Collection Development Policy Statement: Engineering

A. Trends

There are several major trends that influence collection development of the engineering collection. First is the increasing number of electronic resources available and the increasing dependence on technology to access them. These include electronic versions of print journals, electronic-only journals, electronic bibliographic databases, non-bibliographic electronic resources such as directories, and tools that do not fit traditional categories of materials. The library is moving from ownership of physical volumes to the access of electronic resources so license agreements with resource providers will become increasingly important. Archiving of electronic resources is a major concern. Users expect to access the collection from remote locations and fewer people will come to the Library to use the print collection. More users will request that current publications be purchased in electronic formats that are accessible from remote locations. Most commercial publisher will probably continue to publish print and electronic versions of their serials for some time to come but increasingly they offering libraries the option of purchasing electronic journals without print subscriptions. It is unclear if electronic publications will ever be significantly less expensive than their print counterparts. Some professional societies could stop publishing print materials within 5 years. However, new print and electronic journals will continue to proliferate and inflation will continue to erode the buying power of the libraries. Interdisciplinary research and cross- disciplinary courses will be even more popular. Joint-degree programs with departments outside the College will increase the need for cooperation between selectors. Due to the increasing emphasis on bringing in research dollars, faculty will seek funding for research in new areas while continuing to work in their current areas of research. This will further stretch the collection budget for engineering.

B. Relationships With Other Resources

1. On campus branch or format collection, if any:
         Business Library 

2. Regional or network resources, if any:

         MSU users make direct use of the Media Union collection at the University of Michigan for materials not at MSU. Users make extensive use           of our Interlibrary services to obtain materials from other BTAA libraries.

C. Relationship to resources treated in other policy statements.