SOCIAL SCIENCES LIBRARY
COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY
FEDERAL DOCUMENTS
DEPOSITORY 0509
SUBJECT SPECIALIST AND PRINCIPAL SELECTOR:
Stephen Woods, Specialist in Data & Government Information
The Social Sciences Library
208E Paterno Library
814-865-0665
swoods@psu.edu
Created 2/20/04
PURPOSE AND PROGRAMMATIC INFORMATION
Purpose: The Pennsylvania State University Libraries documents collection is located in the
U.S. 5th Congressional District of Pennsylvania and was designated a Federal depository on July
16, 1858. While the Federal Documents collection primarily supports the programs in the social
sciences, particularly political science and history, the interdisciplinary nature of the collection
makes it useful to colleges and programs across the University. In accordance with the
requirements defined in the Instructions to Depository Libraries, Guidelines for the Depository
Library System, and the Federal Depository Library Manual, the University Libraries strives to
serve the government information needs of the constituents of the U.S. 5th Congressional District
of Pennsylvania.
Note: For more information regarding the history of the University Libraries’ history in becoming a federal
depository library go to: <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/socialsciences/uscollec.htm>.
Programmatic Information: The Pennsylvania State University enrolls more than 80,000
students at twenty-four locations throughout the state. The University’s fourteen colleges
include Agricultural Science, Arts & Architecture, Business Administration, Communications,
Earth & Mineral Sciences, Education, Engineering, Health & Human Development, Law, Liberal
Arts, Medicine, Science, Technology and the School of Information Science & Technology.
There are 5,213 full time faculty members many who routinely serve as advisors to the federal
government and return to the University after their tenure. The University employees a number
of workers who have government contracts with the State and Federal government.
The 5th Congressional District is geographically the state’s largest congressional district taking
in nearly 10,500 square miles. The population of 646,371 is predominantly rural except in the
State College Metropolitan Statistical Area which is primarily an academic community with a
growing research component. The 2000 Census reports the population of the State College
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) to be 135,758 with a median age of 28.7. The population is
approximately 92% white, 3% black, and 3% Asian. The Congressional District is
predominantly white 96.5% and has a median age of 37.1.
Major employers outside of the University include: Cerro Metal, Raython (electronics for the
Department of Defense), Murata – Erie (electronics), Rutgers Nissi (Chemical). Tourism and
recreation are the district’s economic mainstays. The district includes all of 11 counties and
parts of 6 others.
The Pennsylvania State University Libraries (0509) and Mansfield University (0515A) are the
Federal Depository Libraries serving the Pennsylvania’s 5th Congressional District. There are
two other depository libraries within the Penn State library system: Penn State Dickinson School
of Law (0528A) and Penn State New Kensington (0512B).
SCOPE OF THE COLLECTION
The Pennsylvania State University Libraries collects 81.5% of materials distributed in tangible
formats through the Federal Depository Library Program and 100% of those made available via
the Internet. The University Libraries also purchases through the DOCUMENTS FUND
supplemental collections for purposes of preservation and reference tools to provide
bibliographic access to the collection.
I. Materials Collected
New depository item numbers are initially selected through surveys conducted by the U.S.
Government Printing Office. The Federal Documents selector reviews the survey, chooses or
rejects item numbers in coordination with appropriate subject selectors. The broadest range of
curricular and research needs is considered in item number selection as well as requests from
members of local community.
A. Languages Collected. The U.S. Government publishes primarily in English. A small
amount of materials are published in Spanish. Spanish materials are not selected.
B. Chronological Limits. The Federal Documents collection in the Pennsylvania State
University Libraries dates back to 1858. The collection contains documents back to the
1st congress primarily through the collection known as the Serial Set comprised of many
of the old Senate and House Journals.
C. Major Publishers. Most publications are published by the Government Printing
Office or outsourced by the government to other publishers (i.e. Journal of the National
Cancer Institute is published by Oxford Press) and distributed through the depository
program. Publishers of supplemental materials and reference tools purchased with funds
from the Documents Fund include: Bernan Press, LexisNexis Academic and Library
Solutions, Congressional Quarterly Press, William S Hein and Company and Readex
(Newbank).
D. Reference Works. The Federal Depository Manual (3.2) maintains that depository
libraries should provide basic access to the materials by purchasing non-depository
guides, catalogs, indexes and reference tools that will enhance the collection. These
materials are purchased using the Documents Fund. Policies related to these materials
are discussed in the Documents Fund Collection Development Policy Statement.
