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I. General Description of the Collection and Its Users

The Social Work Collection is comprised of reference works, monographs, and journals which fall, generally, into the Library of Congress classification "HV 1 - 5999". This classification area includes social work history, theory, method, and administration, as well as the history and current practice of private and governmental programs for specific groups: indigent mothers, child welfare, aged, drug abusers, handicapped, etc.

As a collection supporting a professional degree program, the materials selected must represent Social Work professional groups, academic scholarship, and current applied practice. In addition, the collection must include works on current and historical government policies, programs and regulations.

The original collection was based on the Council on Social Work Education list, Building a Social Work Library (1962).

The users of the collection are the faculty and students in the undergraduate B. S. professional degree program in Social Work which includes a fairly high proportion of RIT/NTID hearing-impaired students. The Social Work degree program was established in 1975.

In 1987 an agreement was established with the SUNY Buffalo Master of Science in Social Work program. This agreement allows SUNY Buffalo graduate students, living and working in Rochester, to take a limited number of Social Work courses at RIT for full graduate credit transferrable to SUNY Buffalo. This joint program has had no significant impact on the library's Social Work buying since no funding was made available.

In addition to the "HV 1 - 5999" classification, the Social Work students and faculty rely heavily on the collections of the Humanities and Social Science disciplines in the following areas:

• Economics
  • housing, employment, poverty
• Political Science
  • public policy (current)
  • proposed welfare legislation
• Law - U.S. Current and historical laws, particular agencies and their regulations, court decisions
• Sociology
  • marriage/family/parenting
  • aged
  • alternative lifestyles
  • minorities,
  • role of women in society
  • urban problems
  • U.S. Census of Population and Housing
• Psychology
  • aging
  • personality development
  • abnormal psychology
  • drug use/abuse
• Medicine
  • gerontology
  • clinical-mental illness
    • psychiatry and psychotherapies
    • drug abuse/abuse and treatment
• History
  • United States society, institutions
  • minority groups
• Philosophy/Religion
  • ethics
  • social justice

II. Description of the Programs Served by the Collection

A. Undergraduate Programs--Non-Credit

College of Liberal Arts-Sociology Department

Core and concentration courses in Sociology, Anthropology and Psychology use these materials as supplemental to theirs, particularly those areas dealing with specific social groups.

B. Undergraduate Programs--Degree

College of Liberal Arts-Behavioral Science Division

Bachelor of Science in Social Work

Current curriculum emphasis is in the following areas:

• Services to Families and Children
• Alcoholism and Substance Abuse
• Services to the Aged

III. Subject and Language Modifiers

A. Geographic Areas

The geographic focus of the collection is primarily on the United States with only selective examples of practice in Canada, Great Britain, and Europe. Special emphasis is given to New York State and local agencies.

B. Chronological Periods

Emphasis is on current developments or analysis of recent events.

C. Languages

No restrictions. Emphasis is on English-language materials. Selected foreign language statistical sources and multilingual dictionaries/encyclopedias are acquired, if appropriate.

IV. Date of Publication

General emphasis for acquisition of new titles is on current publications in all subject areas. Acquisition/retention of material older than ten years is based upon importance of the work to the discipline; usefulness for historical information/perspective; extent of current publishing in the discipline; curriculum needs for new program development; usage of existing material of same age; and physical condition of the material. Retrospective acquisition of serials to meet new program needs will be extremely selective and limited to the past five years. Document delivery will be utilized instead to meet these needs whenever feasible.

V. Treatment of Subject Matter

A. Level of Treatment

Emphasis is on a collection which supports curriculum driven needs of students and faculty. The special needs of the NTID students are considered where relevant. Major published source material appearing in core collection bibliographies or recommended lists will be included. Pertinent reference sources will also be acquired. Every effort is made to accommodate faculty requests for specific curriculum related titles. All monograph, and most serial, publications of the Council on Social Work Education and the National Association of Social Workers will be acquired on standing orders. The publications of other professional organizations will be reviewed.

B. Scholarly Works

The most important professional scholarship will routinely be acquired, using Social Work Research and Abstracts as a guide.

C. Manuals of Practice

Acquired selectively to maintain an emphasis on current practice and policies.

D. Textbooks

Textbooks are not routinely acquired unless useful as general surveys or handbooks for a particular area not otherwise represented.

E. Newspapers/Newsletters

Significant publications of social work professional groups or agencies will be acquired.

F. Government Documents

Government publications are acquired when the content is appropriate to the subject scope of the collection; not maintained separately. Statistical demographics will be repre-sented by purchase of the dicennial U.S. Census of Population and Housing and all supplemental Current Population Reports. Reports and statistical publications of pertinent local, state and federal agencies an governmental units will be acquired as related to curriculum needs.Special attention will be given to local reports, especially those issued by the Center for Governmental Research which is based in Rochester and serves as a statistical, as well as, a research center.

G. Maps/Atlases

Acquired selectively when appropriate for specific representations.

H. Serials

Serials are of importance in this field to keep current with policy and application changes.

I. Other

Pamphlets are selectively acquired if sufficiently important to warrant cataloging; no pamphlet/vertical file is maintained.

