Boston Public Library
Collection Development and Management Policy

Policies & Procedures

Introduction
An examination of collection development and management in the Boston Public Library must take into account the Library’s organizational structure (based on geographic distribution of facilities) and division of collections across its facilities (based on subject, format, genre, and reading level). The Library’s collections are overwhelmingly paper-based (monographs and serials). This factor, coupled with multiple service points within the Central buildings and the Branches, has meant the purchase of duplicate copies for reference and circulation throughout the system. The debate about the future of the book as a viable format continues but there are no indications that physical books will disappear in the immediate future. The best-seller of today becomes part of the historic record when current reading interest fades. Researchers in the future will request the best-seller title in order to study adult reading habits, literary standards, publishing trends, social studies and other related topics.

"Life long learning" is integral to the concept of public libraries. The City’s ambitious plan for a new branch in the Allston neighborhood extends the physical presence of the Library but will require support in terms of staff, physical collections and sufficient hardware and software to meet the current and on-going information needs of the community. Information resources to support "life long learning" requires support for historic materials beyond those currently in use and a commitment to technologies that will allow the Library to maximize its information access, delivery and preservation options now and in the future.

The development of personal computers in the 1980’s was the platform for the explosion of the Internet and the World-Wide Web in the 1990’s. The recent debate in the Boston Globe (March 2, 2000) concerning Maine Governor Angus King’s proposal to use a state fund surplus to provide each of the state’s 7^th graders with a laptop computer was countered with descriptions of physically deteriorated Maine school buildings containing out-of-date textbooks. Libraries face a similar dilemma in trying to accommodate electronic resources while still having to cope with paper-based collections requiring processing, preservation and storage. The current information environment, containing old and new formats, offers unprecedented possibilities for the delivery of information but places heavy demands on the Library’s funding and infrastructure of access, services, technology and facilities. The challenge of the times is to develop a formula which balances all of these competing needs.

Collaboration with other repositories in resource-sharing and preservation activities is dependent on the Library’s ability to maintain and upgrade its access and information technology. Grant-funders increasingly seek to award proposals that represent multiple institutions working in concert toward common goals. This approach assumes that grant outcomes (catalog records, holding records, preservation action notes, finding aids, digitization, etc.) will be shared across common platforms. As more commercial electronic databases become available, the Library must be able to deliver these resources across the entire system and beyond.

The direction of collection development and management in the Boston Public Library will be determined by institutional response to not only electronic resources but also to the integration of these resources with historic formats to create new paradigms of service.

History of the Collections
Established in 1852, the Boston Public Library (BPL) is the first municipally supported public library in the United States and is the institution that inspired the American public library movement. In their report to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen on June 30, 1852, the Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston outlined their philosophy on the function of a public library. Published as City of Boston Document, No. 37, their statement provides the essential parameters of the Library’s collections and services developed through the years and which have brought this Library to its current position as a major local and national resource.

The parameters define four classes of library materials:

1. Books that cannot be taken out of the Library;
2. Books that few person will wish to read;
3. Books that will often be asked for; and
4. Periodical publications.

The Library was fortunate in the largesse of Joshua Bates, a London-based banker born in Weymouth, MA, who offered the Trustees $50,000 to purchase books for the fledgling institution. This gift was supplemented in succeeding years by the following collections, cited by the Trustees in the first Bulletin of 1867: the Nathaniel Bowditch Library of mathematics (1858), the Theodore Parker Library (1860), the George Ticknor Library of classics (1860), the Thomas Prince Library relating to the history of New England (1866), and Specifications of English Patents, with the Drawings and Indexes (1866) received through the efforts of Joseph Story, President of the Boston Common Council.

The Examining Committee reported the Library’s holdings at 9,688 volumes in 1853 when the Library occupied its first temporary quarters on Mason Street and 70,851 volumes by 1858 when the Library moved to its Boylston Street address. At the March 1895 opening of the McKim building, the public had access to 6,000 reference volumes in Bates Hall, 5,800 volumes in the Patent Library, 91,540 volumes on the Special Libraries floor, and 3,000 volumes in the new Children’s Room. A Newspaper Room opened with 125 titles but by the next year this number increased to 207 domestic and 111 foreign titles. Total holdings numbered 628,297 volumes, a number exceeded only by Library of Congress at that time. The new facility attracted additional donated collections, including the John Adams Library (1893), Mellen Chamberlain Collection (1894), Allen A. Brown Collection (1894), Thomas Wentworth Higginson Collection (Galatea Collection) (1896), and the 20^th Regiment Collection (1896).

In the Library’s branch system, there were 131,422 volumes available in branches in Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, South End, South Boston, West End, and West Roxbury, and the Reading Rooms in Lower Mills, Mattapan, Mt. Bowdoin, and North Brighton.

The 1895 Examining Committee recommended that the Library consider the scope of its collecting responsibilities within the context of other area libraries with the goal of avoiding unnecessary duplication and assigning subject responsibility.

New accessions were listed in a number of publications which sought to encompass the Library’s growing collections. Beginning with Bulletins,Showing titles of Books Added to the Library (Boston: The Library, 1871-1923), the Library cited new acquisitions, duplicates, and wanted volumes, and included brief public service announcements related to the collections. This publication was continued by Bulletin of Recent Books Added to the Public Library of the City of Boston (Boston: The Trustees, 1924-1925) and was followed by More Books: Being the Bulletin of the Boston Public Library (Boston: The Trustees, 1926-1948). At this point The Boston Public Library Quarterly (Boston: The Trustees, 1949-1959) contained staff articles about the collections rather than attempting to continue a listing of all acquired titles. During the earlier period, an Annual List (1901-1907), a Monthly Bulletin of Books Added (1896-1907) and The Weekly Bulletin of New Books Added to the Boston Public Library (1908-1924) were also published.

From time to time special catalogs, lists and bibliographies on narrowly defined subjects were published to highlight particular collections or materials as the Library’s holdings expanded. The Research Library Catalog on Microfiche can be consulted for this material.

In 1972 the Library opened the General Library in the Johnson Building with about 600,000 volumes to serve adults, young adults and children with collections including audio-visual and foreign language materials.

Members of the Boston Library Consortium (BLC), founded in 1970, undertook a shelflist count of their holdings in 1975. The Boston Public Library reported 1,169,000 titles in the Research Library and 407,000 titles in the General Library to this effort.

The BLC provided the impetus for a major assessment of member subject strengths in the 1986 Collection Analysis Project through grant support provided by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC). The Amigos Collection Analysis Service processed machine-readable catalog records for 1981-1985 monographs cataloged by member libraries. Holdings were compared in terms of the percentage of total titles and the percentage of unique titles held by each member across LC subject classes. The Boston Public Library had the highest percentage of unique titles in the following subject areas: Agriculture, Anthropology, Art and Architecture, Biology and the Natural Sciences, Economics and Business, Education, Geology and Geography, History, Humanities, Literature/Languages, Mathematics, Performing Arts, Physical Education, Political Science, Psychology, Science and Technology, Social Sciences and Sociology.

In 1995 the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Boston Library Consortium (BLC) gathered statistics on BLC holdings for a planned Cooperative Collections Development Policy Planning Project. As of June 1994, the Boston Public Library reported the following holdings across the system (Research Library, General Library, and Branches):

• 6,529,998 volumes (monographs and serials)
• 18,046 (current serial subscriptions)
• 5,337,331 (microforms)

At the beginning of the 21^st Century, Boston Public Library holdings number well over 30 million items in a great variety of formats including electronic resources, while still maintaining the very basic distinctions outlined by the Trustees in 1852: acquiring a wide scope of materials for a great diversity of user needs.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Boston Public Library is to preserve and provide access to the historical record of our society and to serve the cultural, educational and informational needs of the people of the City and the Commonwealth. The Library serves as a municipal public library, a research library of "last Recourse" for the Commonwealth, a regional public library headquarters, a host library for an academic and research library consortium, and a central site for a metropolitan area automated network.

Through its Research Library Services Program, the Library seeks to acquire, make available, preserve, and service significant research materials in all fields of knowledge. Based on subject strengths, these resources are made available for multi-purpose use on local, state and national levels. In order to ensure that highly specialized research collections and information are available, the Library maintains professionally skilled staff and in-depth resources in a variety of fields.

Through its Community Services Program, the Library seeks to respond to the constantly changing library and information needs of the community by providing user-oriented services and resources, broad collections of circulating materials, current and back issues of popular periodicals, and rapid information and reference services. This Program also provides advice, assistance, and support for users; programs and exhibits to meet the developmental, cultural and informational needs of the community; and outreach activities.

Boston Public Library as Library of Last Recourse for the Commonwealth

In order to strengthen state-wide resources and to provide reference and research services for all residents of the Commonwealth, the Massachusetts Legislature designated the Boston Public Library as the Library of Last Recourse (Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 78, Section 19C, Paragraph 4) in 1972. As such, the Library was charged to develop, maintain and preserve comprehensive collections of research and archival nature and to provide access to the reference and research collections of the Boston Public Library. Cognizant of this role, the Library attempts to take into consideration its responsibilities toward multiple and varied users groups while pursuing collaborative and cooperative efforts within the local and national library community to fulfill its service responsibilities defined by the statute.

Collection Scope, Format and Clientele

The retrospective collections of the Boston Public Library are broad, covering almost every subject and the entire range of different formats and media. The Library has a tradition of being a library of record and its collections reflect a wide array of different cultures, countries and languages. The main focus and strength in collecting has always been concentrated on Boston, Massachusetts and New England, with a high level of coverage of the national scene and social and academic accomplishments. Since many gift collections come to the Library through donors and collectors with worldwide interests, the Library has acquired through the years major subject collections in languages other than English. The emphasis on collecting heavily in ethnic areas that make up the fabric of the state’s population has been particularly important since the early 1960’s and remains one of the most pursued goals in acquiring materials and providing services to area patrons.