Materials received through the depository library program are reviewed for consideration
as reference materials. A number of ongoing titles are considered core reference works.
Including but not limited to: CFR, Statistical Abstracts of the United States, United
Statutes at Large, Presidential Papers, United States Code and United States
Government Manual.
F. Periodicals. One of the true strengths of the federal depository library programs
publications are the broad number of topics covered in significant serial titles. These
range from statistical series such as the Current Population Reports from the U.S. Census
Bureau to scholarly publications like Environmental Health Perspectives from the
National Institutes of Health.
Note: for a sample list of electronic only titles go to the University of Louisville’s
web site < http://library.louisville.edu/government/periodicals/periodall.html>.
Not all government periodicals and series are available electronically.
H. Video/DVD Collections. Generally selections for these formats are not included in
the libraries profile. However, certain pertinent government agencies are sending out
information on DVDs relevant for our users. For example the 2000 Census is being
distributed in DVD format. These are being selected.
I. Generally Excluded. When applicable, decisions between depository formats are
based on factors unique to the individual title, including:
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Usability of format
Anticipated need for circulation
Shelf space of the paper copy
Timeliness of the various formats
Anticipated physical longevity of the formats
Existence and/or quality of electronic software
Alternative formats already held by the library
The Specialist in Data & Government Information in the Social Science Library at
University Park serves as the University Libraries’ liaison to the Government Printing
Office (GPO). The initial point of depository receipt and processing is done by the Social
Science Work Group. As federal documents may be on any subject and may be required
by users of any subject library of campus, close cooperation between the selector for
Federal Documents and the other selectors is necessary.
Item numbers are usually rejected for one of three reasons:
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Subject is Out-of-scope
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Material Not for Academic Use (i.e. Programmed texts at an 8th Grade level and
periodicals meant solely for employees of a particular government agency are
usually rejected.
Format
o Posters, which are difficult to store.
o Looseleafs which require extensive interfiling. Often the subjects are
pertinent to the collection and are re-selected when they become available in
CD-ROM
o Diazo microfiche when a commercial silver-haldide version already exists
within the library (e.g. ERIC, ASI and CIS microfiche).
o Braille publications when contents are duplicated by standard print.
o Forms, except those frequently used by the local community (tax forms) or
those needed to interpret statistical data, such as the Current Population
Survey. Many of these forms are now available on the Internet.
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Review of Item Number Selections. Item numbers may be deselected throughout the
year upon request of a subject selector in cooperation with the Federal Documents
selector. Item numbers may be added during the annual cycle in June/July of each year.
Given the size of The Pennsylvania State University Libraries collection and the
number of federal depository item numbers (6,259), a zero-based review during the
annual selection cycle is not always feasible. Instead, the Federal Documents selector
will work with the appropriate subject specialist to review item numbers relevant to
their subject area on a rotating basis and review the Technical Supplement for new item
numbers added throughout the year, and verify that the previous year’s selection
changes were made in the GPO data base.
J. Areas of Focus/Strength. The Pennsylvania State University Library U.S.
government collections are particularly strong in the following areas:
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Congressional materials, including committee reports and hearings, bills, and
the Congressional Record.
Statistical publications from executive branch departments and agencies
Annual reports from agency programs and departments
Laws and regulations
Reports and studies (including historical materials)
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II. Electronic Resources.
A. Core Resources
Free Resources:
AGRICOLS (Agriculture and Related Science)
American FactFinder
CenSTATS
Consumer Health (Medline Plus)
DOE Information Bridge
ERIC
ERIC Digests
Federal R&D Project Summaries
GPO Access
GrayLIT Network
HRSPROJ (Health Services, Grants and Contracts)
HSTAT (Health Services/Technology Assessment Text)
MEDLINE (PubMED)
NASA ADS (Astrophysics Data System)
NASA Technical Report Server
National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts Database
THOMAS
TOXNET
TRIS (Transportation Research Information Service)
U.S. Patent & Trademark Office - Full-Text Patent Database
Fee Resources
Associations Unlimited
Congress Collection (Congressional Quarterly)
Congressional Universe
CQ Researcher
CQ Weekly Reports (Congressional Quarterly)
Declassified Documents Reference System
EDRS
Election and Voting Collections (CQ)
FBIS
National Journal
NLM Gateway
NTIS
PAIS
PolicyFile (Public Policy Research & Analysis)
Statistical Universe (American Statistical Index)
STAT-USA
World News Connection (Contains Current FBIS)
B. Related Collections
Business
Documents Fund
Earth & Mineral Sciences
Education
Engineering
Foreign Documents
International Documents
Life Sciences
Political Science
Sociology
Criminal Justice & Law
COORDINATING AND COOPERATIVE EFFORTS
I. Related Funds:
 SocRef
 Law
 Micro
 Docs
 Intl
 Polsc
II. Campus Locations. The bulk of the government documents collection is located in the
Social Science Library at University Park. Relevant government documents are housed in the
following subject libraries: Earth and Mineral Science, Maps, Life Science, Business, Arts and
Humanities, Education, and Engineering. Some of the documents have been LC classed and are
integrated into the general collection. Finally, there are documents that are located in the Annex.
III. Data/Statistical Collections. The United States government produces a vast amount of
statistical resources and numerical/geospatial data. Many of these resources are distributed
through the depository program in a variety of topics: population, vital statistics, economic
indicators, business and industry statistics, income, earnings, employment, energy,
transportation, crime, defense, trade.
o Numeric/Geospatial Data for the purpose of this policy is defined as machine-readable
data files which are stored in a format which requires appropriate computer hardware and
software to use.
o Statistical resources are those resources produced from numeric and geospatial data.
Statistics are frequently used to condense large amounts of information into a few
numbers and in this context, provide a concise, descriptive summary.
The libraries profile includes extensive coverage of statistical publications produced by
government agencies.
IV. OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
A. Depository Claims. All significant publications (i.e. serials) missing from depository
shipments and selected by the Library are claimed from GPO in a timely manner. These
will be reviewed every three months by the Federal Documents selector to see if the claim
should be followed up. Non-claimable publications missing from the depository shipments
and selected by the Library are selectively claimed by the Federal Documents selector from
the appropriate agencies.
B. Replacements. Missing federal documents are difficult to replace due to their short
imprint status. Paper replacements are seldom sought if the item is duplicated in another
campus library or available on silver-halide microfiche (American Statistics Index or
Congressional Information Service Collections).
C. Weeding. Because The Pennsylvania State University is a research institution, most
tangible depository materials are considered permanent additions to the collection.
Depository materials may be weeded using the following guidelines set forth by the
Guidelines:
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Determine whether titles in question appear on the List of Superseded Titles
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/pubs/suplist/index.html and may be discarded
without offering to other depository libraries. Not all superseded titles are discarded,
particularly CD-ROMs with monthly data which cumulates throughout the year.
Publications intended to be withdrawn are forwarded to the Social Science Librarian
Specializing in Government Information & Data, who determines whether they should
be withdrawn or transferred to another location.
Publications withdrawn from the collection are offered to the State Library of
Pennsylvania (Regional Depository Library) and then to the Needs & Offers List.
Duplicated non-depository publications or publications replaced by another format may
be discarded provided that those documents of possible significance to another
depository library are handled through the discard list.
D. Public Access
Consultation. All GPO depository collections and corresponding reference services are
available to the public regardless of residency and free of charge. All tangible documents
may be read and photocopied within the library.
Circulation. Unless specifically designated as reference materials, documents may be
circulated to The Pennsylvania State University students, faculty, and staff according to
non-document circulation policies (time limits, recalls, etc…) in the various campus
libraries. CD-ROMS located in the Social Science Library circulate by special
permission of the Social Science Librarians if the libraries do no have the appropriate
software or large quantities of data are needed.
Circulation and inter-library loan polices for federal documents to the public are
consistent with those for non-documents.
Computer Workstations. The three to four year cycle of public workstations enables the
University Library to meet GPO’s Minimal Technical Guidelines for at least one
workstation in the Social Science Library.
The Pennsylvania State University Libraries have initiated authentication for access to
library workstations and allow guest passwords for the public. There are also LIAS
workstations which do not require passwords, but have filters that limit the public to the
libraries resources as well as MIL and GOV domains.
Tangible Electronic Products. Software for diskettes and CD-ROMs will be loaded upon
receipt for titles of anticipated use. Software will be loaded upon request within one
workday for tangible electronic products which are not currently installed.
Printing/Downloading. Lion cash cards may be purchased by anyone wishing to print
from a workstation in the library. Users may also download to a floppy disk or use the
CD-RW on the workstation in the Social Science Library.
Reference Service. The Pennsylvania State University Libraries provides reference
services regardless of University affiliation or residency. Every attempt is made to
provide the correct answer for the user’s level of need. When an inquiry cannot be
answered, it will be referred to a person, library, or government agency with specific
contact information given.