J. Multiple Copies

Multiple copies of monographic titles are acquired only when heavy use is anticipated or demonstrated or at the curriculum-based request of a faculty member.

VI. Cooperative Collection Development Arrangements

No contractual cooperative collection development agreements for this discipline have been made between RIT Library and any other library.

Where faculty and student research needs fall outside the primary curriculum-based scope of the onsite collection, access to this information will be provided through traditional, as well as, commercial document delivery services.

VII. Publication Formats

A. Microforms

Journals are routinely retained in microfilm with the exception of titles containing substantial graphical material or mathematical notation. (See Bindery Policy/Procedure-Periodicals)

B. Non-Print Materials

Acquisition of traditional non-print materials (slides, videotapes, video discs, films, sound recordings, slide/tape programs) is very selective and made in consultation with the Media Resource Center's Media Specialist, usually at the request of a faculty member. Non-print materials are generally housed in the Media Resource Center.

C. Software and CD-ROM

Indexing and abstracting services and other specialized sources will be acquired in these formats where they meet subject collection criteria, as well as, the Electronic Resources Policy criteria (in process).

VIII. Collection Maintenance

Continuous maintenance of the collection is based upon systematic evaluation of materials in all locations in relationship to curriculum shifts, use statistics, core bibliographies, physical space limitations and the availability of information in alternative formats. Current periodical titles are reviewed annually prior to their renewal . All other areas of the collection should be reviewed every three to five years. The collection maintenance process includes weeding materials no longer relevant to curriculum needs, elimination of superfluous titles where information is duplicated in more current or authoritative sources, and ordering replacement copies of damaged and heavily used items still relevant to curriculum needs.

A. Weeding

1. Duplicates Only Weeded
At least one copy in good condition of standard and classic titles listed in major general bibliographies and special subject lists, such as Building a Social Work Library and Books for College Libraries, should be retained in the collection.
2. Selective Weeding
   a. Monographs
   In general, social work materials should be reviewed every three to five years to remove materials no longer relevant to the curriculum, older materials where sufficient coverage is provided by more contemporary titles, and multiple copies of materials where high use is no longer a factor.
   b. Serials
   1. Indexing and Abstracting Services
      Indexing and abstracting publications need to be available to cover all curriculum-based topics and periods of study. Publications should only be discarded when equivalent or improved coverage is available through new sources, printed or electronic (i.e. covers approximately same or more pertinent journal titles in the field and/or provides enhanced search capabilities pertinent to our programs).
   2. Scholarly Publications
      Long runs of key scholarly journals in all aspects of social work that meet the criteria given in the introduction to this section should be retained indefinitely. Priority for retention should be given to titles accessible through indexing and abstracting services available at RIT Library and titles not available in any other Rochester-area library. Short runs and broken runs should be scrutinized more carefully and retention decisions should be based on the collecting levels assigned in Section IX: Subject Divisions, usage statistics, importance of title to discipline, and alterntive availability
   3. Trade Journals
      Retention of trade journals should be carefully scrutinized. Those that provide, primarily, timely information (industry and organization news, new products, etc.) should be discarded after a period of one to five years. Those that include articles of more lasting value should be considered for longer retention, particularly if they are accessible through indexing and abstracting services available at RIT Library.
   4. Annuals
      Annuals should be subjected to the criteria outlined in the intro- duction to this section and retained indefinitely where appropriate, particularly if they are accessible through indexing and abstracting services available at RIT Library.
3. Current Edition/Year Only Retained
   a. Monographs
   1. Textbooks
   2. Manuals of practice
   3. Career guidance and professional information
   4. Standards and policy guidelines
   b. Serials
   1. Newsletters, calendars, other current awareness services providing timely information about events and activities of organizations and institutions, and employment opportunities.
   2. Membership and services directories

B. Replacement of Materials

1. Lost or Mutilated

Every effort should be made to replace lost or heavily mutilated titles if they are judged to be of continuing relevance to the collection. When mutilation is confined to a few pages, replacement copies of these pages should be requested through the Information Delivery Service. (See Bindery Policy/Procedure-Periodicals & -Monographs)

2. Gifts

   Gifts which duplicate existing holdings should be used to upgrade the condition of the collection by replacing worn circulating copies with more sound gift copies.

C. Stacks Maintenance

The condition of all materials should be monitored to ensure those in need of repair and rebinding are attended to before they are irreparably damaged.

IX. Subject Divisions

 

	Support Level (see Introduction for key)
A. Economics/Poverty (U.S.)	C-2
B. Social Work Education	C-1
C. Social Work History and Theory	C-1
D. Social Work Administration	C-1
E. Social Work Methods (Casework, Groupwork)	C-1
F. Social Work Services and Programs	C-1
G. Legal Aspects of Social Work	C-1
H. Services to Families and Children	C-1
I. Alcoholism and Substance Abuse	C-1
J. Services to the Deaf and Handicapped	C-1
K. Services to the Aged	C-1
L. Gerontology	C-2
M. Mental Illness and Therapies	C-2

[rev. 7/94]

Maintained by Sheila Smokey