Introduction

The Scott Memorial Library serves a dynamic academic medical center. The Library's collections promote excellence in the education, research and clinical care missions of Thomas Jefferson University (TJU) and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (TJUH). The Library provides local and remote University and Hospital faculty, health care practitioners, staff and students with high-quality knowledge-based resources to support teaching, research and patient care. As the University grows and considers new educational offerings, it is important that a library impact analysis be performed before the programs are approved. This analysis will determine the types of resources available to support the new curriculum and the cost of building the collection in underrepresented areas.

Collection development involves the evaluation, selection, weeding and retention of print and electronic library resources. This policy statement provides guidance but cannot address every choice or replace the intellectual judgments and experience involved in the selection of library materials. Library staff awareness of the current and changing needs of the curriculum, research and patient care activities of the University and hospital, combined with suggestions and guidance from the University Library Committee, provides the basis for selection. Recommendations for purchase are encouraged and accepted from all Library users, but are subject to the selection criteria and restrictions outlined in this policy. Although the Library's facilities and physical resources are available to non-Jeffersonians on a limited basis, the needs of outside users do not influence collection development.

This policy statement is the Library's first available in electronic format and the eighth revision of the original collection guidelines written in 1974.

The scope of the Library's collection includes most areas of clinical medicine, basic life sciences, nursing and the allied health professions, and also the University Archives and a select collection of history of medicine materials. A limited collection of monographs in the humanities and social sciences is available to support the Department of General Studies and other programs incorporating the humanities. The Library also maintains a collection of books authored by faculty of the University and a collection of recreational reading material supported by endowed funds. Scott Library does not collect consumer-oriented materials about illnesses and disease prevention. Books, magazines and audio-visual materials for this audience are available in the Women's Health Source located in the Gibbon Building.

Adopted: November 2005