Music

Collection Development Policy

Marian Ritter, Librarian

1. Academic Departments, Programs, etc.:

The most significant part of acquisition work takes place before the publications are actually ordered. This work involves the planned selection of materials best qualified to strengthen the University's resources for instruction, research, and cultural preservation. The importance of wise selection has increased with increases in book production, book costs, needs for books and the costs of acquiring, cataloging, housing and servicing books.

Responsiblity for selection lies with the faculty and the Library Staff. The faculty is largely responsible for recommending the acquisition of publications in their special fields. The Library must take responsibility for the subject fields neglected by faculty.

An acquisition policy statement cannot be definitive for all time. A library is not a fixed thing. Our ideas about its nature and contents are constantly evolving and our statment to guide its growth must be responsive to change. As a matter of practicality, we shall tend to follow the library's present strengths and weaknesses. If we were to discontinue buying in a field in which we are now strong, there would be a rapid deterioration in the value of our present holdings. If we were to start building up a previously neglected area, we would find that great research strength cannot be established quickly or at small cost.

Obligations

This Library should plan to acquire, as far as practicable, all library materials -- music, books, phonograph records, photoreproductions, periodicals, pamphlets, etc. -- needed to meet its four obligations:

1. 1) To own and make available those library materials needed for the instructional program of the university.
2. 2) To own and make available those library materials required by the students and faculties for their research.
3. 3) To own and make available those library materials required for general information in subject areas not covered by the instructional and research programs.
4. 4) To preserve all materials relating to the history, development and character of the University.

Limitations

In striving to meet its obligations within the limits of its resources, the Library will follow these general directives:

When lack of funds limits purchases, current publications of lasting value will be given priority over out of print publications.
• Library resources of this region will be considered in the selection areas for intensive collection.
• Consideration will be given to both the privileges and responsibilities of cooperative acquisition plans.
• Materials may be acquired in suitable copy if originals are not obtainable.
• Graduate students who need materials in depth in areas in which we have not collected will be encouraged to go elsewhere to use such materials.
• Duplicate copies of publications will be purchased by the Music Department when necessary to fulfill the instructional needs of the University. For class reserves the Library will supply one copy for each ten to twenty students, depending on the length of the selection and the length of time during which students must read it. We shall attempt to restrict duplication of specialized research materials.

Extent of Coverage in Specific Subject Areas

Needs and demands vary in the various subject areas. To indicate how far this Library will go in meeting these needs, we shall recognize the following degrees of intensity of acquisition effort which will be made within the limitations listed above:

1) General

A selective collection serving to introduce and define the subject and to indicate the varities of information which are available elsewhere. It shall include some textbooks, dictionaries, encyclopedias, selected editions of important works of major authors, historical surveys, biographies, and several periodicals for keeping in touch with current scholarship in the field.

2) Instructional

A good working collection designed to meet all instructional needs. It shall include a wide range of basic works, complete collections of the works of more important figures, both authors and critics, selections from the works of secondary writers, yearbooks, handbooks, a wide range of representative journals and the fundamental bibliographical apparatus pertaining to the subject.

3) Comprehensive Research

A comprehensive collection adequate for the independent research of both graduate students and faculty, including all current publications of research value and such retrospective publications as are deemed desirable by the faculty and are procurable. It shall include all the important or useful works, original editions of the classics in the field, if such editions serve a scholarly purpose, and an extensive assemblage of critical and biographical works, contemporary pamphlets, published documents and the fullest possible list of journal sets and bibliographical tools.

4) Exhaustive Research

A collection including as far as possible all publications of research value, including marginal materials such as manuscripts, archives, and ephemera. Such collecting will be undertaken only in restricted areas, such as materials by and about a single literary or historical personage.

The use of any number in the above scale implies that responsibility will be assumed for the coverage indicated by the categories above it in the scale.

Following is a list of areas together with the appropriate number to indicate how intensively this Library will build its holdings in each particular area. Final responsibility for selection and coverage will rest with the departmental librarian, although much of the selection will be made by the appropriate faculty members. In case a title is ordered by more than one librarian and duplication is not considered advisable, first priority for possession of the title will rest with the departmental library responsible for the subject area in which it falls.

