Anticipated future trends
Internationalizing at MSU: MSU’s focus on International Studies in all areas is expected to only increase over time. International Development and International Relations will remain strong areas of collection for the foreseeable future. The university has institutionalized internationalization throughout the curriculum, and International Documents will play a strong role in supporting that goal.
Electronic Publication: IGOs are increasingly publishing their materials electronically, and sometimes either in limited print runs or no print at all. Some agencies have made a commitment to archiving, while others have not. The collection is in a transition from print to electronic format with OECD and World Bank publications transitioning to online subscriptions in the last 3-5 years. The increasing amount of free online IGO publications makes the decision to acquire print equivalents problematic, in light of user preference for electronic formats and space considerations.
MSUL is currently cataloging electronic versions of many IGO publications. Some records are received through a vendor (Serial Solutions), but the vendor does not comprehensively cover all IGOs of interest. Others are selected for cataloging by the Government Information Librarian, but this is not being done in any systematic way. For the most part, such decisions to catalog are based on the perceived need of that particular material on campus.
Relationships with other resources
On campus collections:
Regional resources
Relationships to resources treated in other policy statements