Although the major part of the resources are in print format (books, manuscripts, periodicals, newspapers, documents, etc.), significant collections in other formats include prints, microforms, sound recordings, films, audio and video materials, maps, blueprints and other architectural drawings, sheet music and realia. Electronic products and related management aspects have become part of library services with emphasis toward inter-institutional cooperation and resource sharing. A detailed listing of formats and format-related collection development is encompassed in a special section dealing with library formats.

Library services and programs are available to individual patrons of all ages who come to the library in person or via telephone, mail or electronic communications. These patrons include not only the general public, but also students and researchers from around the world. Highly specialized collections attract business people, professionals such as architects, writers, musicians and those individuals who use libraries for self-education and advancement. Visiting scholars set up their research trips to use the Library’s retrospective primary research materials to further their projects.

Policy Statement Purpose and Audience to Whom It Is Directed

The Policy Statement is intended to serve as a guide to Library staff in maintaining existing collections and developing new areas of knowledge in an informed climate.

The Policy Statement is a management tool to identify current collection development practice, to identify goals, to provide continuity among the selection practices within the Library and to deploy the financial resources of the Library.

The Policy Statement facilitates cooperative development of Library resources now and in the future.

Goals of Collection Management and Development Program

• To support the institution’s mission in the following areas by acquiring materials which support:
  • community research (City of Boston residents and members of the Boston Regional Library System)
  • Library of Last Recourse role (Massachusetts residents)
  • public research (regional, national, and international researchers)
  • recreational and educational roles of the institution
• To make material accessible;
• To preserve the material for users now and in the future;
• To service material by ensuring its availability to users;
• To build on existing strengths;
• To rationally develop collections in response to new research needs;
• To make the best use of existing financial resources;
• To make informed decisions in terms of format choices;
• To develop and maintain a balanced contents management program, in light of increasing electronic resources, by establishing links among various formats of current and retrospective library holdings;
• To maximize the availability of special resources by entering and maintaining collaborative programs.

Brief Statistical Overview of the Collections and their Locations

Cumulative statistics as of July 1, 1999, show the following broad groupings of materials:

Social Sciences and Humanities subjects form the largest group of materials (40% and 28% respectively), followed by Science (13-15%), Fine Arts (4%) and Music (3%). Multidisciplinary coverage is represented in the collections of Government Documents, Microtext, Print, Rare Books and Special Collections.

Research Library collections occupy parts of the Central Library facility in Copley Square&emdash;Johnson and McKim Buildings&emdash;as well as remote storage buildings in Charlestown and Norwood. The Boston Public Library is a founding member of the New England Depository Library (a cooperative storage facility) and maintains over 100,000 volumes in its location in Brighton. All circulating and age level-based collections are located in the Johnson Building and in 26 branches throughout the City of Boston. A separate Kirstein Business Library is located in Boston’s financial district. Founded in 1929, the Kirstein branch services predominantly business-related materials with heavy emphasis on serials and electronic resources.

Organization of Collection Management and Development Program

Collections Development Policy Rationale

This collection development policy represents the first attempt to incorporate the collection development practices of the Research Library and the General Library and Branches into a single document. It is meant to encompass what is currently known about the practices within the Library. Inevitably, it will change as priorities based on such factors as funding allocations, service needs, patron requests and information technologies shift not only in this institution but also throughout the library world.

A collection development policy should define the rationale for the existence of collections within an institution. Specifically, the "why" and the "what" of collections as they have developed over time, including the scope of each collection.* (* Gorman, G.E. Collection Development for Libraries. G.E. Gorman and B.R. Howes. London: Bowker-Sauer, c1989, p. 28.) Selection responsibility and collection management (acquisitions, cataloging, preservation, storage) are activities (the "how" and by "whom") that happen after the collection development policy is determined.

Insofar as possible, the Selection Criteria for the Acquisition of Adult Materials Community Library Services Division (December 1996) is incorporated into appropriate sections of this work. The complete document is included in the Appendices.

Collection Management and Development Program

The implementation of the collection development program takes place through materials and electronic contents selection process, blanket order plans and standing order oversight. Public service professional staff, Curators of subject or format departments, branch librarians, Keepers and other designated staff, assume the responsibility and participate in the materials selection function. Closely related to the selection function are other collection management programs:

Acquisitions, Bibliographic Access and Physical Preparation

Acquisitions is responsible for timely and cost effective receipt of materials, while bibliographic access work takes place in Cataloging. Physical preparation for shelving and storage is performed by Materials Handling operations. The Systems Office provides support for the online catalog and electronic databases.

Storage

The growth of Research Library collections over time, the McKim Building renovations and the August 1998 flood have required that increasing numbers of collections be housed outside of the Copley Square buildings. The Library houses collections in three remote storage facilities: the Charlestown Service Building, the Norwood Facility, and the New England Deposit Library. Materials housed in remote storage areas are available to users on a 24-48 hour turnaround time basis.

Preservation

Binding

Monographs and serials are sent out for binding on a regular basis from Research Library departments. Materials in the circulating collections can also be bound as requested. Approximately 12,000 periodical volumes are bound each year.

Microfilming

An on-going program of microfilming covers current and retrospective Massachusetts newspapers. Fragile monographs from the Research Library stacks are segregated to a separate physical location for assessment. Preservation microfilming is applied depending on

1. the uniqueness of the title within the Library’s collections and holdings in neighboring collections,
2. the availability of funds,
3. the existence of a microfilm copy in another repository, and
4. other replacement options.

Materials in special collections may also become candidates for microfilming, including scores, tax records, scrapbooks and reports. The Library maintains a bindery and preservation microfilm budget. Additional funds have been secured from the Library Friends’ groups and grant applications.

Conservation Treatment

Selected items may receive preliminary conservation attention and restoration work. The Library has an in-house Conservation Lab staffed by Book Conservators who while concentrating on the Rare Book collections may also work on volumes from other Library departments. The Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover offers services for treatment and restoration of other types of material.

Rehousing

Research Library departments re-house materials with various types of specially ordered acid-free containers such as envelopes, folders, and cartons. It is possible to have phase boxes made by a commercial bindery for selected items throughout the collections.

Digitization

The Library has digitized Copley Square images as part of the Fine Arts Architecture Index Project and photographs from the Leslie Jones Collection. It is anticipated that other materials will be selected for digitization to provide access without compromising the fragile nature of unique holdings.

Surveys

Preservation surveys, performed by in-house staff and outside consultants, allow for future planning of resource allocations required to insure the maintenance of historic, contemporary and special collections.

In 1991 the Library performed an Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Preservation Self-Study which made recommendations for collections held across the Research Library, General Library and Branches in the areas of organization of preservation, environmental conditions, physical condition of the collections, disaster plan/construction guidelines, and staff and user education. Abbreviated excerpts from the Final Report of this Study are appended to this document.

With funding from the Mellon Foundation in 1995, the Research Library performed a survey of its performing arts collections. This survey documented access and preservation issues for the formats held in 75 collections in Music, Prints, Rare Books, and the Research Library Office. In-depth preservation surveys were completed for the Alexandre Benois Collection and the Doubravina Theatre Collection by the Northeast Document Conservation Center.

Disaster Planning

The Library has recently completed an update of its Disaster Plan Manual in the wake of the August 1998 Flood.

Security

A security guard service is maintained in the Copley Square buildings to examine briefcases and backpacks of persons exiting the buildings. The addition of a security strip system has been explored by an in-house committee and is recommended for implementation.

Replacements

Circulating collections frequently require replacement of missing or worn out copies. The replacement lists allow for coordinated ordering of "in print" titles. Since the Library is a recipient of gift books, the received copies offered to the Research and General Library and Branches serve as replacements as needed.

Deselection

Research Library

Research Library collections are not deselected. Variant editions are collected and superceded reference materials are maintained as part of the historical record.

General Library and Branches

Circulating collections undergo periodic reassessment as to their appropriateness and suitability to respond to current needs, to make space for current materials, to make the collections more attractive, to facilitate the ease of use of the collections by patrons and staff, and to reduce the damage to books caused by overcrowding and space limitations. Weeding criteria includes:

• Dated, inaccurate, unused or rarely used materials.
• Worn-out and damaged materials.
• Trendy ephemera.
• Duplicate material no longer in demand.

Titles that become available as part of the circulating collections weeding process are offered as appropriate to Research Library collections, other public libraries or are disposed through library book sales, giveaways, exchanges or recycling.

Access

Research Library

Research library collections are available for in-house use only, thus allowing multiple user access even in cases where circulating copies in high demand may not be available. Research library materials are available to other Massachusetts public libraries through the Inter-Library Loan Department. Excepted from this lending policy are fragile materials, periodicals, microforms and active reference titles.

Catalog access is available through the Research Library Catalog On-Line Catalog (Spectrum) and the Research Library Catalog on Microfiche. The Research Library On-Line Catalog is currently being migrated as a separate database to the DRA System. It is expected that on-line public access catalog evaluation will continue with the need to perform retrospective conversion of the Research Library Catalog on Microfiche.

Due to ongoing budgetary restraints, the Library has significant arrearages of uncataloged monographs acquired by purchase and/or as gifts. Most of this material was published in foreign countries during the last part of the 20^th century and is being absorbed gradually into the bibliographic access system.

General Library and Branches

Circulating collections are made available to borrowers throughout the state. Reference materials as well as unbound and bound serials, however, do not circulate. Access to the circulating collections is through the DRA Catalog and the Media Catalog, including via the Library’s website.

