Policies

COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY

The Collections Development Policy provides the guidelines for carrying out the tasks within the area of Library collection building. It governs the acquisitions processes to develop and maintain the Library collections by determining the scope, level of collecting intensity and goals sought by the Library to fulfill its service mission.

Collection Development is the process of building the collections by careful and correct selection and acquisitions of current and retrospective printed, digital, electronic and online materials.

The term ‘acquisition policy’ is often used as a synonym for collection development policy.

OBJECTIVES

The volume of information in the markets and on the Internet available is unfathomable. Acquiring all materials is not possible. Therefore, the collection development has to be selective and according to a clear policy. The Health Services Academy (HSA) Library needs to select the ‘correct’ materials and acquire it.

The richness of resource is possible if materials are carefully selected to support the objectives of the HSA Library.

• The selected resources should meet the high standards of quality in, presentation, physical format, relevance, significance, readability, authenticity, and factual contents.
• The selected resources should meet the present and anticipated future academic, research, and information needs of the Academy.
• The selected resources should meet the information, study, research and recreation needs of the HSA community

COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITIES: Following are the authorities in collection development process.

• Executive Director: The Executive Director HSA shall be the   Competent Authority for the purpose of the Collection Development Policy.

All actions regarding collection development and maintenance e.g. purchases, subscriptions, exchanges, relegations, discards etc shall be approved by the Executive Director.

• Faculty Members: All acquisitions shall be made on the recommendations of the faculty members.

• All actions regarding collection development and maintenance e.g. purchases, subscriptions, exchanges, relegations, discards etc shall be approved by the Executive Director.
• Librarian: The Librarian shall process the acquisition/purchase etc and make the necessary records in the inventory etc.

The Librarian shall select the reference and general material for acquisition.

• Library Advisory Committee (LAC): The LAC shall review and update the Collection Development and all other policies relating to the Library

COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT PROCESS: The Librarian, HSA Library shall manage the process of acquisition.

Recommendation/Selection: Faculty members shall recommend materials for the HSA Library. However, the students and the Library members may also recommend material for acquisition. All such recommendations shall be on the prescribed Acquisition Form and shall be submitted to the Librarian.

• The requisitioner shall provide complete bibliographic and price information to identify and acquire the material. The bibliographic information includes title, author/editor etc, publisher, year of publication edition, form etc.
• The respective head of academic department shall be requested by the requisitioner to endorse the recommended material.
• The Librarian shall assist the faculty to select appropriate materials by providing information and facilitating access to the relevant resources.
• The requisitioner shall justify all duplicate and/or multiple acquisitions.

Purchase/Procurement:The Librarian shall check the duplication or the recommended material with the existing collection.

• All Library purchases shall be approved by the Executive Director, HSA.
• The Librarian shall undertake all necessary steps to purchase/acquire the materials from the allocated budget.
• The Librarian shall ensure/verify that the prices charged by the vendor are correct. The verification shall be done from the publisher’s catalogue/website and/or original invoice of payment to the publisher by the supplier/vendor.
• The Librarian shall keep track of orders, receive ordered items, claim missing/damaged items and undertake any other task related to complete the acquisition of ordered items.

Record:All materials acquired shall be recorded in the inventory/accession register of the Library.

The Librarian shall keep record of all collection development instances.

Government Policy: All purchases made from the local vendors/suppliers shall be in accordance with the latest notification by the Department of Libraries, Library Rates Committee, Government of Pakistan.

Reimbursement: Payments for the purchases made by the faculty members directly from the vendors shall be made according to the original payment receipt and on the approval of the Competent Authority. However, no reimbursement shall be made of material declared as “Restricted” in the policy.

Registered Vendors/Suppliers: The regular orders shall preferably be made to the vendors/supplies registered with the Academy.

Nature of the Collection: The HSA Library shall acquire latest and appropriate materials in all forms and formats relevant to the academic programs at the Academy. It includes reference, research, textbook and informative material etc.

General Books: The Library shall also maintain a small collection of general books. The general books include best-sellers and books on history, literature etc.

Language of Materials: The Library materials should be in English. However, if required, material in Urdu may also be acquired.

Number of Copies: One copy of a publication for Library shall be sufficient unless otherwise required. The requisitioner shall justify additional copies.

Restricted Materials: The HSA Library shall not purchase the followings forms of the publications:

• Photocopied/Xeroxed
• Low price editions
• Pirated editions
• Materials barred by the local law
• Unethical materials

Gifts/Donations etc: The Library Advisory Committee shall review the gifted and donated materials for inclusion into the collection. The Committee shall consider the relevance, condition and age of the materials. The Committee shall also consider condition(s), if any, attached by the donor.

