Government Documents Collection Development Policy
Mission
The mission of the University of Louisville Libraries is fivefold:
- Be a leader in research support
- Commitment to excellent customer service
- Facilitate information access using the most advanced technology
- Teach and develop information skills for lifelong learning
- Build closer relationships with the university community
- Cultivate relationships to better serve community and business needs
The Ekstrom Library supports the University's instructional, research, and public service activities. Students, faculty, and staff of the University of Louisville and its academic and research programs are our priority. The Libraries serve as a resource for users of the Kentucky Virtual University and Library, for organizations with which the University has a contractual agreement, and are a lending library for interlibrary loans. The library also supports scholarly endeavors and information needs in the local, regional, and national communities. In 2002, the University of Louisville Libraries joined the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). ARL is a membership organization that consists of the top research libraries in the United States.
Background
The Ekstrom Library, located in the 3rd Congressional District, was established as a depository in 1925. The service desk in the Government Documents Department of the Ekstrom Library was closed in 1999 to allow for remodeling of the area. Public service responsibilities were shifted to the Reference Department and check-in/processing activities were shifted to Technical Services. Reclassification of the government documents collection to the Library of Congress classification system began in 2000.
In 1999, Ekstrom Library purchased retrospective bibliographic records for the government documents collection from Marcive. These records were loaded into the Libraries' integrated library system (ILS), Voyager. Ekstrom Library now maintains an ongoing subscription for bibliographic records with Marcive, which sends records for print and electronic materials on a weekly and monthly basis.
Community Analysis
The 3rd Congressional District boundaries follow the boundaries of Jefferson County, Kentucky with the exception of some portions of the 2nd District scattered throughout the southern and southwestern portion of the county. This district is a senate-designated district with a total population of 626,676. Specific demographic information about the district follows:
Total population = 626,676(?)
Female = 328,280
Under 18 yrs old = 150,421 (24%)
65 years and older = 87,834 (14%)
Race
African American = 128,542 (20.5%)
Hispanic = 11,480 (1.8%)
American Indian and Alaska Native = 1354 (.2%)
Asian = 8974 (1.4%)
Households
Family Households (families) = 163.743 (62.4%)
Nonfamily Households = 98,839 (37.6%)
Average household size = 2.34
Average family size = 2.96
Educational Attainment
9th to 12th grade, no diploma = 54,713 (13%)
High school graduate or equivalent = 121,480 (28.9%)
Some college, no degree = 93,646 (22.3%)
Associate degree = 23,130 (5.5%)
Bachelor's degree = 63,859 (15.2%)
Graduate or professional degree = 40,518 (9.6%)
Percent high school graduate or higher = 81.5%
Percent bachelor's degree or higher = 24.8%
Language Spoken at Home
Language other than English
Other Indo-European languages = 11,259 (1.9%)
Asian and Pacific Island languages = 5684 (1%)
Economic Profile
According to 2000 Census counts, 318,058 (or 64.5%) persons over the age of 16 years were active in the 3rd District labor force, with 32.9% describing their occupation as "management, professional, and related occupations." 20.6% of persons in the 3rd District labor force were employed in the educational, health, and social service industries. Jefferson County is home to employers such as Humana, General Electric, United Parcel Service (UPS), Ford Motor Company, and Brown Forman. More specific information about employment status, occupation, and industry in Kentucky's 3rd Congressional District follows:
Employment Status
Unemployed = 16,898 (3.4%)
Occupation
Service occupations = 43,821 (14.6%)
Sales and office occupations = 85,509 (28.4%)
Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations = 510 (.2%)
Construction, extraction, and maintenance occupations = 24,367 (8.1%)
Production, transportation, and material moving occupations = 47,418 (15.8%)
Industry
Construction = 17,615 (5.9%)
Manufacturing = 39,542 (13.2%)
Wholesale trade = 12,256 (4.1%)
Retail trade = 33,590 (11.2%)
Transportation and warehousing, and utilities = 21,136 (7%)
Information = 8110 (2.7%)
Finance, Insurance, real estate, and rental and leasing = 24,524 (8.2%)
Professional, scientific, management, administrative, and waste management services = 26,881 (8.9%)
Educational, health, and social services = 61,928 (20.6%)
Arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and food services = 26,672 (8.9%)
Other services (except public administration) = 16,434 (5.5%)
Public Administration = 10,939 (3.6%)
Major Manufacturers
General Electric Co. 6,000
Brown-Forman Co. 1800
Humana 7500
UPS 4000
Collection Profile
The library has maintained this high selection rate since the University of Louisville achieved depository status in 1925, creating a large depository collection. The Ekstrom Library is a selective depository that currently receives 68% of materials published by the Government Printing Office (GPO). The selected item count is 4266 and the inactive item count is 1695. The collection consists of an estimated 300,000 documents. Approximately 40% of that collection consists of pre-1976 documents that are currently uncataloged. The collection's strengths include materials from the Census Bureau, the Commerce Department, the Justice Department, and the Interior Department.
Collection Guidelines
Languages
English is the primary language for US documents, although other languages are collected as offered.
Chronological Guidelines
The library strives to maintain a complete collection. Retrospective runs of materials before 1925 are obtained through gifts or purchased. Examples of these purchases include the retrospective census volumes from Norman Ross Publishing and the US Supreme Court Decisions on microfilm.
Geographical Guidelines
All items are selected that relate to the Louisville metropolitan area and the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Special consideration is given to materials covering the Ohio Valley States and the United States as a whole.
Treatment
Ephemeral materials, such as fliers, newsletters, pamphlets, and posters are not selected.
Formats
Materials are selected in whatever format is available. Format preference is:
- Paper
- Microfilm
- Online
- CD-ROM
Deselection
The Government Documents Department of the Ekstrom Library follows the weeding guidelines established in the Instructions to Depository Libraries. Weeding is an ongoing process performed by the Government Information Reference Librarian and the Government Publications Librarian.
Items that are not typically weeded from the Government Documents Collection include those that support the university curriculum, those that are of regional interest, annual reports, proceedings, serials, series, monographs, indexes, statistical sources, technical reports, histories, pre-1976 documents, rare documents, and documents that are not widely held by other libraries.
Titles are evaluated on an individual basis and are not withdrawn solely because they meet the criteria for withdrawal. Superseded items are typically weeded unless they meet the criteria for retention stated above. Other criteria for withdrawal include those items that do not support the university curriculum, items that are damaged beyond repair, catalogs, posters, directories, pamphlets, bookmarks, fliers, fact sheets, circulars, program or action plans, draft documents, outdated forms and applications and related instructions, grant information and guidelines, course manuals, users guides, law or regulatory related documents, electronic media (CD-ROM, diskettes, etc.), and print items with electronic equivalents (unless they meet the criteria for retention stated above).
All weeded materials must be offered to the regional depository library at the University of Kentucky, then to other depository libraries in Kentucky, before being offered nationally on the "Needs and Offers" list.
Documents that are damaged are sent to the Ekstrom Library's Binding Department for evaluation and repair. Documents that are lost, stolen, or damaged beyond repair are searched for on exchange lists or evaluated for purchase.
Resource Sharing
Although the University of Louisville is the main depository for the Louisville metropolitan area, item selections and weeding decisions are made in respect to the holdings of the other Louisville area depositories: The University of Louisville Law Library (13% Selective) and the Louisville Free Public Library (22% Selective), both of which are in the 3rd Congressional District. Exchange lists are also sent to the regional library, other selective depositories within the state, and to the National Needs and Offers List. Other libraries' exchange lists are frequently checked for missing or needed items.
Internet Access
Increasingly, more and more government information is available electronically only. The University of Louisville offers many terminals with unrestricted Internet access to view and print electronic documents. Electronic Only documents are also selected from the GPO and linked in the OPAC when appropriate.
Maps
Many popular maps series are collected. 1:24,000 topographic quadrangles are selected for Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Tennessee. Older editions of these maps are retained for Kentucky. The 1:100,000 and the 1:250,000 USGS topographic series are collected for the entire United States, along with all the USGS geologic series. Miscellaneous maps from the various agencies are also selected as available. Not selected are aeronautical charts, nautical charts, and Bureau of Land Management Surface and Mineral Status Maps. The depository collection is supplemented by a small commercial assortment of world and travel maps.
Collection Development Tools
The following items are used to evaluate, select, and deselect items for the collection:- Catalog of US Government Publications
- Documents Data Miner
- Item Lister
- List of Classes Available for Selection by Depository Libraries
- Needs and Offers List
- Superseded List
Collecting Levels
Most time sensitive publications, such as directories and forms will rely on Internet access rather than paper copies.
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Policy created: June 4, 2003