Bibliographic Instruction/Training Classes

Research Library

Public service staff offer bibliographic and subject-related orientation and instruction classes to patrons and staff from the Boston Regional Library System and other libraries across the state. Orientation workshops are created by subject and format departments in response to special request by groups, schools and organizations.

General Library and Branches

Bibliographic instruction and orientation tours are done for patrons, schools and organizations in the General Library and Branches. Internet Workshops are offered to provide patrons with a starting point in accessing electronic resources. Children’s and Young Adult librarians offer orientation tours designed to introduce the Library’s resources to elementary and secondary students. In addition, neighborhood school visits are scheduled throughout the year to create awareness of Branch collections.

Policy on Responding to Concerns about Materials in the Library’s Collections

Complaints about any material(s) owned by the Boston Public Library and part of the Library’s materials collection will be handled as follows:

1. The concerned patron will be offered the opportunity to discuss her/his concern with the staff person responsible for selection.
   
2. If the patron is dissatisfied with this discussion and wishes to pursue the issue, she/he will be asked to provide a written statement which identifies the item, verifies that she/he has read or used the item, and lists the concerns that she/he has about the item.
   
3. The statement will be forwarded to a review committee composed of no less than three (3) staff members. The committee shall always include the staff person responsible for selection and may include the Coordinator of Youth Services or the Coordinator of Adults Services (whichever is appropriate), the Director of Public Services or other staff as appropriate. This committee shall discuss the item(s) in question from the standpoint of the concerns expressed.
   
4. Options for the review committee will include explaining why the item will be maintained by the Library in its present location, moving the item to a different department of the Library (from the Children’s Room to the Young Adult Room, for instance), moving the item to non-circulating status or removing the item from a display area to a closed stack area. A written response will be sent to the patron, if contact information is provided, explaining the option chosen.
   
5. A copy of the review committee’s letter to the patron, as well as the patron’s written statement of concern, shall be given to the President of the Library for informational purposes.

Budget Structure and Allocation Policy

Annual budget allocations in the following areas sustain the Library’s collection development efforts, including electronic data systems and ongoing preservation programs:

1. Serials and serials-like commitments;
   
2. Blanket Orders&emdash;domestic and foreign;
   
3. Discretionary selections&emdash;quota allocations to distinctive departments and branches;
   
4. Funds allocated for preservation, including preservation microfilming as well as preservation and current binding programs;
   
5. Acquisition of print and electronic reference materials;
   
6. Maintenance of local, national and international memberships in preferred library service-oriented organizations&emdash;memberships provide access to organizational publications otherwise not available;
   
7. Participation costs in bibliographic utilities and partnerships;
   
8. Miscellaneous: providing funding for the acquisition of special materials which are not part of the mainstream acquisitions such as special local materials, small presses, historical collections, etc.;
   
9. Trust fund allocations focused on highly specialized acquisitions of manuscripts, rare books, prints, out of print and other antiquarian materials.

The budgetary allocations or quota are assigned to all selection centers responsible for the origination of orders. Administrative levels of the organization are responsible for keeping the commitments and discretionary selections within budgetary allocations with the final oversight authority vested with the Chief Financial Officer of the Library

Cooperative Resource Sharing Agreements

In-house and local resources are increased, duplication of effort is minimized, resources are preserved, and access is improved for staff and patrons through the Library’s active participation in collaborative groups. The Boston Public Library maintains memberships in the following local, national and international organizations:

• Association of Research Libraries (ARL)
• Boston Library Consortium (BLC)
• Boston Regional Library System (BRLS)
• Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR)
• International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)
• Metro Boston Library Network (MBLN)
• New England Library Information Network (NELINET)
• On-Line Computer Library Center (OCLC)
• Research Libraries Group (RLG)
• United States Newspaper Program (USNP)
• Urban Libraries Council (ULC)

BLC

As a BLC member the BPL participates in shared resource agreements for expensive microform sets. The Library contributes to the Boston Library Consortium Union List of Serials. Through the Cooperative Collections Committee of the BLC the Library has the opportunity to participate in electronic resource trials and shared purchases. Resources acquired through consortial participation include Women Writers Online, Major Authors Online, Times Literary Supplement Online, and ISI Emerging Markets. Print resource agreements the Library participates in at this time:

• Cooperative Holdings of Women’s Studies Journals
• Cooperative Resource Sharing in Art
• Cooperative Resource Sharing in Music
• Cooperative Resource Sharing in Small Press Poetry
• Cooperative Resource Sharing in Women’s Studies

The Library will be a first-phase member of the BLC’s planned Virtual Catalog which will facilitate access to resources among its member libraries.

Boston Athenaeum/Boston Public Library/Harvard University/Massachusetts State Library Newspaper Agreement

In 1967 the Library agreed to assume responsibility for the microfilming of newspapers in Boston, Massachusetts and New England. With the advent of the USNP in the 1980’s, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont microfilmed their own in-state titles. The Boston Athenaeum’s collections of colonial and early 19^th century Massachusetts titles were contributed to the Massachusetts Newspaper Program for microfilming. With BPL’s concentration on current and retrospective Massachusetts titles, Harvard University focuses its microfilming efforts on national and international newspaper titles.

OCLC

With its membership in OCLC, the Library processes material using catalog records in the OCLC database. This system is widely used across the country for inter-library loan of user requested materials.

RLG

As an RLG member the Boston Public Library can participate in resource sharing and preservation-related activities. Currently, the Library is exploring the downloading of Deutsche Bibliothek juvenile catalog records to facilitate the cataloging of and access to German language children’s books in the Jordan Collection backlog. In addition, the Boston Public Library is contributing special collection finding aids to the RLG Archival Resources database which provides web access to archives and special collections across the country.

Smithsonian Institution

The Library’s Fine Arts Department, in recognition of its strong collections in American Art, is the repository of the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art microfilm collection which contains artist papers, gallery records and institutional archives.

State Library of Massachusetts

The State Library of Massachusetts serves as a clearinghouse for Massachusetts state executive, legislative and judicial agencies documents that are deposited with the Boston Public Library. An index to state and local documents is created and maintained by the Boston Public Library Government Documents staff.

USGPO

As a full Federal Depository facility, the Library’s Government Documents Department receives U.S. Government Documents issued by the U.S. Government Printing Office.

USNP

In its role as the headquarters for the Massachusetts Newspaper Program (MNP) the Boston Public Library has surveyed, cataloged and microfilmed Massachusetts newspapers held within the Library and throughout the state. Work continues with the microfilming of newspaper titles from Chatham, Lawrence, Seekonk, and Somerville.

Acquisitions Procedures Influencing Collection Development

Blanket Order Plans

Since the early 1970’s the Boston Public Library has maintained several domestic blanket order plans. The operation of these plans has allowed the Library to maintain a high acquisition level of domestic titles during several years of financial crisis which impacted on reference staff/selector positions. Completeness of coverage and early availability of titles are the criteria for a successful blanket order plan.

Domestic blanket order plans are carefully arranged to insure quality coverage of current U.S. publications for adult readers. Professional staff charged with public service responsibilities and Acquisitions librarians developed an overall profile which includes the following criteria of

1. a list of publishers to be covered,
   
2. an agreed subject coverage indicating the intensity of coverage, and
   
3. non-subject descriptive parameters based on categories of books.

In well-defined instances, the blanket order agreement calls for the supplying of notification slips instead of books or for exclusions. Also, in cases where the Library wishes to receive books or notification slips intended for casual recreational or self-study reading, a "popular" content level is designated.

The current blanket order plan supplies approximately 12,000 to 15,000 titles. The levels of expenditure are monitored on a monthly basis.

To facilitate ordering copies system wide, the Library strives to make newly arrived blanket order titles available in an Inspection Room accessible to all selectors. The single received copy from the plan is used as an examination copy for eventual system-wide quantities ordering. Once the examination period is over and quantities orders are made, the Inspection Room copy is cataloged for Research Library stacks or becomes a reference copy if so designated by appropriate staff.

A juvenile blanket order covers most of the U.S. trade children’s literature publishers and is discussed here separately under the heading, Children’s Literature Collections.

Additional Purchase Plans

Besides the adult blanket order plan, the Boston Public Library maintains purchase plans including small press publishers, gay literature, ethnic publications, tra

vel and other special interest titles. Material may be purchased locally to respond to special programs and public service needs throughout the year. Single titles, not part of the blanket order program, can be ordered and placed for staff consideration in the Inspection Room.

Bestsellers Lease Plans

To acquire timely multiple copies of bestsellers, the Library maintains a best sellers lease plan. The number of copies acquired per title and the selection of titles for this program are determined individually by each separate branch and the professional staff in charge of circulating collections in the central library facility.

Acquisition of Expensive Collections

For purchases of major collections or expensive standing orders, a process involving more than one subject or format curator takes place. The goal of the discussion is to reach a consensus decision, taking into account public service needs, budgetary implications, resources available locally and how the acquisition under consideration would contribute to the overall strength of the Library’s collections. Other elements of decision-making within the same process include location assignment, bibliographic access and conservation care which my be required.

Foreign Language Collections

Research Library

Foreign Blanket Orders

From the late 1960’s through the early 1980’s the Boston Public Library devoted considerable resources in sustaining major Foreign Blanket Order Plans. The effort harmonized well with existing retrospective library holdings and was intended to provide major world language resources within the framework of the Library of Last Recourse Program funded by the state.

Because of budget reductions this foreign collection development program was gradually reduced and as a result of phasing out the Eastern Massachusetts Regional Library System funding, all remaining foreign blanket programs have been eliminated.