The Library welcomes donations of library materials but cannot accept everything. Intending donors should NOT send the item(s), but instead, send gift offers identifying the item(s) to be donated.

Evaluation & Maintenance of Collection: Periodic evaluations shall be made to determine that the collection is meeting its objectives & the needs of users.

• The Library Advisory Committee (LAC) shall coordinate evaluation/updation of collection no less than once a year.
• The LAC shall form a Committee to review the physical condition, relevance and adequacy etc of the collection. The LAC shall examine the Committee’s review to recommend appropriate actions and forward to the Competent Authority for approval.
• The Librarian shall repair, relegate, discard, renew or replace a resource as identified by the LAC and approved by the Competent Authority.

Archiving: The Library shall develop an Archive to retain following material. However, if the space and resources are available, the LAC may identify any other material for archiving or change the retention period of any materials. The materials include Theses, Journals and Newspapers.

Theses: The Library shall retain all theses by the students of the Academy.

Journals: The Library shall retain research journals for a period of ten years. Journals older than ten years shall be weeded out.

Newspaper: The Library shall retain back files of newspapers subscribed by it for a period of one year. Newspapers older than one year shall be weeded out.

Supplier/Vendor Registration: The intending vendors/suppliers shall apply for the registration with the Academy. The registration application should include:

• Company detail addresses and contact persons
• Copy of Company’s registration certificate
• Copy of Company’s tax certificate
• List of existing clients
• A certificate that the information provided is correct and complete
• An undertaking to abide by the HSA rules & regulations
• Any other document required by the Academy

The Librarian shall process the registration and forward the cases to the Competent Authority for approval.

WEEDING POLICY

Definitions: Following terms are defined for the specific purpose of the Weeding Policy at the Health Services Academy (HSA) Library, Islamabad.

Competent Authority: Competent Authority means the executive Director of the Health Services Academy or his/her appointee.

Library Material: Library material includes books, serials, charts/maps,             microfilm/microfiche, electronic materials etc in the Library.

Library Advisory Committee: The Library Advisory Committee formed by the Executive Director.

Open Access: Open access in the Library means facility where library users may freely access the material.

Weeding/De-selection: Process of selecting library material for discarding and/or relegating.

Relegation: Relegated library materials are relocated to another place in the Academy or to the Library store, as the case may be. These materials may be returned to open access if             their anticipated demand changes.

Discard:  The process of identifying material for permanent removal and disposal.

Objective: The objective of the Library Weeding Policy is to ensure that the library collection is alive, relevant and in good condition and the space is optimally utilized.

Purpose: The purpose of the Library Weeding Policy is to ensure that the Library material is current, relevant and in good usable condition and serves the purpose of teaching and research and caters for the student needs related to the academic programs offered at the Academy. The Policy also aims at creating space for newer and better material.

Tenure: The Library Weeding Policy remains in effect unless otherwise directed by the Competent Authority. The Library and/or Library Advisory Committee (LAC) may update/amend the policy whenever it deems appropriate.

Library Weeding: Weeding is a careful process of removing the library materials from the collections and the respective records. Library materials may be considered for weeded out if it is so damaged that they is no longer usable, outdated & obsolete and lost relevance to the library objectives and other issues like legal or ethical etc. The detail is given in the guidelines.

The weeded materials are removed from the main collection and either housed at another place, e.g. a storage or disposed off. The disposal may be by transferring to another library, sale or destruction/obliteration.

The respective records of the weeded materials are either withdrawn or amended to record the removal.

The library’s collection must be continually evaluated based on the criteria given above. Any materials failing to meet the criteria are subject to weeding/de-selection pending review by the library professional staff and involved teaching faculty.

The Weeding Authority: The Executive Director or his/her appointee is the Competent Authority to approve the weeding of the Library material.

Weeding has to be a continuous process. Therefore, there are two methods adopted for weeding.

During the course of the year, the Library removes all material that may be weeded out according to the policy. The removed material is retained and the listing/record(s) of the material is presented to LAC for recommendation(s). The LAC may make the necessary amendments in the recommendations(s). The LAC forwards the recommendation(s) to the Competent Authority for the final decision and approval. The material is disposed of on the directive of the Competent Authority.

