languages that will be included though in less proportion depending on special requirements. . Subject coverage. The selection and acquisition of the documents will be in correspondence with the subject plans of the different academic elds of study in the universities and the lines of research of the centers, prioritizing the basic bibliography and research in each case. They ought to select and acquire documents that cover the best possible of the necessary materials. 41

Proposal for a collection development policy for the system of university libraries of the Ministry of Higher Education of Cuba
The policies, according to Ponjuan Dante, points to the essence unlike a plan that points to activities (Ponjuan Dante, 1993). For Menou and Atherton, they are the collection of principles that guide the regular course of action and consist of: . the image of the objective as a goal or collection of goals that ought to be reached; . the specic resources for which the carrying out of the goals is aimed; . the assignment of responsibilities to implement the approaches; and . the collection of rules and guidelines that regulate the implementation of the methods (Menou, 1990). The policies also are standards for which it carries out, regulates and controls the later work within a specic activity or in the broadest sense of the word within the society. In the research, the Manual of Rules and Procedures, edited by the Ministry of Higher Education (MEH), was studied where they established some elements in order to set a standard for the activity of selection and acquisition of documents. In the same, they offer methodological indications by means of work policies that are currently considered dated because of the changes that have occurred inside the information sector at the national and international levels, this situation indicates the need to plan a policy for collection development formerly known as selection and acquisitions. The Manual of Rules and Procedures does not contemplates user studies as basic elements for selection and acquisition of sources of information dedicating the most attention to the thematic balance to attain in the collection of documents of the Center of Higher Education and each Scientic Technical unit of the country. The analysis carried out determined that a collection development policy for the university library system of the Cuban MEH ought to include the following elements: . general objective of the collection development policy; . specic objectives of the collection development policy; . the person responsible for carrying it out and fullling it; . the audience or scope of the collection development policy; . user studies; . the elements of the collection (language, coverage, format); . the selection policy;

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.

The format. It will prioritize the acquisition of resources in the electronic version and the digitization of printed documents whenever possible. Also they will acquire monographs and serial publications in printed format.

Selection policy The process of the selection of information in the university libraries is guided by the following criteria: 1 In order to select the information resources necessary they will use in this order preferably the specialized bibliographic sources (Books in print and Ulrichs in their most up-to-date versions) as well as the internet, and specialized and subject databases. The rest of the sources could be employed according to the resources of each center. 2 In the selection they ought to know the priorities of information of the users considering the user studies and the systematic revisions that they carry out in the different universities and centers of research of MHE. 3 The Department of Collection Development for the selection of information ought: . To carry out metric studies in order to know the authors of most signicance inside of a subject, the publications most important inside of a subject. . To institute, of an obligatory form, the consultation of the librarians with the heads of the university courses and lines of research, in order to be able to obtain the lists of the basic and complementary bibliography. This process ought to be initiated each elective period. . To select the sources in correspondence with the study plans and the lines of research of each center or university.

The responsibility of discarding falls on the director of the library. In this process it is necessary for some representative of each area of the library (service, processing, reference) to participate, the heads of the university departments and the lines of research, as well as the person in charge of collection development in the library. They will bear in mind the physical state of the documents, its use by the users of the system, the dated subjects, as well as the quantity of examples by title in order to ease the physical availability of the collections. They will systematically submit primary and secondary collections, their index of growth, circulation, use and other factors that may help evaluate them. The discarded documents will be offered in the rst place as exchange or gift to the university libraries of MHE, subsequently the rest of the Cuban university libraries and nally to all the libraries that respond to the subjects of the discarded documents. To not reply in a determined period these materials could be destined for other uses.

In the application of policy it is recommended that: . this policy will apply to all center of MHE carrying out the necessary modications in order to accommodate the special requirements of each center; . when it is necessary some radical modication of the same, this ought to plan to advise the directors of the university libraries of MHE; and . to publish a new manual of rules and procedures in order to contribute to a better functioning of the collection development policy, where it contemplates the new typography of documents and formats.

Conclusions
Acquisitions policy The process of acquisitions of the sources previously selected constitutes one of the fundamental steps for achievement of the molded objectives in the collection development policy. For it takes into account the following aspects: . Cooperative purchase will be specially treated. The universities and centers of research with similar proles of careers and elds of study will associate in small consortiums in order to acquire the necessary information. . To maintain the exchange and gifts as complementary in order to acquire necessary information. . In the exchange activity, the journals that each university and research center creates will be used in the rst place. Discarding process It is the product of the dynamic growth of resources in a university library, some parts of the collection are remaining without use and since the purpose of discarding is to better the quality of the collection, it is necessary to establish parameters for the de-selection that helps the balance of the collection. Therefore, the university libraries and the research centers of MHE ought: . To carry out general discarding thoroughly every ve years. . To carry out discarding systematically by subject or groups of them according to the criteria of specialists. 42 The subject of collection development turns out to be vital in the future of the organization of information. The quality of the collections and the service that they offer in any information institute depends on the process of selecting and acquiring the information sources. The activity of collection development necessitates policies that govern its main moments and gather procedures and necessary proceedings that support the work of the professional managers, and facilitate decision making. The information policies have to adjust to the requirements of the organization and provide information to all its members.

References
Atherton, P. (1978), Manual para Sistemas y Servicios de Informacion, Unesco, Paris. Cadavic Arango, C.A. (1994), Seleccion y adquisicion o desarrollo de colecciones? Revisando a Evans, Revista Interamericana de Bibliotecologa, Vol. 17 No. 1. Evans, E. (1987), Developing Library and Information Center, Libraries Unlimited, Littleton, CO. Menou, M. (1990), Information policy and national development: an educational perspective, paper presented at the seminar FID/ET, Havana, p. 14.

Collection development policies in university libraries Barbara Susana Sanchez Vignau and Grizly Meneses

Collection Building Volume 24 Number 1 2005 35 43

Negrete Gutierrez, M.C. (1993), El papel del bibliotecologo en el desarrollo de colecciones en la biblioteca universitaria, Investigacion Bibliotecologica: Archivologa, Bibliotecologa e Informacion, Vol. 7 No. 4, p. 5. Osburn, C.B. (1979), Toward a reconceptualization of collection development, Advances in Library Administration and Organization, Vol. 2, p. 177.

Ponjuan Dante, G. (1993), Las polticas nacionales de informacion en el contexto latinoamericano: el caso de Cuba, Ciencias de la Informacion, Vol. 24 No. 1, p. 44. Poveda, H. (1981), Gua para la formulacion de polticas de desarrollo de colecciones, Revista AIBDA, Vol. 2 No. 1. Sanchez Vignau, B.S. (1999), Conferencias de la Asignatura Desarrollo de Colecciones, University of Havana, Havana, p. 5.

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