At the present time the acquisition of foreign titles takes place within the mainstream of discretionary selection and ordering is based on the availability of funds. The library service needs of the ethnic population in Boston and Massachusetts are determining factors in the setting of priorities in this area.

The guidelines used for the foreign blanket orders are incorporated into the Appendices of this document for possible future review and implementation if funding again becomes available.

General Library and Branches

The General Library maintains a browsing collection of adult and juvenile foreign language titles on the Mezzanine Level of the Johnson Building. Languages covered include Chinese, French, German, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

The Branch libraries have identified the need for collections of foreign language materials in proportion to the user community’s population size: Spanish, French, Russian, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Cambodian, Italian, Creole, Cape Verdean, Chinese, Gaelic, Arabic, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Albanian, Somali, Urdu, Hindi, Laotian, Hebrew, German, and Greek.

Gifts

Donations of material substantially contribute to the Library’s resources over time as they supplement and enhance existing collections that support the recreation and research needs of staff and patrons. Hardcover trade titles, trade paperbacks, mass market paperbacks, serials, children’s books, sound recordings, compact discs, videos and maps are the major formats brought in by donation.

The Library accepts donations at the Central building and the Branches. Public libraries within the state, businesses and individuals are encouraged to contact Gifts staff concerning donations ranging from a few paperbacks to major collections amassed over time.

Donations are accepted according to the following guidelines:

• All donations become the property of the Boston Public Library and are subject to its policies and procedures.
• Due to internal priorities, it is not possible to have individual donations processed within defined periods of time.
• Donors who want an appraisal of their material for income tax purposes should make such arrangements prior to donation. The Library does not perform appraisals.
• Some categories of material cannot be used by the Library such as textbooks, Reader’s Digest condensed books and backfiles of certain periodicals. Potential donors are urged to contact the Gifts Librarian for more information.
• Materials in poor physical condition cannot be cost effectively added to the Library’s collections.

Research Library

Donated materials must be searched on the Research Library On-Line Catalog and the Research Library Catalog on Microfiche to determine if they are already held. Same edition titles are compared to stack copies for condition and are substituted if appropriate. Titles missing from shelves are replaced as well. After searching, titles appropriate to subject departments such as Fine Arts or Music are set aside and the respective department contacted to review and select those titles that should be added to their collections.

General Library and Branches

Titles that fall outside the scope of Research Library collections or are not needed for its collections are offered to the General Library and the Branches. This material may be selected by General Library and Branch staff in the Gifts area on designated shelves or may be placed in the Inspection Room area. Special types of material may be set aside over time for selection by a Library department.

Formats

Paper Formats

Abstracts and Indices

Abstracts and indices are collected in all subject areas. The decision to make them part of the reference collection is made by professional staff under curatorial or department head leadership. Holdings of hard copy abstracts and indices are sometimes supplemented by CD-ROMs and by access to online databases. Such parallel collecting in print and electronic formats takes place selectively and is subject to budgetary constraints. Abstracts and indices of unique, highly specialized nature with low frequency of use expectations are designated to storage and are not part of active reference or core subject collecting.

Architectural Archives

The Library’s Fine Arts research collections cover the subject areas of art history, architecture, painting, sculpture, drawing, design, illustration, cartoons, print media, ornament, decorative arts, interior decoration, antiques and collectibles. Reference books on photography, fashion designers, costume and landscape architecture are also maintained. These collections are broad-based and comprehensive, covering all facets of art, architecture and the decorative arts of all countries and periods. American art, architecture and the decorative arts are the special strengths of the collection, as well as the long runs of art and architectural serial titles.

Architectural archival holdings within the Library at present number over one million items. Mainly collected through gifts and donations, the Library’s architectural archives consist basically of two types of materials:

1. Municipal records deposited at the Library by the City of Boston Inspectional Services Department and
2. Drawings, office records and photographs of Boston-based architects and firms or those non-Boston, non-Massachusetts architects and firms that designed buildings in Boston.

The records of existing architectural firms are not collected due to legal and potential liability issues, as well as special storage and access requirements. Archival materials and collections on artisans (stained glass workers, architectural sculptors, etc.) are also collected if they worked in Boston.

Smaller collections of individual drawings are acquired to fill gaps in existing collections.

Records for the period of the late nineteenth to early twentieth century form the strength of architectural archives and are the focal points of current collecting.

Book Trade Catalogs and Auction Catalogs

Publishers’ Catalogs

In general, current publishers’ catalogs are used throughout the system as acquisitions tools and are recycled as updated issues are received. Publishers’ catalogs are retained if they relate to a particular strength of the collection (Music, Fine Arts and Special Collections-Children’s Literature) or special situations involving focused user groups or programs.

Booksellers’ Catalogs

The Library receives antiquarian dealers’ catalogs in most subject areas. A representative number of catalogs issued by noted booksellers and art/print dealers are retained. These catalogs serve to document the history of antiquarian trade and are also used as references for identifying out-of-print materials and comparing market prices. Rare Books and Manuscripts, Print, Music and Fine Arts Departments form the main depositories of booksellers’ catalogs.

Auction Catalogs

Rare Books and Manuscripts and Fine Arts Departments collect selected auction catalogs on a standing-order basis.

Books

The Library collects monographic materials through blanket order publishers and by selecting titles from professional journals, publisher’s catalogs, Library of Congress galleys and input received from library users. Gifts and donations are made available to public service librarians for their decisions. Purchased monographs are those that support existing subject or interdisciplinary needs and contribute to strengthening Library resources in its immediate and long-term public services programs. Popular materials are included in all considerations to ensure that all levels of user demands are satisfied.

As part of its Library of Last Recourse role, the Library’s Interlibrary Loan Department may borrow or purchase monographs it receives requests for that the Library does not own.

Large print books, original paperbacks and mass-market paperbacks are collected continuously on a scale which involves staff decisions regarding collecting intensity, available funding and awareness of service needs.

Research Library

Paperbacks

All paperback titles selected for the Research Library are cataloged. Paperback reprint editions that contain substantial new introductions are considered new editions and are added to research collections. A sampling of contemporary romances and similar publications of this type are collected on a representative basis. Avant garde/experimental works, especially if published locally, are selected according to particular subject guidelines.

General Library and Branches

Fiction Criteria

Factors for selection include genre, expected demand, and community interests.

• Readability, or ability to sustain interest.
• Plot development.
• Effective characterization.
• Authenticity of setting.
• Representation of important movements, genres, trends, or national cultures.
• Insight into human and social conditions.
• Artistic presentation and experimentation.

Non-Fiction Criteria

For non-fiction, criteria include accuracy, currency, indices, and other reference tools. Availability of other titles in the field is also considered. Not all criteria apply to all acquisitions in this area.

• Reputation or qualifications of the author, artist or publisher.
• Appearance of the title or author in special lists and bibliographies.
• Timeliness or permanence of the work.
• Clarity, accuracy, logic of presentation and/or ease of use.
• Contribution to the field of knowledge.
• Relationship to the existing collection and to other titles and authors dealing with the same subject.
• Availability of the material in the system, in other libraries or in print.
• Present and potential relevance to community interests and needs.
• Reader demand.
• Value of resource in relation to its cost.
• Suitability of format for library use.
• Technical characteristics, i.e. quality of paper, typography, binding.
• Space considerations.
• Suitability of subject and style for intended audience.
• Level of difficulty.
• Comprehensiveness and depth of treatment.
• Attention of critics and reviewers.
• Quality of illustrations.
• Literary quality.
• Representation of opposing views.
• Professional judgment.

Adult Braille Books

Adult Braille books are loaned to the General Library from the Braille and Talking Book Library at the Perkins School for the Blind; as such, they are not listed in the DRA on-line catalog. Access Services personnel in the Adult Readers and Information Services Department maintains a list of the titles currently available. Also available through Access Services are periodicals in Braille produced by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, as well as current and back issues of other publications. Access Services maintains a list of Braille periodical titles currently available.

Paperbacks

Mass market paperbacks, mostly but not exclusively fiction titles, are collected on a popular or recreational level to supplement the hardbound fiction and nonfiction collections. Such materials may be added to collections as "cataloged" works (i.e., bibliographically accessible through the computerized circulation system) or as "uncataloged" (i.e., not bibliographically accessible); the decision whether to catalog an item or not is left to the local decision of departmental/branch level staff.

Large Print Books

The Library offers fiction and non-fiction in large print formats through collections housed in the General Library’s circulating collection, the Brighton, Codman Square, and Dudley Branch Libraries and the Mobile Library Services Department. Other branch libraries can select rotating deposit collections from their District Branch or from the General Library circulating collection.

Replacements

Special lists of needed replacements are compiled by staff on classic, reference, topical interest titles throughout the year.

Replacement selection is based on the following criteria:

• Is the item still in demand?
• Is it considered basic or a classic work in its field?
• Is the subject better covered in other works in the collection?
• Is it a duplicate of materials in the collection, and is duplication still needed?
• Is it a last copy of a work in the whole system?
• Is there enough material on this subject in your local collection?
• Is the item in print at a reasonable cost?

