Collection Policy

 

Scope
Mission
 Principles of Selection and Retention
Suggest a Purchase
 Supplementation via Document Delivery
The Serials Crisis and Philosophical Approaches to Collection Development
 Funding Sources for Information Resources
Good stewardship of state funds
 Freedom to Read, Evidence-Based Information, and Privacy
History of Medicine Collection
 Gift Policy

 

Scope
The Quillen College of Medicine Library supports the teaching, research, and clinical activities of the East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine, Gatton College of Pharmacy, and by extension the greater East Tennessee State University Health Sciences programs in a variety of settings across the Northeast Tennessee region. The Quillen College of Medicine Library collects primarily English language materials.  Materials written about health and medicine in Tennessee and rural Appalachia are of special interest.



This collection policy will be reviewed on an annual basis by the Quillen College of Medicine Library Strategic Planning Group.









 

Mission
Quillen College of Medicine
The primary mission of the Quillen College of Medicine is to educate future physicians, especially those with an interest in primary care, to practice in underserved rural communities. In addition, the College is committed to excellence in biomedical research and is dedicated to the improvement of health care in Northeast Tennessee and the surrounding Appalachian Region.

Quillen College of Medicine Library Mission Statement
The mission of the Quillen College of Medicine Library is to provide access to information which meets the educational, research, and patient care needs of the students, residents, faculty and staff of the College of Medicine. The Library also serves as a resource for other university colleges and departments, including the College of Pharmacy and others belonging to the Academic Health Sciences Center, and provides community outreach services supporting patients and the healthcare providers of the region.

 

Principles of Selection and Retention
The primary purpose of the Medical Library’s collection is to serve the needs of the College of Medicine and College of Pharmacy faculty, staff, students, researchers, and residents. Secondary constituents include members of ETSU’s other colleges and programs of the Academic Health Sciences Center and patients. Collection decisions will be made with the scope of these programs in mind.

Selection

  • We will strive to balance issues of access, ownership, and historical preservation across formats. (see The Serials Crisis and Philosophical Approaches to Collection Development)
  • We will focus on digital content that can be accessed remotely and shared by multiple users.
  • The Library’s collection development decisions will be made by librarians with support from financial services.
  • The collection development team, Learning Resources Advisory Council, and faculty, staff, and students will be consulted for collection decisions when appropriate. The Associate Dean for Learning Resources will make final decisions.
  • Items that support research, teaching, and/or patient care will be sought for addition to the collection.
  • The Library will work with the Sherrod Library and library consortia such as TennShare to make cooperative purchases whenever possible
  • Electronic back issues will be purchased, when funds are available, to fill in missing volumes and/or provide broader access to information by replacing older print journals.
  • Electronic journals that include all supplementary materials are preferred.
  • Electronic journals must provide off-campus access through the ETSU proxy server, must allow downloading and printing, and must allow adequate simultaneous users.
  • The Library will not purchase electronic materials that cannot be used for interlibrary loan/document delivery.
  • The Library will use trial subscriptions to aid selection decisions. Trials will be featured on the Library web page and patron input will be encouraged.
  • Metrics such as cost-per-use and number of orders per title through document delivery will be analyzed and used in selection and retention decisions. Vendors should make such statistics available in consistent and analyzable formats.
  • The Library will work to not enter into contracts containing pricing-related non-disclosure agreements in order to maintain transparency as a state-funded institution.
  • The Library may collect a variety of types of materials, including journals, books, databases, software and programs, clinical care tools, and other items as appropriate.

Removal/Cancellation

  • Weeding will be done periodically by library staff.
  • Books that have not circulated in 10 years and/or books that are 25 years old will be deselected and removed unless they present information that more current medical evidence has not replaced or are recognized classics, early works representing important medical advances and beliefs, or works associated with historically or institutionally important authors or events.
  • Print serials will be considered for deselection when an online version becomes available
  • Items in outdated formats (such as cassette tapes) for which reading/use equipment is no longer commonly available will be deselected.

 


Suggest a Purchase
To suggest a purchase for consideration, please complete this online form.

 

 

Supplementation via Document Delivery
 Document Delivery services are employed to provide resources not available in ETSU’s collection or through open access sources. When the cost of maintaining full access to resources becomes prohibitive due to high cost/low use, subscriptions may be cancelled in favor of using Document Delivery to strategically supplement the Library’s collection. Charges for Document Delivery offset the cost of obtaining the materials as well as associated staff time.

 

 

The Serials Crisis and Philosophical Approaches to Collection Development
Rapidly escalating prices for scholarly publications – especially scientific journals – pose a significant threat to accessing information in healthcare research and education. This threat is often described as the “serials crisis,” and has a major effect on libraries’ ability to purchase information resources. Many libraries have faced yearly cuts to information resources in order to maintain stable budgets, because publishers typically raise prices each year at a rate that outpaces library budget increases.