Subject	Level of Coverage
Music: General (Almanacs, directories, etc.; bibliography; biography; dictionaries; essays; papers, addresses; librettos; periodicals; writings of musicians, especially composers)	3
Music: General (Portraits, pictorial work; programs)	2
General (Fiction, juvenile)	1
Acoustics and physics	3
Analytical guides and appreciation	2
Composition and analysis	3
Esthetics and criticism	3
Ethics and therapeutics	3
Ethnic music (including "folk")	2
Experimental music	3
Dance, show, "light" music	1
History	3
Instrument repair, construction, and tuning	1
Instrumental and vocal techniques	2
Instruments and instrumental music	3
Jazz	3
Music trades (business)	1
Physiology	2
Psychology	2
Theory	3
Vocal Music	3
Music education	3

2. Music Scores

The Library will endeavor to acquire a strong collection of music scores for teaching and research under the guidance of the Music Library. A list of types of Music Editions follows together with the level of coverage which the Library will try to maintain.

Type of Music Edition

Type of Music Edition	Level of Coverage
Monumental sets, historical or scholarly anthologies, complete and collected works of major composers	4
Original and early editions, in facsimile when necessary	3
Facsimile editions of manuscripts, in microform when necessary	3
Miniature or study scores	3
Full scores (when miniature or study score is not available	3
Piano reductions or piano-vocal scores	3
Score and set of parts for performance of small ensembles (9 players or less)	3
Score and set of parts for larger ensembles (10 or more players)	2
Solo editions	3
Juvenile and school music	2
Tutors, teaching methods	2
Sheet music or song sheets in separate editions	2
Choral music (octavo editions)	2
Anthologies, songbooks, hymnals, and song collections	2
"Avant garde" editions	3

Records

A list of categories of recordings and the level of coverage desirable for each in the Music Library follows.

Art music: major consideration the composer or composition, rather than the performers

Medieval and Renaissance

Art Music: Major consideration the performer or particular performance

Content	Level of Coverage
Plain chant	3
Other recordings, sacred and secular	3
Seventeenth-nineteenth centuries
Scholarly historical sets and anthologies	3
North and South American art music	3
Standard European repertory, major composers	3
Composers and compositions of lesser significance	2
Twentieth Century	3
Historical sets and anthologies	3
"Recital" recordings of contemporary musical artists	2
Ethnomusicology
Field recordings, adequately documented, by reputable authorities	2
Less well-documented or authorititative recordings of folk music, in areas of the collection not adequately covered by field recordings	2
Jazz
Historical sets, anthologies	3
Single releases	3
Popular Music
Broadway shows, TV and Film sound tracks	1
"Hit Parade", Popular fold artists, country and western, gospel and other popular music (e.g., Music on the Civil War)	2
Pedagogical
Sets and single disks intended for classroom use	2
Other children's recordings	1
Theory and ear-training	2
Tests on musical aptitude	1
"Music Minus One"	2
Language diction recordings for vocalists	1
Master Lessons	1
Other instructional recordings (e.g., clinician series for various instruments)	1
Miscellaneous
Documentary recordings including music	2

Gifts

Gifts of either library materials or money to pruchase them will be accepted provided they fit into the above policies and provided there are no restrictions attached. The Library must be free to dispose of, by gift, exchange, or salvage, any publications which are not needed, and it cannot agree to maintain a gift collection as a separate entity. Gifts offered with such restrictions may be accepted by the Dean on an individual basis.

Number of Copies

The problem of how many copies the Library is justified in keeping view of storage and handling costs arises mainly in relation to gifts and outdated books once needed in multiple copies. There is no limit to the number of copies of any publication with the Library may acquire if a need exists. But for general preservation purposes, the Library will keep two copies of the monographic publications falling under the purposes outlined in earlier sections of this statement of which one copy may be outside the General Library stacks; only one copy will be kept of titles which have been replaced by revised editions. This policy applies only to copies in hand for possible accessioning; no copies will be bought solely as second copies for preservation purposes. More than one copy of a serial title will be acquired and kept only within established policies or with the approval of the Music Librarian.

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