Children’s Literature Collections

Research Library

The holdings in the Alice M. Jordan Collection reflect the Library’s historic past as well as its dynamic present and the rich world of children’s literature in total. The collection is maintained as a resource for adults working in some aspect of children's literature, whether as teachers, librarians, authors, illustrators, publishers or editors. The historic part of the collection, dating from the 19^th century, contains fiction and non-fiction titles representing classic authors and illustrators, series books, textbooks and tract books. Current titles are represented in picture books, board books, toy books and fiction from easy readers and chapter books to the senior young adult level. Non-fiction includes biographies, series books, encyclopedias and trade titles that present informational topics for all age levels. Beginning with the Children’s Book International symposia in 1975, the Library made a determined effort to purchase world children’s books from Africa, Asia, Canada, Central and South America, Europe and the United Kingdom. More than 80 countries in a multitude of languages have been added. Historic and contemporary periodicals on children’s literature topics are maintained as part of the Research Library serial collections. A reference collection which covers children’s literature topics in the United States and around the globe includes author/illustrator biographical information, review indices, award bibliographies, genre surveys, multicultural literature and international works on children’s literature.

Current Selection

Selection is done by the Coordinator of Special Projects & Collections for the Jordan Collection.

Since the mid-1970’s the Library has sought to obtain one copy of each United States trade juvenile title published. This effort is achieved through domestic blanket order plans with successive vendors specializing in children’s book publishers. One copy of each juvenile title in the domestic blanket order plan is placed in the Jordan Collection.

Orders for individual titles outside the blanket order plan can be placed with publishers or the juvenile book vendor. Historic titles may be purchased through used book dealers or received as donation from specific donors or through general donations. Branch libraries and public libraries across the state have enriched the Jordan Collection by sending last copies of weeded titles from their collections to the Library.

Foreign Language Selection

Foreign language titles are ordered through vendors in specific countries who select according to a profile determined by the Library. Funding restrictions have made it difficult to maintain current publications in all geographic areas.

Audiovisual Selection

Picture book-audio cassette sets and books with compact discs are added to the Collection if they come as part of the blanket order. Titles representing contemporary publishing trends rather than total publishing output in this area are also included.

Circulating Collections of Children’s and Young Adult Literature

The Central Library Children’s Room (The Margret and H.A. Rey Room), the Young Adult Room, and Branch Children’s and Young Adult rooms and areas support recreational as well as curriculum assignments in the neighborhoods across the City. Classic and contemporary fiction, non-fiction, foreign language and reference collections are maintained to reflect the unique flavor of each Branch. In addition, reading list titles are maintained in quantity in cooperation with local schools. Current issues of children’s and young adult periodicals are available.

Current Selection

Current selection of children’s and young adult literature and non-print media is performed by public service staff to meet the recreation and information needs of young patrons, their parents or guardians, teachers and other adults who work with children in various capacities.

All children’s and young adult selectors have access to the Inspection Room which houses the biweekly cycles of current U.S. trade children’s books coming in from the juvenile blanket order vendor. The publisher profile for this blanket order plan is amended in response to selector request as well as changes in the book publishing industry. Special cycles of titles can be placed in the Inspection Room depending on the season or in preparation for upcoming programs. Small press titles are added to the research and circulating collections either through individual orders by selectors or as part of a special group of materials. Contemporary children’s books titles, published outside the blanket order plan, may be individually ordered by any selector depending on funding and availability.

Replacement Selection

Replacement orders for children’s books are handled at specific times throughout the year so that circulating collections can maintain more heavily used titles.

Juvenile book donations are placed in the Inspection Room by the Gifts unit for selection by the public service staff.

Foreign Language Selection

In response to patron need, special orders of juvenile foreign language material are initiated by Central and Branch selectors which place specific language material in neighborhoods with particular ethnic group concentrations.

Audiovisual Selection

Children’s and young adult selectors can make selections for picture book audiocassette sets, books on tape, videos and educational CD-ROMs.

 

College and University Catalogs

The Library’s Social Sciences Department collects college and university catalogs selectively from the Boston metropolitan area and Massachusetts. Because college and university catalogs are important to local historians, the Library has added superceded catalogs, in hard copy and on microfiche, to its retrospective collections. The microfiche collection covering current national level college and university information is no longer offered but is available exclusively on the Internet.

Directories

Government Directories

Directories of national governments, international agencies, state governments and foreign governments are collected on a regular basis by the Government Documents Department.

Commercial Directories

With heavy emphasis on New England, current multi-business directories are collected on a selective basis by both the Social Sciences Department and the Kirstein Business Branch. In addition, the Kirstein Business Branch attempts to acquire at least one business directory from each state and country. Backfiles of these directories are housed in the book stacks of the Research Library.

Alumni Directories

The Social Sciences Department attempts to collect Boston and New England area alumni directories whenever they are available (most institutions will not provide alumni directories to public libraries).

City Directories

Current directory editions of major U.S. cities are collected by the Kirstein Business Branch. A retrospective collection covering more than 60,000 volumes is available through the Library’s book stack services. In addition, the Library maintains a standing order for retrospective city directories reproduced on microfilm.

Telephone Directories

The Library maintains telephone directory collections in paper, microfilm and electronic formats. The Microtext Department has the backfile of major U.S. cities and Boston on microfiche.

Dissertations and Theses

The Library attempts to acquire dissertations covering all subjects which relate to Boston, Massachusetts and New England. It also responds to users’ requests as required by its status as the Library of Last Recourse in acquiring through purchase or interlibrary loan any titles requested by users.

Erotica

Erotica material, viewed by some members of the public as offensive, vulgar or trivial, may come with donations and gifts received by the Library and are retained as a record of the social fabric of a given time period. These titles require special security and supervision when used. Works by authors of merit and/or titles produced by noted publishers that evoke strong reactions from the contemporary public are handled within the overall collection development policy framework.

Government Documents

Federal Documents

The Boston Public Library was established as a selective Federal Depository for government documents in 1859 and was designated as a full Regional Depository for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1971. The Library strives to collect GPO material in paper, microform and as electronic data. The deposit program is supplemented by selections of Federal publication issued by executive, judicial and legislative agencies and quasi-governmental bodies. The Government Documents Department staff is guided in these selections by the publications’ reference or research value. In general, categories of materials of a highly technical nature are not selected.

Special attention is given in selecting Federally-issued indices, finding aids and bibliographies or commercially published publications.

The Library has made a major effort in acquiring substantial sets of depository government document in microformat, thus establishing a broad basis for preservation of the existing print document collections.

Massachusetts State Publications

The Boston Public Library is a depository for all publications of the state executive, legislative and judicial agencies. These documents are gathered and distributed to the Library by the State Library of Massachusetts.

City of Boston Publications

Boston City documents, including historical publications, are collected and maintained by the Library as comprehensively as possible.

Publications of Other States

The Library attempts to collect and maintain a collection of legislative manuals and legislative/governmental directories from other states. Statistical abstracts and/or yearbooks are also collected.

Publications related to the City of Boston and Massachusetts State Government

Publications of various public policy research organizations, private agencies and civic and other organizations are collected by the Library if such publications relate to local public affairs or governmental issues.

United Nations

The Boston Public Library is a depository for United Nations Publications. As a selective depository, the Library receives resolutions of the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and the Security Council, as well as minutes of various committee meetings. To broaden the scope of coverage, publications of United Nations subordinate bodies and other United Nations publications with reference and research value and that are available through the United Nations sales program are also selected and acquired by the Library. In addition, commercially published indices, finding aids and bibliographies are acquired to facilitate access to these publications.

Other Intergovernmental Organizations

The Government Documents Department selects and acquires documents from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the World Health Organization. Primary attention is given to monographic studies and publications with significant statistical content. The Index to International Statistics microfiche set forms a major basis for the selection and acquisition of many international statistical publications.

Legal Materials

To provide the general public with the necessary legal materials on such topics as marriage, divorce, social security, immigration or employment law, the Boston Public Library selects many commercially published legal sources and reference books. These references include the West’s regional Reporter series, the Federal Practice Digest, the Massachusetts Digest, the Decennial and Gene’s Digest series and the United States Reports set of U.S. Supreme Court cases.

Newspapers

The Boston Public Library owns a nearly complete collection of Massachusetts newspapers, as well as a substantial collection of colonial newspapers (located in the Rare Book Room since the 1970’s). While the collection underwent its greatest period of growth in the last 30 years through ongoing microfilming programs established specifically to preserve the Massachusetts newspaper record, the Library has subscribed to and bound newspaper files as part of its collection policy since 1895. In addition to its own bound files, the Library has drawn to itself over the years substantial numbers of bound files as gifts from publishers or from other institutions that perceived the Library as the logical place to offer files they could no longer maintain but did not want to destroy. As a result, by the time the Library ceased binding broadsheet newspapers in the early 1940s, the bound newspaper collection stood at some 2,600 titles in approximately 40,000 bound volumes and constituted the largest newspaper archive in the New England States. The Library continues to attract bound newspaper collections. In the late 1970s the Library received the bound newspaper files from the Massachusetts State Library and from Dartmouth University, and in 1997 Harvard University gave the Library its hard copy files of Massachusetts newspapers. Today the collection ranks among the half dozen largest hard copy newspaper archives in the United States.

The guiding principle of the Newspaper Room’s preservation function is to preserve unique material that no one else is likely to save and, thereby, to continue to build newspaper research resources for the future. The newspapers added to the Library collections in the early years were few in number and were added as bound volumes at the end of each volume year. The introduction of the Newspaper Room in 1895 increased the number of subscriptions to 300 titles in this reading room and it is from these receipts the Library began to build its newspaper archive. While the Library stopped binding broadsheet papers in the early 1940s, some tabloids continued to be bound until 1952. Preservation of newsprint files did not begin again until 1968 when the Library decided that the Newspaper Room should subscribe to all Massachusetts ethnic newspapers, which in turn were to be microfilmed and the original files be preserved as well. This preservation program has grown to the point that the Newspaper Room currently sends out 46 titles a year for microfilming and binds or wraps these same newspaper files when returned from filming. The papers included in the program now consist of Boston community papers and ethnic and special interest papers from across the State. Additionally, the Newspaper Room also preserves by binding or wrapping selected special interest newspapers from outside Massachusetts and selected foreign language newspapers published in the United States and abroad. Much of this material is not on microfilm.

