Collection Development and Acquisitions
Collection Development and Acquisitions
Collection Development
The policies and guidelines for building NLM’s collection are described in the Collection Development Manual of the National Library of Medicine. The Manual is reviewed and updated periodically to reflect emerging changes in health care and advances in medical research. NLM coordinates its collection development policies and retention practices with those of the Library of Congress (LC) and the National Agricultural Library (NAL).
Collection Development Manual of the National Library of Medicine (CDM), 4th edition (2004)
Joint Collection Development Policy Statements:
- Joint Collection Development Policy Statement: Veterinary Science and Related Subjects
- Joint Collection Development Policy Statement: Human Nutrition and Food
- Joint Collection Development Policy Statement: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
- Joint Collection Development Policy Statement: Biotechnology
Additional Collection Development and Selection Related Resources
- Core Health Economics Library Recommendations
- Core Health Policy Library Recommendations
- MedlinePlus Selection Guidelines
- MEDLINE® Journal Selection
- Selection Criteria for Digital Reformatting
see also the FAQ: Journal Selection for MEDLINE® Indexing at NLM
Acquisitions
NLM selects and acquires modern print and nonprint monographs and serials from every country and in any language. The Library selects, orders, and acquires publications from a wide variety of acquisitions sources, including domestic and foreign vendors, publishers, and producers; approval plan arrangements; exchange agreements; the Library of Congress overseas acquisitions programs; and selected gifts. Each year NLM receives, reviews, and processes approximately 25,000 monographic items for possible addition to the NLM collections; and acquires, licenses and processes over 22,000 print, nonprint and electronic serial titles.