The Competent Authority constitutes a body (committee or a task force) to expedite the library weeding. The committee may include representatives from the Library, academic departments and administrative departments. The constituted body evaluates the collection and identifies the material for weeding and forwards consolidated recommendation(s) to the LAC. The LAC forwards the recommendation(s) for approval of the Competent Authority. The LAC may make the necessary amendments in the recommendations(s). The material is disposed of on the directive of the Competent Authority.

In some cases, the Librarian is competent to take decision(s) on weeding. Such cases include weeding of gifts and donations, newsletters, and product/service catalogues, pamphlets, brochures etc.

The Weeding Responsibility: Following entities are directly responsible for Weeding;

• Library Professional Staff
• Faculty Members (Representing Academic Departments)
• Library Advisory Committee

Weeding processes are undertaken by Library professional staff as part of routine collection management. The Library staff removes the material identified for weeding & relegates it to the storage.
The faculty members may evaluate the respective collection and identify material for weeding.

The LAC may recommend the Library to develop proposal on weeding of material that it deems to be weeded.

The Stages of Weeding:Following are the stages and steps of the weeding process.

• The Library will manage the weeding process.
• De-selection is a continuous process conducted by the Librarian.
• The weeding will be conducted on annual basis.
• The material will be identified and subject vise lists will be prepared having bibliographic information i.e. title, subtitle, author, edition and or year, number of copies in library.
• The lists will be sent to the relevant academic department for review.  The relevant faculty member(s) may inspect the material physically in the Library if it deems necessary.
• The relevant department will forward its recommendations/remarks regarding weeding and disposal to the Librarian within the stipulated time.
• Recommendations/remarks of the departments will be presented in Library Advisory Committee (LAC) for review and recommendations.
• The recommendations of the Library Advisory Committee (LAC) will be submitted to the Competent Authority for approval.
• The material identified for weeding will be removed from the shelves.
• The security stickers and check-out cards etc are removed.
• The Librarian will implement the directives of the Competent Authority       to relegate the material to the storage and/or disposal of the material.
• The respective records from the catalogue/database will be removed.
• An appropriate entry will be made in the Library Accessions Register.

Weeding Policy Guidelines: The specific and general guidelines on both serial and monographic material are given below.

General:The Library continuously endeavors to keep its collections recent, usable and relevant to the mission and objectives of the Academy.

• In order to ensure that the Library collections are recent, usable and relevant, the Library staff should assess the materials in terms of value to the collection.
• The Library should, on the basis of assessment of the material, recommend removal and/or disposal according to the Weeding Policy.
• The Library may remove the material identified for weeding and relegate to the storage.
• The Library should remove the respective record(s) from the library catalogue after the material is weeded out.

The Library will follow the guideline given hereunder for assessment and recommendation for removal/disposal.

• Non-print materials:           Where appropriate, the criteria for weeding will be applied to all formats of library material that includes print, electronic, audio visual, computer software, etc.
• Rare Material:           Any material that may be considered rare, historic or of special value will not be weeded out.
• The decision regarding replacement of weeded material will be made by respective faculty/academic department.
• The Borrowed Material: The material that is with the Library member(s) cannot be weeded out.
• Repair or rebinding of materials may be undertaken as routine activities of the library.

Specific Guidelines:Following are the specific guidelines on the selection of material for weeding.

Monographs:Following factors may be taken into account while identifying material for weeding:

• so damaged that they is/are no longer usable
• outdated and obsolete edition
• lost relevance to the library objectives
• legal or ethical reason(s)
• comparably less important material (due to lack of space)
• poor usage statistics (due to lack of space)
• unneeded multiple copies (due to lack of space)
• non-scholarly, superfluous or popular contents
• unknown or unfamiliar language
• unwanted gifts & donations
• outmoded technology
• alternate superior format is available

Physical condition/Damaged items: Material from all disciplines that is in poor physical condition as a result of consistent usage, environmental or any other factor(s) will be regularly and routinely discarded, if library staff deems them un-repairable and un-lendable.

Poor physical condition includes damaged, defaced and/or deteriorated.

Poor physical condition of little-used material may suggest the costs of repair or re-binding and retention are unjustified.

Outdated editions/Currency: Material from all disciplines that is old and obsolete and for which more recent editions are available e.g. superseded textbooks and secondary compilations may be considered outdated/non-current and be relegated to store for weeding.

Relevance: Material from all disciplines that has lost the relevance to the subject and/or HSA academic programs may be considered irrelevant and be relegated to store for weeding.

Illegal/Unethical: Material from all disciplines that has content that is unethical deemed so by the weeding authority and/or illegal according to the Pakistani laws, may be considered illegal/unethical and be relegated to the store for weeding.