The Library began to acquire newspapers on microfilm in the late 1930s, purchasing all Boston titles available on microfilm as well as several New York City titles. The number of titles on microfilm remained static until the early 1960s when, under Director Philip McNiff, the Library began a systematic program of preserving Boston City and Boston community newspapers on microfilm. A program was initiated in the late 1960s to film Massachusetts ethnic newspapers as well. In 1975 the Library received substantial Federal funding grants to libraries for Bicentennial celebration programs for its Massachusetts Visible Cities Program, which resulted in preserving on microfilm extant newspaper titles published in the cities of Fall River, Lawrence, Lowell, New Bedford, Salem, Springfield, and Worcester. Nearly every year after the completion of the Visible Cities Program the Library carried out some microfilming project aimed at preserving additional Massachusetts newspapers on film until 1986.

The Boston Public Library was chosen by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1986 to administer the Massachusetts Newspaper Microfilming Program (MNP) within the Endowment’s United States Newspaper Program. The goal of the USNP is to ensure the preservation of all newspapers published in the United States. The choice of the Boston Public Library to administer the National Newspaper Program for Massachusetts was logical because of the Library’s own microfilming and newspaper preservation programs. To carry out the new program, a master bibliographic and statewide holdings database was compiled. Based on survey responses, arrangements were made to film every newspaper not previously captured. Through the MNP thousands of titles have been cataloged and hundreds of titles have been microfilmed and deposited in the Microtext Department for public use.

As the administrator of the Massachusetts Newspaper Program, the Boston Public Library has become both the beneficiary of an absolutely unique and exhaustive resource and the sole guardian of the published newspaper record for the State of Massachusetts. It is important to be aware that a catalog record and a holdings record for every newspaper title the Library owns, whether the file is on microfilm or in paper, has been entered into the USNP database in OCLC and that much of this information is widely recorded in the standard and special union lists and bibliographies regularly consulted by researchers. In a real sense, the Library is locked into the responsibility for the preservation its newspaper collections.

Rare Books and Manuscripts

The foundations of the rare books and manuscripts collection in the Boston Public Library could not have been created without the generosity and civic interest of Bostonians who believed in the objectives of a free public library. These foundations are based on broad inclusion of all disciplines of human achievement and great comprehensiveness in specified areas. Americana published prior to 1850 forms one of the collection’s major resources, with extensive coverage of Boston, Massachusetts and New England. Joshua Bates’ funding and later George Ticknor’s buying trips to Europe gave impetus to large scale acquisitions of European imprints with imprint dates ranging up to the middle of the 18^th century.

Through the years, one of the main goals of the Library’s rare book and manuscript acquisition policy has been to add to its existing strengths of holdings since the value of the collection is related to its completeness. Additional factors influencing the acquisition process are present and future needs of the public, offerings of dealers and auction galleries, the availability of gifts as well as the availability of funding to meet the demands of the antiquarian book market. Criteria for rare book selection include scarcity, dollar value, security and format. In addition, special binding, previous ownership, presentation or annotated copies by recognized authorities, distinctive first editions enter into the criteria/decision-making process. Some other types of materials considered for inclusion are:

• early American documents and newspapers
• almanacs
• bookplates
• modern and fine printing
• stamps (if offered as gift)
• certain realia
• bibliographies of subjects, authors and places if relating to rare book and manuscript collecting.

The collected imprint dates may be revised upwards as selection criteria undergo review and new collecting focuses are set. A relatively recent effort was made in developing holdings of African-Americana, women’s history and artists’ books&emdash;particularly those created by local artists. By identifying these and other new areas of collecting, the Library strives to sustain an outreach effort into urban community of diverse nationalities and interests.

Most but not all of the endowment funds available for the acquisition of rare books and manuscripts have restrictions, that is, the funds are available only for the purchase of materials of certain time periods, subjects, authors, genres or formats. During the decision &endash;making process, appropriate selectors evaluate in-house rare book-manuscript collecting priorities; local, state and even national holdings as well as the market price and other offerings available in the current market. Duplication of rare book titles is accepted for special reasons such as signed copies or physical condition. As expensive titles come under consideration, appropriate staff frequently ascertain if Boston-area institutions hold same or variant editions. This comparison procedure contributes to efficient ownership of more rare and unique materials in the Boston area.

The collection development profile is influenced by the historic strength of rare book and manuscript holdings. These interdisciplinary and multi-format collections cover the following subject areas:

Bostoniana:	all aspects. Emphasis on the earlier time periods of Boston history (17th-19th centuries), contemporary Boston authors and early local historic family papers of Boston and Massachusetts. Interests include printed and manuscript materials as well as maps and ephemera.
Massachusetts:	all aspects, including colonial newspapers as well as early town, city and state government documents.
Americana:	Coverage of all fields
	- Anti-slavery materials Civil War collections. Great strength in holdings on the 20th Regiment of Massachusetts. Also World War I and II letters and diaries of Massachusetts soldiers. - Manuscripts Letters, document, autographs, engravings, literature, history, science, cartography, history of printing, fine printing, women’s history and the performing arts. - Accounting books. - Books and pamphlets by and about major American political, business and cultural figures.
Literature:	- Biblical literature
	- 18th and 19th century French and German literature
	- 18th and 19th century American and English literature, including rare editions.
	- Shakespeariana, including autographs and manuscripts
	- Daniel Defoe editions, including the writings of his contemporaries
	- Monographs, photographs, manuscripts, first editions, biographies and critical works by and about Robert and Elizabeth Browning.
	- Spanish and Portuguese literature and history.
Other Areas of Strength:	- German folk songs and early almanacs
	- Medieval manuscripts and incunabula
	- The Liturgy of the Church of England and its source materials, including variant editions of prayer books.
	- History of the Irish National Theatre: letters, manuscripts, programs, publicity material
	- Anarchist and radical materials: Sacco & Vanzetti case-related materials and social movements
	- Franco-Americana
	- Early writings on the history of women
	- Early works on mathematics and astronomy
	- Landscape architecture
	- West Indies: emphasis on Haiti and Barbados
	- Modern Irish history
	- Irish political materials, such as Easter Rebellion books and pamphlets
	- Publications on World Fairs
	- Fine printing

Areas needing further development or a more representative presence include:

• Asian rare books
• early samples of Hebrew printing
• Portuguese incunabula
• Middle Eastern manuscripts and books
• more varied coverage of the history of printing from all parts of the world

Reference Works

During the 1999 budget year, Research Library subject and format departments responded to 158,623 telephone inquiries, handled 257,624 in-person reference questions and replied to 3,872 written research reference questions. Adult, young adult and children’s services staff at the Central Library, as well as in the branches, also offered reference services and handled 837,694 reference questions during the same budget year.

To support all these multi-level reference service activities, the public service staff acquires reference titles in multi-formats in English and other languages. Dictionaries, encyclopedias, yearbooks, almanacs, gazetteers are acquired in all subjects. The professional staff decide the level of comprehensiveness and parallel acquisition of titles and subjects takes place because of multiple reference service points, frequency of requests and the targeted users groups the Library will service. The Library designates to the reference collection a variety of other types of publications acquired as subjects whose contents consist of the latest factual information.

The Library will seek out the types of publications within designated subjects which offer the most recent treatment of subjects and which provide for the identified users group the most up to date information. In situations where the factual information is available as a monograph, bibliography or even a text book, the service-based decision may place this type of publication in the core collections together with generally known reference materials, such as directories, guides, indices, handbooks, etc.

Reprints

Reprints of titles are added to collections if they serve to fill a gap in the holdings or if they substitute a worn out or lost copy. A reprint edition may also be added as a second copy for a frequently used title.

Serials and Continuations

In fulfilling its mission, the Library subscribes to a wide scope of serials and continuations including works-in-parts. Along with academic titles, the collection includes practical publications as well as titles of more popular appeal in English and foreign languages.

As of July 1999, the Boston Public Library reported receiving 28,312 current print serials subscriptions, of which more than 3,000 titles are received in the area of Government Documents. Generally, the subject area percentage breakdown alternates with low 30’s for humanities, mid 40’s for social sciences and approximately 20’s for science. Interdisciplinary and popular titles make up approximately 10% of all current subscriptions. Duplication of titles is accepted if required by different geographical locations, frequency of use or&emdash;as designated&emdash;special binding needs. Expensive academic subscriptions are periodically reviewed, taking into account cost, user demand and their availability in the area. Microformats and, relatively recently, electronic journals increasingly take a place within the broad scope of serials collecting.

The availability of periodical articles through document delivery compels the Library to review its options in these areas of collection development which is still largely undefined. As a member of the Boston Library Consortium and as the Library of Last Recourse, the Boston Public Library takes into consideration existing local resources as part of cancellation process. The selection of monographic series, continuations and works-in-parts is guided by the collecting intensity factor and influenced by the availability of the title in other local institutions.

Textbooks

Textbooks normally are not acquired except when they are

1. the only information available on a subject;
   
2. when they may constitute a useful reference tool for a new or narrowly defined area;
   
3. variant editions showing the changes of a discipline over years or are written by recognized authorities;
   
4. a textbook for graduate level study containing the latest "state of the art" knowledge on the subject;
   
5. a textbook covering a field of knowledge which is in flux and is undergoing rapid changes;
   
6. textbooks representing significant political/religious philosophies or are issued and controlled by certain regimes; or
   
7. representing new trends.