Libraries all over the world are struggling with this scenario and experimenting with different approaches. One consideration is whether libraries should continue to purchase and provide access to complete runs of journals to which they preserve access for many decades, or if a shift should be made to acquiring information on-demand (such as purchasing single articles through Document Delivery) for individual library users without a preservation or completionist component (i.e., acquiring all volumes of a journal). It is not clear how the serials crisis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serials_crisis ) will play out in future years or what the best solution to the current crisis may be. As such, the Library commits to close monitoring of the scholarly publishing landscape, careful evaluation of resource cost and use, and exploration of alternate approaches to provide information to ETSU personnel at the point of need.





 

Funding Sources for Information Resources
Purchase and license of information resources is supported primarily by funds allocated to the Library by the College of Medicine. The College of Medicine in turn draws its funding from: the practice plan (29%); state or equivalent funding (27%); hospital support (18%); grants and contracts (16%); tuition and fees (7%); other sources (3%). Additional funding is derived from partnerships with the College of Pharmacy, Sherrod Library, and other ETSU entities along with external/grant support.




 

 

Good stewardship of state funds
This collection development policy is rooted in commitment to wise stewardship of the funding the College of Medicine Library receives from the College of Medicine, the College of Pharmacy, the State of Tennessee, and other sources. The policy is designed to anticipate and respond to College of Medicine needs as well as those of the greater ETSU health sciences community. Exceptions to the policy are considered case-by-case in the context of the entire collection.





 

 

Freedom to Read, Evidence-Based Information, and Privacy
The Library generally supports the American Library Association’s “freedom to read” statement and interprets it for the health sciences educational environment to mean that information on sensitive or political topics should be made available for free inquiry. Examples of such topics include human sexuality and sex education, abortion, death and dying, documented violations of human rights in medical research or clinical care, and topics that challenge provider biases.

The Library balances “freedom to read” (https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/freedomreadstatement ) principles against the need to select and promote information resources based on current evidence-based healthcare. As such, the library does not seek to create “balance” or “represent both sides” in the collection on issues of public interest where the preponderance of evidence is clear.  It strives instead to present the best current evidence on these topics, and to provide the ETSU community with lifelong skills for evaluating the evidence.

The Library will take measures to the extent possible to protect the privacy of users of the Library’s information resources and is committed to directing library users to relevant and evidence-based information in an unbiased manner.

 

 

History of Medicine Collection
The Library collects historical materials related to the health sciences.  Although medicine is the primary subject area for collection, materials from pharmacy, public health, nursing and other allied health sciences may also be selected for inclusion in the History of Medicine Collection.  Topics for collection include but are not limited to rural and Appalachian medicine, local medical authors, and important general works in the history of medicine. These items do not circulate.

Formats included in the collections include books and serials published before 1950, and electronic resources of historical interest. Other materials such as manuscripts and artifacts associated with the history of health care may be included.  The Library maintains some archival collections for the Quillen College of Medicine. The librarian in charge of the History of Medicine Collection also partners with Biomedical Communications to collect certain contemporary items produced about ETSU programs, colleges, and events which may be of interest to future researchers.




 

Gift Policy
The Quillen College of Medicine Library welcomes gifts of books, journals and other cultural heritage materials that extend and complement existing collections. Because of the high cost of storage and processing, the Library is unable to accept all donations. Gifts are accepted with the understanding that they become the property of the Library upon receipt and that the Library may make all necessary decisions as to their retention, location, cataloging, and other considerations relating to their use and disposition.  Materials accepted but not added to the Library collections may be exchanged with other libraries throughout the world, sold, or disposed of through charitable organizations, or other means.  We are not able to accept drop-offs of large amounts of gift materials unless prior arrangements have been made. A gift form must be completed by all donors.

Preferred Gift Items

  • Scholarly medical monographs published within the last 5 years
  • Autographed medical monographs
  • Significant first editions of medical monographs
  • Bound volumes and unbound issues of journals that complete runs of journals currently held by the Library
  • History of Medicine publications, especially those that concern the South Central Appalachian region
  • Works by College of Medicine authors

Responsibility
The Assistant Director for Administration & Collections is responsible for setting policy and coordinating collection development activities, in consultation with other librarians. All gifts will be reviewed by the Assistant Director for Administration & Collections prior to acceptance by the Library. Gift collection and acceptance priorities may change over time as academic research programs change.

Tax Information
Gifts to the College of Medicine Library are tax deductible, but IRS regulations prohibit the provision of estimates or appraisals. A letter of acknowledgement will be sent to the donor if requested. Donors wishing to claim a tax deduction may want to consult with their income tax preparer or the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for the proper procedure.

Deselection of Gift Materials
The Library may deselect and dispose of any materials that do not meet the selection criteria outlined in this policy, at the time of the gift or in the future at the Library’s discretion.  Decisions regarding the deaccession or disposal of materials will be made with consideration of the History of Medicine Collection priorities, library collection priorities, public interest, and the needs of researchers.

Contacting the Library
If you are considering a gift to the Quillen College of Medicine Library or have a question about the gift policy, please contact Nakia Woodward, Assistant Director for Administration & Collections: (423) 439-6246 or woodwardn@etsu.edu. A gift form must be completed by all donors.

Last Reviewed: March 2, 2022

 

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