Non-scholarly, superfluous or popular contents, unknown or unfamiliar language, unneeded multiple copies, poor usage statistics: Material from all disciplines that has superfluous and/or non-scholarly content or in an unknown/unfamiliar language may be relegated to the storage and will be considered for weeding. Moreover, in order to ensure optimum use of space, unneeded multiple copies and material that has a poor usage statistics will also be relegated for weeding.

Unwanted gifts and donations:  Unwanted gifts, donation and pamphlets, brochures, product and service catalogues etc are weeded out by the Librarian.

Outmoded technology, alternate superior format is available: Material from all disciplines which is in an outmoded technology or alternate superior format is available will be relegated to the storage and be considered for weeding.

Weeding Policy Guidelines: Specific:

Serials:          In addition to the criterion given hereunder for monographs, following factors may also be taken into account while identifying serial material for weeding:

• current subscription status of serial titles
• nature of the serial
• completeness of set
• electronic versus print journals
• outdated newspapers, newsletters, magazines, catalogues, bibliographies, brochures etc.

Current subscription status of serial titles: Back issues of cancelled or ceased titles will be considered for relegating to storage and/or weeding. However, backsets of titles to which the library currently subscribes will be retained.

Nature of title:          Serials containing research findings, historical information, statistics or similar prime source material, will usually be retained.
Serials with directory information, newsletters and other ephemeral and temporary publications will be considered for weeding.

Serials like newsletters and magazine will be weeded whenever the subsequent issue is received or after one calendar year, whatever considered appropriate by the Librarian.

Completeness of the volume/set: An incomplete serial or journal set may be relegated or weeded/de-selected.

Electronic versus print journals: Decisions on whether to replace a print journal subscription with an electronic subscription will be made after consultation with academic staff. If the print serial(s) is replaced by the electronic version, the Librarian may relegate or weed out the print back volumes.

Temporary shelve life: The Librarian will decide upon weeding out the outdated newspapers, newsletters, magazines, catalogues, bibliographies, brochures etc.

Weeding Policy Guidelines: Specific to the subject content: Following is the criteria based on the subject content of the material. It is followed unless otherwise advised by the respective faculty. The recommendation(s) of the respective faculty head would be considered final.

500-599  Pure Sciences:

• Material on mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, life sciences and other branches of pure sciences are retained for ten years. Unless so damaged, such material is considered for weeding after ten years of publication.

600-699         Applied Sciences:

• Material on technology, engineering and other branches of applied sciences are retained for fifteen years. Unless so damaged, such material is considered for weeding after fifteen years of publication.

Following are the complete guidelines (for reference) on material on all subjects identifies/classified according to the Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme.

000 -099         General:

• Material on computer science that is five or more years old will be relegated and may be considered for weeding.
• Bibliographies, catalogues and encyclopedias may be discarded upon issuance of subsequent edition.
• Material on library science that is fifteen or more years old will be relegated and may be considered for weeding.
• General reference material will be considered for weeding out when becomes outdated.
• Manuscripts and rare books are not discarded.

100-199         Philosophy and Psychology:

• Popular psychology and self-help books become outdated after three years. Scholarly works on psychology and philosophy should be kept if they are by important authors. In general, psychology should be considered for withdrawal after eight years.

200-299         Religion & Mythology:

• Scholarly works on Islam and other religions should be retained unless otherwise advised by the respective Faculty.

300-399         Social Sciences:

• Classical and scholarly material in sociology & anthropology, political science, customs & folklores etc is retained, generally for fifteen years.
• Material on statistics, economics, commerce, law & public administration, communication & transportation etc is retained for ten years unless otherwise directed by the respective Faculty.
• Data publications may not be discarded as these are of research value.

400-499         Languages:

• Material on languages is retained indefinitely unless so damages that becomes unserviceable.

500-599         Pure Sciences:

• Material on mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, life sciences and other branches of pure sciences are retained for ten years. Unless so damaged, such material is considered for weeding after ten years of publication.

600-699         Applied Sciences:

• Material on technology, engineering and other branches of applied sciences are retained for fifteen years. Unless so damaged, such material is considered for weeding after fifteen years of publication.

WRITE OFF POLICY

Definitions: Following terms are defined for the specific purpose of the Write off Policy at the Health Services Academy (HSA) Library, Islamabad.

Competent Authority: Competent Authority means the executive Director of the Health Services Academy or his/her appointee.

Library Material: Library material includes books, serials, charts/maps,             microfilm/microfiche, electronic materials etc in the Library.

Library Advisory Committee: The Library Advisory Committee formed by the Executive Director.

Open Access System: Open access in the Library means facility where library users may freely access the material.

Closed Access System:   In closed access system, the material is kept in such a manner that the users cannot access it without permission and assistance.

Lost Material: It is not possible for even the most efficient library to eliminate the loss of library material. There are normally two types of losses of library material. These are:

Category -1:  Loss of shelf material due to theft & misplacement

Category -2:  Loss of borrowed material by the borrowers

Category -3:  Loss of material due to unrecoverable damage (normally weeded out)

Objective: The objective of the Library Write off Policy is to ensure that all the material lost at the library is properly accounted for. The HSA Library has laid down a policy to write off such losses.

Purpose: The purpose of the Library Write off Policy is to provide a system to bring all losses at the library to the record and where possible, recover the respective cost. Moreover, the Policy provides for a system of calculating the cost to be recovered of the lost material.

Tenure: The Library Write off Policy remains in effect unless otherwise directed by the Competent Authority. The Library and/or Library Advisory Committee (LAC) may update/amend the policy whenever it deems appropriate.

Library Write off: Write off is a careful process of identification of the lost material, making necessary record of the loss and where applicable, recover the loss.

The Write off Authority: The Executive Director or his/her appointee is the Competent Authority to approve the writing off of the Library material.

The Write off Responsibility: The Policy binds the Librarian to identify, report and process the lost library material.

The Write off Process: Following are the process and steps of the write off process for two categories of lost materials.

CATEGORY -1:

• Losses to the extent of 3% per annum of the available stock in an open access library may be written off.
• In a closed or partially open access system, a loss to the extent of 2% per annum may be written off.
• The Librarian shall report such losses to the Library Advisory Committee at the end of each year.
• The Library Advisory Committee shall review and recommend the Competent Authority to write off the losses.
• The material shall not be considered written off until the approval of the Competent Authority.
• The Librarian shall make the necessary record on the stock/accession register for every written off item.

CATEGORY -2:

• The borrower(s) shall be responsible for timely return of all borrowed material in good condition.
• In case a library item borrowed by a member is lost by the borrower, the borrower shall be charged the cost of replacement. The cost of replacement shall be the latest price of the lost material, plus 40% of the price as billing/processing etc fees.
• The borrower may be allowed to offer an item in replacement according to the Library Replacement of Lost Material Policy.

CATEGORY -3:

• The Library Advisory Committee shall review the material weeded out form the main collection and submit recommendations to the competent authority. The Competent Authority may approve writing off the weeded material.
• In case the Competent Authority does not approve writing off the weeded material, the material shall be relegated to the store room.

REPLACEMENT OF LOST MATERIAL POLICY

Library Rules, Part II – Criteria for Replacement of Lost Library Material

The HSA Library expects that in case a book(s) or an item of the Library material has been lost by the borrower, s/he will provide the replacement exactly identical to the lost item/book(s).

Wherever it is not possible to find the exact replacement, the Library follows the criteria given here under to accept a book or an item presented by the Library Member in replacement of the item/book(s) that has/have been lost by him/her.

The replacement copy(ies) should be upto the satisfaction of the Librarian. The Librarian reserves the right to reject the replacement if s/he understands that it cannot function as a useful replacement of the lost book(s)/item.

General

• The replacement book(s) should not be a property of another library.
• The replacement book(s) should be in the same format as that of the lost item.
• Photocopies shall not be accepted as replacement.

Condition

• The replacement book(s) must be structurally unharmed & intact.
• The replacement book(s) & its pages must not be marked.
• The replacement book(s) should not be too old. Pages should not be brittle or yellowed.

Edition

• The replacement book(s) must be the same or later edition than the lost one.
• The replacement book(s) must have the same author/ translator/editor/compiler.
• The replacement book(s) must not be a low price edition.
• The replacement book(s) must not be a pirated edition.
• A change in editor due to a later edition is acceptable.
• A change in title due to a later edition will be considered.
• In case the lost book(s) is a paperback edition, both paperback and hardbound may be acceptable as replacement.
• In case the lost book(s) is a hardbound edition, paperback edition shall not be accepted as replacement.
• The replacement book(s) should have the jacket/cover as that of the lost one.
• In case the replacement book(s) is of a publisher other than that of the lost book(s), the acceptance will be considered if all other information is identical.
• In case there is a difference in number of pages, the replacement will be accepted if all other things are identical to that of the lost book(s).