Translations

Translations from foreign languages into English are acquired according to the broad subject collecting guidelines and in response to reader interests.

Translations from English into another language are acquired

• if they are of possible interest to ethnic groups residing in Boston, Massachusetts and New England;
  
• if they represent a known author, illustrator or translator;
  
• if they contain exceptional book design, binding or other elements of distinction;
  
• if the title contains special introduction, bibliography or other elements that make the translated work bibliographically unique.

Microforms

The Boston Public Library, through its dual department of Microtext/Newspaper Room, collects, maintains, organizes and houses the permanent collections of preservation master negatives and preservation files of original newspapers owned by the Library, as well as those microfilms acquired from other libraries and newspaper publishers. In addition to newspapers on microfilm the Library acquires, on the recommendation of Research Library subject curators and department heads, sets that complement and supplement the subject collections of the institution. Language, geographical and chronological coverage reflect the collection interests of the other units of the Research Library Division. Major sets are acquired with consideration of the holdings of other collections in the Boston Public Library's service area.

As an agency of the City of Boston and as the Library of Last Recourse, the Boston Public Library has an obligation to acquire materials that are of use to the citizens of the City and the Commonwealth, particularly in the areas of local history and public records. Microform users come from within the Commonwealth and from without, ranging from casual users to advanced scholars.

Materials suitable for selection in microform are those available only in microform, e.g.,

• newspaper back issues
• dissertations
• out-of-print books and journals
• multi-volume collections of a specific subject;
• those that receive heavy use in either hard copy or microform, but which if purchased in microform, provide more extensive coverage at less cost in a minimum of space
• those that are currently available in hard copy but are subject to theft and mutilation
• those whose high cost would prohibit purchase in hard copy
• periodicals and journals that receive heavy usage because they are indexed in standard reference sources.

Printed and electronic reference resources are selected as aids to the use and development of the microform collections of the Boston Public Library. Bibliographic access records are purchased for microform sets when possible.

Audiovisual Materials

Research Library

Sound Archives

The Sound Archives Collection contains recordings of classical music, popular music, jazz, and spoken recordings produced from 1918 to the present. In addition, there are recordings of Rabb Lecture Hall programs presented during the 1970’s-1980’s and Ford Hall Forum lectures. Videotapes of Eliot Norton’s theater reviews on WGBH-TV and audio tapes of the Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts from the 1950’s-1960’s are also part of this collection.

Sound Archives maintains a comprehensive collection of domestically produced recordings covering all subjects, as well as substantial coverage of major import materials. Special emphasis is placed on locally produced materials (both commercial and private) and oral histories.

Formats maintained include piano rolls, cylinders, wire recordings, instantaneously recorded discs, 45’s, 78’s, LP’s, film synchro discs, radio program pressed discs, cassettes, reel-to-reel tapes, videotapes and compact discs.

Material is added to the Archives by purchase and donation. Sound recordings received as donations to the Gifts unit are transferred to the Sound Archives Curator for selection decision.

The August 1998 flood impacted the collections in the Sound Archives area of the Johnson Building. Affected non-commercial, locally produced audio, tape, and film material will be transferred to another medium. Long Playing (LPs) records and 78’s may be replaceable as compact discs or through donations.

General Library and Branches

Audiovisual Materials

Selection of material in audiovisual formats is performed by public service staff in the General Library and Branches.

Audio Cassettes

Music is selected and available in the General Library’s Audiovisual Services (AV) Department and in many of the Branch Libraries. The AV Department’s collection emphasizes classical, popular, jazz, religious and world musics, foreign language and English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction, and books on audio tape (unabridged/abridged editions).

Access Services, part of the General Library’s Adult Readers and Information Services Department, offers a collection of Talking Books produced by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS). This collection is on loan to the General Library from the Braille and Talking Book Library at the Perkins School for the Blind; as such, a loaned collection it is not listed in the DRA Catalog. Talking Books may circulate only to individuals registered with NLS through the Braille and Talking Book Library, and can be used only on equipment provided by NLS. Access Services provides information to individuals on registering for this service. Some Branches may also provide information for this service.

Sound Recordings

The Library still retains a collection of vinyl recordings. Collected during the late 1970’s through the mid-1980’s, this sizable collection is in the 33 1/3 rpm format. Collection scope includes classical recordings, popular, jazz, children’s and world musics, and a limited number of spoken word recordings. Active purchasing of this format for circulating collections was suspended in 1990.

Video Cassettes

The Library’s video collections concentrate on titles not generally available through commercial outlets. The children’s collection, for instance, contains titles based on classic and popular children’s literature, while the adult collection emphasizes non-fiction documentaries. The central circulating video collection is located in the General Library’s Audiovisual Department. As in the case of books on audio tape, Branch Libraries can draw rotating deposit collections from this central collection. Represented within the collection are videos that offer closed captioning and American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation for deaf and hard of hearing individuals, and descriptive narratives for blind and visually disable people (DVS videos). Whenever possible, videos are purchased with public performance rights. Those videos that cannot be purchased with these rights are purchased for home use only.

Compact Discs

The AV Department’s collection emphasizes classical, choral works, movie soundtracks and Broadway productions. A deposit collection can be drawn from this central collection by Branch Libraries to supplement their own holdings.

Electronic Resources

Electronic resources in the Boston Public Library cover both single workstation and networked CD-ROM’s and databases. The Library has subscriptions for encyclopedias, abstract and full text-databases for serials, indices and standard and specialized reference works.

Electronic resources are purchased through license agreement with publishers for individual databases or titles, and/or vendors who act as service providers for multiple serial titles, full-text articles, abstracts and table-of-contents information.

After selection, print resources require acquisition, cataloging, shelf preparation, shelving and on-going preservation. Similarly, electronic resources require license negotiation, acquisition of the license, bibliographic access points as part of a listing and/or a catalog record, long term hardware and software support, networking, possible user training and archiving.

Publishers have been quick to take advantage of the Web as a tool to easily update and distribute formerly print-only reference titles. The electronic searching capabilities make it possible to find information in new ways and to manipulate data found in various combinations. While there are advantages for librarians and their patrons, there are also drawbacks to this electronic world:

• Budgets must cover print material as well as electronic versions (and the accompanying software and hardware) when a decision is made to purchase both.
• Software must be upgraded to meet the requirements of accessing, searching and printing the databases.
• Hardware to support the upgraded software also becomes a necessity. Libraries may have to perform hardware upgrades on an annual or more frequent schedule.
• Archiving the electronic files is a concern as it is still unknown whether publishers, vendors or libraries will be responsible for maintenance and transfer of the files to new platforms.
• The management of end-user access can involve such issues as password distribution, special printing procedures, license administration and user statistics.

Selection

Electronic resources are selected by public service staff across the Library system to provide reference support and information in response to patron request. Staff learn about a new database through publisher or vendor notification, vendor presentation of a product, public request and through trial periods arranged by a department, the Library, or coordinated through the Boston Library Consortium Cooperative Collections Committee. Trials, usually of a month’s duration, allow staff to try out the features of a database prior to actual purchase.

In 1998 the Boston Public Library Electronic Information Resources Committee was created with two components:

• An Electronic Resources Group
  The Group is comprised of representatives from public service departments and members of the Electronic Resources Team. The Group is responsible for product evaluation, trial periods and recommendations for purchase.
• An Electronic Information Resources Team
  The Team’s function is to examine recommendations of the Group to determine if they are consistent with the Library’s collection development policy, systems development and the availability of funds.

The Electronic Resources Group developed an evaluation form which could be used for various electronic products.

Factors considered in the selection of electronic resources:

• Content (Accuracy, Completeness, Updated at timely intervals, Audience defined)
• Cost
• User-Friendly interface
• Licensing which covers access, archiving of the electronic files over time, copyright and Inter-Library loan provisions
• Hardware and software requirements
• Availability of use statistics and reports
• Phasing out of the print and/or CD-ROM edition of a title
• Training to fully utilize the database
• Resources unavailable in other databases.

Individual Purchase of Electronic Resources

Purchase and license agreement negotiations are handled through the Acquisitions Department with public service staff input. An administrator signs the license agreement. Since electronic databases are purchased and/or renewed annually, they are treated as if they were serials. Most vendor license agreements are contracted for one-year periods unless multiple year periods are negotiated.

Consortial Purchase of Electronic Resources

The cost of some electronic databases may make consortial purchase a more viable economic alternative to individual purchase. Prices for electronic products are currently based, in part, on the number of potential users in each participating institution. By purchasing consortially, the number of FTE (full-time equivalent&emdash;students, faculty, employees or persons served by the institution) may be substantially increased. Multiple consortia purchases have been made with NERL (Northeast Research Libraries) and SOLINET (Southeastern Library Network). Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and the Boston Regional Library System also provide additional databases for in-library use.

Access to Electronic Resources

The Library’s electronic resources can be accessed:

• Via personal computers or terminals in public service departments;
• Over the World-Wide Web from within a Library facility; or
• Over the World-Wide Web from home computers (access to limited number of databases and requires the entry of a valid library card number).

Other Formats

Ephemera

Most ephemera are not acquired individually by purchase. Large numbers of ephemera are acquired as part of purchased or donated collections. A good number of ephemera "drift in" as unsolicited gifts or are acquired free of charge as part of cultural, political or personal events within the community or on the national scene. Some printed ephemera are housed in every public service department. As a whole and separately, they represent an important record of a time period, a personal life, parts of social history or human life experiences. The Rare Books and Manuscripts, Print Department, Special Collections, Music and Fine Arts Departments house most of the ephemera owned by the Boston Public Library. Individual items of ephemera are usually not separately cataloged and bibliographic access usually exists in a general manner.

