Collection Development Policy Statement

School of Management:
General Business
 
University of Northern Virginia Library
Dr. Dastmalchi, Dean of School of Management
Linda Nainis, Dean, Learning and Instructional Resources
Antje Mays, Consultant (email)

I. Purpose
The purpose of the Business collection development policy is to guide the library's support of UNVA's present needs and anticipate future program growth and changes. As the programs continue to evolve, the policy is designed to provide strategic direction while remaining adaptable to future program evolutions.

UNVA's Business programs span the full range from the baccalaureate to the doctoral level. The library's general business collection programs and research for the graduate and undergraduate divisions of the School of Management, as well as teaching and research support for faculty. General business degree programs supported include the BS in Business Administration, with concentrations in Accounting, Economics, Finance, International Relations, Marketing, Public Relations and Communication; the MBA  with a major in Finance, Management and Marketing, Accounting, Project Management, and the DBA (Doctor of Business Administration).

Within the School of Management, the university also offers an MS in Accountancy and an MBA in Health Care Administration.

Students within the School of Management learn theoretical concepts and practical applications in the business world. Undergraduates become accountants, auditors, marketing & advertising professionals, financial managers, economists, health care managers, public administrators, managers, and entrepreneurs. UNVA's full range of Business programs provides a smooth transition for students who wish to continue into the master's and doctoral programs. Master's students are prepared for higher levels of management and research, and doctoral students are prepared for senior positions in management, research, as well as university faculty.

 

II. Scope

Language
The materials are almost exclusively English or translations into English.
 

Geographical Areas
Emphasis is on both U.S. and International Business. Material with a strictly local emphasis, other than the Virginia/D.C. area generally is not acquired. The international collection is strong in the areas of Western Europe and Asia, and the library continues to build the collections to cover the emerging economies of the world.

Chronological Periods
Material from the twenty-first century predominates. Earlier centuries' imprints related to specific industries and companies and pre-1800 business history are collected only when they support undergraduate history courses or specific research or teaching interests of UNVA faculty.

 
III Types of Material and Formats
Given the geographically dispersed locations of UNVA, a collection of subject-supporting scholarly e-book collections and full-text databases of journals, trade magazines, and business profiles & data is the best way to ensure that all students from all campus have access to equal library resources. As the DBA program, the highest level of business studies, enrolls students both in Virginia and distance students worldwide, the primary emphasis should be on in-depth electronic Business resources. Due to the needed depth of supporting a doctoral program, all programs at the undergraduate and master's levels will benefit from the emphasis of online resources to serve the business research needs of UNVA communities, including distance learners. Through electronic resources the library can provide more recent company and industry financial information. Electronic products are generally preferred over print equivalents, all else being equal. There is an ever increasing demand for online resources with remote access. This is an area with unlimited growth potential, and the library will meet that challenge. Thus, electronic resources are actively purchased.

For online materials, the purchasing preference is the subscription basis. Perpetual use purchases are generally discouraged. Given a choice between similar databases when selecting new content, it is preferred to stay with the same vendor, unless there is a strong reason such as truly unique content which only another vendor can provide. Many databases from few vendors keeps the database interface more consistent for students and faculty.

Print may be purchased selectively, as appropriate, on a small scale, mostly for reference materials such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and certain types of directories and handbooks. The most appropriate scenario which could occur that might justify campus-specific exclusivity of materials not available to other locations would be materials of strictly local importance. One possible example of such specific local importance: print materials about transitioning East European economies -- such materials would be most meaningful for the Prague campus, but would have less context at the other campuses.

IV. Strengths & Weaknesses
The business and health care collection is robust in the areas of marketing, finance, accounting, management, banking, and international business. The international business collection covers the areas of marketing and finance for the industrialized nations. The online collection is strong; over 110,000 e-books are provided by EBL and ebrary. Of these, about 13% support Business and over 7% are devoted to Health Care Administration. A rich collection of databases includes ABI Complete and its subset ABI Global, Business Source Complete and its subset DataMonitor, IbisWorld, General Business File ASAP, General Business File ASAP and LegalTrac. ABI Complete also provides in-depth coverage for business law, and a varied range of academic databases provide broad scholarly coverage for many aspects of business-related research. An earlier-identified need for more complete representation of emerging economies has been partially met in form of the ABI Global database, Business Source Complete, and EconLit, all of which cover emerging economies and markets. The Health Management program is supported by databases including Health & Wellness Resource Center, Health Reference Center Academic, ProQuest Psychology Journals, Cell Press Free Archives, and Bioline International. Additional databases may be added in the future

The library's policy of not collecting microfiche (because microform is only accessible to any one holding campus) has led to a gap in statistical information. Some microfiche collections of a statistical nature, such as the American Statistical Index, have been considered in the past. Since the Statistical Universe from  Lexis-Nexis provides the same data online, subscribing to Statistical Universe could provide meaningful support for hands-on research projects in business statistics. Company annual reports, 10-Ks, and other company information, also historically available in microform, are now available online through Mergent Online, which might also be a useful addition in the future.

The print collection is small; an earlier library assessment led to recommending the addition of more classic business texts to deepen the collection. Acquisition of an entire business library at auction (if available) was a consideration. However, such a print collection would only be accessible to on-site students at the main campus. As more academic book vendors are incorporating e-books in their offerings, classics with a more historical focus will become increasingly available in electronic form. Electronic collections of business classics may become available in the future. In light of UNVA's multi-campus research environment, collection-building emphasis should continue to be on electronic resources.

V. Related Resources
Additional library collections pertaining to the individual business programs are described in the collection policy statements for Economics, Marketing, Business Law, Financial Management, Accounting, Project Management and Business Statistics. The School of Technology's programs in Computer Science and Information Systems Technology relate to Business as well; they are served by separate collection development policies.

VI. Subjects and Collection Levels:
Subject collecting is characterized by levels 1-5, with Level 1 representing the most intensive buying, and level 5 representing the lowest level of buying.

1. Research Level: Advanced and comprehensive collection supporting doctoral dissertations and independent research, as well as support for faculty in their doctoral-level course preparation and specialty-related research. Materials at this level should include research reporting, new findings, scientific experimental results, and other primary documents and/or original research dissemination. Other resources at this level include all important reference works, a wide selection of specialized books, e-books, instructional videos and/or streaming web-based instructional A/V materials, an in-depth collection of journals, e-journals, major in-depth full-text databases for indexing, abstracting, and full-text journal content.

2. Study Level: Thorough collection supporting baccalaureate and master's level coursework, master's theses, and project-based independent study, as well as support for faculty in their baccalaureate and master's level course preparation and specialty-related research. This level supports general subject overview and some specialized knowledge, but is not as in-depth as the Research level. Materials include a wide range of books, e-books, workbooks (for example teacher's workbooks, lab manuals), A/V materials where appropriate to the academic discipline, core journals, e-journals, electronic full-text databases, and reference works providing study foundations.

3. Basic Level: Introductory collection to provide a basic subject overview. May include some resources for faculty course preparation and research. Materials include major encyclopedias, dictionaries, important bibliographies, a few major journals / e-journals and possibly drawing from general academic full-text databases already purchased for other subject areas.

4. Minimal Level: Few selections of either very basic works or occasional selections of specialized works in a narrow sub-field, but no systematic support of the subject area.

5. Not collected

 

Subject emphasis: Materials should be primarily chosen for their emphasis by subject, keeping in mind that English is a second language for most undergraduate and graduate students. The subject list below is a starting point for selecting new materials and a guidepost in case of withdrawal projects.

Pertinent LC Call Number Areas

Although UNVA's library does not actively pursue print collections where call-numbers are traditionally emphasized, the Library of Congress (LC) call-number classification system has great value in drilling down with precision to the curricular areas to be supported, even with e-book collections. Similar to a taxonomy, the LC call numbers classify knowledge consistently. This systematic language for coding subjects supports several important library roles: (1) retrieving library holdings by classification ranges of e-books from the online catalog to assess where collections need to be enhanced or pared down; (2) coding curriculum-support profiles for e-book vendors and approval plans; (3) teaching students an additional way to search with precision for library resources on their research topics.

This comprehensive list of LC call number ranges pertains to this General Business policy, as well as the other above-listed policies supporting the School of Management.

Following are some of the call-number ranges into which business-related titles can fall, including those most applicable to the specialized academic programs.

H

HA -- Statistics (some very focused coverage within all these call# areas):

HA1-28 Statistics (general methods, also applicable to business)
HA29-32 Theory and method of social science statistics
HA36-37 Statistical services. Statistical bureaus
HA154-4737 Statistical data (including demographic data used for marketing)

Some titles are on target for higher-level methodology (research design, data analysis, etc), but within these call#s the titles applicable to business areas tend to be few & far between.

HB -- Economics

HB1-70 Economic theory. Demography
HB71-74 Economics as a science. Relation to other
HB75-130 History of economics. History of economic
HB131-147 Methodology
HB201-206 Value. Utility
HB221-236 Price
HB238-251 Competition. Production. Wealth
HB501 Capital. Capitalism
HB522-715 Income. Factor shares
HB801-843 Consumption. Demand
HB846-846.8 Welfare theory
HB848-3697 Demography. Population. Vital events
HB3711-3840 Business cycles. Economic fluctuations