General policies and principles for the Library's collections are stated in the General Collection Development Policy.
Purpose of the Collection
The purpose of this collection is to support the instruction and research at UCSB as well as the general public. The UCSB Library is committed to providing free access to government information and strives to meet the needs of all.
Scope
Geographical Coverage
All areas are covered.
Language
Primarily English language publications; many documents are bilingual or multilingual. Materials in other languages are considered and selected on a case by case basis.
Chronological limits/Period Coverage
Primarily modern history coverage with emphasis on twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Publication dates
Primarily recent publications dates, although if appropriate, older publication dates as well.
Types of Materials Collected
Materials are collected for the express purpose of supporting the researching and teaching needs of those working in the fields of agriculture, arms control, census, crime, defense, demography, development, earth sciences, economics, education, elections, energy, foreign relations, government policies, health, human rights, justice, labor, political science, poverty, refugees, statistics, trade, treaties, and vital statistics.
Because the budget for serials is fully committed, new subscriptions are considered only if an equivalent dollar amount of existing local subscriptions can be cancelled
Systemwide and Other Resources
The collection benefits heavily from the systemwide licensing of serials, indexing and abstracting databases, and digital archives by the California Digital Library and UC Libraries. Interlibrary loan is another resource that is used heavily.
Related Collection Development Policies
Subject librarian: Shari Laster
Policy Last Updated: December 2016