Broadly defined ephemera include the following:

Advertising Posters
Baseball/Sport Cards
Bookplates
Broadsides
Calendars
Christmas Cards
Comic Books
Dust Jackets
Exhibition Announcements
Flyers
Invitations
Menus
Newspapers and Magazines Clippings
Obituaries
Political Buttons
Political Election Literature
Political Protest Literature
Postcards
Press Releases
Proclamations
ResumÈs
Scrapbooks
Theater Playbills
Travel Brochures

Scrapbooks

Scrapbooks received by way of donations are mainly collected as part of special or archival collections. Since they frequently condense subjects/events of local interest, they form a useful source for research and guide the reader to further areas where library collections have strong holdings. Conservation and bibliographic description issues are taken into account when adding scrapbooks to the Library’s permanent holdings.

Maps and Other Cartographic Materials

Early Trustees’ annual reports, beginning with the year 1852, contain itemized lists of donated maps and charts received from private and government sources. By 1903 the Library’s holdings contained maps from numerous federal agencies such as the Treasury Department, the War Department, the Corps of Army Engineers, the Signal Service, the Hydrographic Office, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Geological Survey, the Weather Bureau, the Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Statistics, the Department of the Interior, and the Postmaster General’s Office.

At the end of 1999, the Boston Public Library holdings numbered close to 400,000 maps and other cartographic materials.

Overall, the Library’s collecting goals are to enhance existing collections through the acquisition of geographic and cartographic materials in all formats, including digital data. Such materials are used to support the collections and services in various subject and format departments. Selections of cartographic materials serve to document new developments in this field, as well as to assist in filling gaps and upgrading the condition and quality of existing collections.

Library departments acquire cartographic materials according to their subjects of expertise and client need. The Government Documents Department collects U.S. government maps. The Social Sciences Department selects historic maps and atlases of Boston, road and travel atlases, reference atlases and gazetteers, foreign and domestic city maps, street plans and highway maps. Pictorial views and plans of Boston are collected by the Print and Fine Arts Departments respectively, while the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department acquires early historical maps of Boston and New England, rare maps and atlases, and antiquarian maps and globes. The Kirstein Business Branch selectively collects street maps of Massachusetts cities and towns.

Maps presently serviced through the Book Delivery Department are stored in various book stack map case locations in the Central Library, the New England Deposit Library and the remote storage location at the Charlestown Service Building. These collections include some early U.S. Geological Survey maps and many historic commercial maps and atlases of the U.S. and foreign countries, including a set of Bromley Atlases of Boston.

Music Scores

The Library attempts to select scores of important and many minor composers covering all styles and genre of music. Depending upon the availability of funding, the Music Department’s professional staff tries to first to acquire the materials that they believe are of high-priority need by users, then to supplement the in-depth coverage of the Department’s holdings. Although the anticipated use judgment is subjective, it is made by informed public service professional staff interacting with scholars, students, professional musicians and the general public. It is also made through the scanning of periodical literature, newspapers and news media, which will indicate the upcoming trends. As additional funding becomes available, deferred titles are released for ordering.

There are approximately 100,000 scores in the Library’s music collections. The current collecting of music scores covers the following areas:

Collected works of major and some minor composers

Music monuments of various countries

Single compositions of most major and some minor composers

Facsimile reproductions of early imprints and manuscripts either in microform or print format

Score anthologies

Orchestral music&emdash;full score and study scores only. No parts except when available only with full score

Dramatic music: operas, operettas, musical theater&emdash;full score, study score and piano-vocal score

Vocal music: opera, cantata, oratorio and mass arias, music theater solos, art songs&emdash;full score, study score and piano-vocal score

Choral music: secular and sacred&emdash;full score, piano-vocal score

Liturgical music&emdash;full score, study score, piano-vocal score, close score

Band music&emdash;full score, conductor score, study score. No parts except when available only with full score

Instrumental music: Western classical musical instruments; popular music, work music instruments, e.g. koto, gamelan, tin whistle, etc.

Woodwind music

Brass music

Percussion music

String music

Keyboard music

Tutors for musical instruments

Methods for musical instruments

Chamber music&emdash;full score, study score, score and parts

Electronic music&emdash;scores, scores and parts, scores and tapes or CD’s

Folk Music (all languages)

Popular music&emdash;mostly collections of piano and voice arrangements

Some with guitar tabulature; some instrumental arrangements and transcriptions

Rock and Roll

Oldies

Neapolitan songs (English and Italian)

Cabaret (all languages)

Nostalgia

New Age

New Wave

Rock

Heavy metal

Punk

Gospel

New Christian

Alternative

Rap

Tex-Mex

Jazz&emdash;fake books, jazz methods, transcriptions, dance band arrangements

Rhythm and Blues

Country-Western

World Music

Every attempt is made to collect

1. Boston area composers,
2. Massachusetts composers,
3. New England composers&emdash;especially those not affiliated with a major educational institution and those who are significant.

Minor composers are acquired on a representative basis. The Music Department participates with the Boston Library Consortium Cooperative Collection Development Plan for Contemporary Composers; participates with the Boston Area Music Librarians, an informal consortia of music libraries, in the acquisitions of large sets and expensive items. Besides purchasing manuscripts, the Department seeks donations of composers’ manuscript collections. It does not regularly purchase single popular, song sheets but rather waits for donations from the public. Many replacement scores are obtained through gifts rather than purchased.

Patents

The Boston Public Library is a Patent Depository Library supplying reference materials to patrons referred by the U.S. Patent Office and the Massachusetts Department of Corporations, as well as scientists, engineers, attorneys, students and interested members of the public.

Patent specifications are acquired comprehensively from the United States and Great Britain and more selectively from other countries. U.S. Utility Patents, Design Patents, Reissue Patents and Plant Patents are available on microfilm and/or CD-ROM. In the same formats, the Library also owns World Intellectual Property Organization and Patent Corporation Treaty holdings covering the years 1979-1995. Information for more recent years are found at each organization’s respective web sites as online databases.

In addition, the Library seeks to acquire current supportive materials relating to its full-text patent holdings and trademark services.

Prints

The Boston Public Library’s print collection, established in 1941, contains original drawings, watercolors, woodcuts, copper engravings, etchings and lithographs, and has grown to become one of the major collections of its kind in the world. Photography and pictorial documentation of society were added to the collecting mission in the late 1960’s. Currently, the estimated size of the collections are: 100,000 drawings, watercolors and original prints; 650,000 photographs; and large collections of postcards and other ephemera.

In developing the Library’s print collections, steadily increasing attention is being given to enlarging the photograph collections, including the Boston Pictorial Archive. Attention continues to focus on an already great collection of French, British and American prints and drawings from 1800-1950; the unique and fast-growing collection of drawings, prints and photographs by living artists with ties to Boston; and on adding to the original Merriam Collection which emphasizes works of fantasy and imagination.

Special Collections

Research Library

Special collections come to the Library through the donations of private collectors and organizations, and through solicitation and selection by curators and department heads. The Library’s historic stack collections and the public library environment give incentive to donors who wish to have unrestricted access to their collections with the support of in-depth resources.

Special Collections are administered through the Fine Arts, Music, Prints, Rare Books & Manuscripts and Sound Archives Departments, the Research Library Office and Research Library Stacks. Collections are physically located within the Research Library, the Charlestown Service Building and the Norwood Facility.

A collection is acquired by purchase or donation after the subject curator or department head has evaluated the collection within the context of the Library’s existing holdings and future research needs. Collections documenting a Boston, Massachusetts or New England individual or organization are sought as the Library considers its collecting responsibility in this area to be of particular importance. The strengths of area library collections are also considered along with other national, research level repositories. Another consideration is collection condition as maintenance of a robust collection is very different from one needing substantial preservation work in order to be used. The percentage of duplication of titles, particularly for monographic collections, usually requires that potential collections be searched prior to a decision being made.

Special collections in the Research Library cover art and architecture, literature, history, Irish studies, Boston and Massachusetts politics and government, the performing arts, retail, sports, travel, and women’s studies.

Formats include monographs, serials, pamphlets, prints, maps, programs, playbills, financial records, correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, architectural drawings, clippings, diaries, scrapbooks, scores, sculpture, porcelain, sound recordings, 16mm film, and virtually every other historic and contemporary media.

General Library and Branches

Individual public service departments maintain historic material as needed in their collections. Branch libraries have historic material which has been held over time documenting collections, services and neighborhoods. In 1999 the Library received a Carnegie Foundation grant to survey Branch libraries’ local history material in order to provide access and preservation of these collections as part of Neighborhood History Centers.

Works of Art

The Boston Art Commission was established in 1890 to consider works of art for placement in municipal buildings. In addition, the Trustees of the Boston Public Library also played a major role in accepting donations and caring for works of art, most within the context of the Boston Art Commission’s 1890 jurisdiction. The major renovation of the McKim building and related events have brought to the Trustees’ attention the need to review the present practices in accepting donations of works of arts at the Boston Public Library, their placement and subsequent conservation care.

Collection Assessment and Collecting Intensity Rankings

Collecting intensity is a dynamic process governed by known and/or anticipated services needs, budgetary allocations, availability of materials and competing priorities. In cases of minimal coverage, a representative sampling of updated materials takes place. An important factor in this process is the professional judgment applied, which is based on all of the above plus a knowledge of the Boston Public Library and holdings in the Metro-Boston area available to the public. In addition to individual selections, staff representing the Branches, General Library, Research Library and Acquisitions reviewed the ongoing blanket order late in 1999. This process resulted in blanket coverage of 802 publishers and subsidiary presses. See the Appendices for individual publishers listings.

Collecting Intensity Key: