Corporate Library Collection Policy A Comparative Document Analysis Paula R. Davidson Emporia State University

Introduction  Interest in corporate libraries and particular companies  Value of corporate librarianship  Organizer and custodian of information  In-house storyteller  Paper, electronic, archives

Definition  Policy: a definite course or method of action selected from among alternatives and in light of given conditions to guide and determine present and future decisions ( (  Any formal, written document that addresses collections management, archives, resource selection, or acquisitions will be considered.

Research Questions  What collection criteria are used to select, maintain and discard electronic and hard copy resources in large American retail suppliers with international customers?  What collection criteria are used to select and preserve archival materials within these same corporations?  How do collection development policies compare between three similar organizations?

Literature Review  Planned and logical building of collection to meet current and future needs  Acquisition and discarding ideally based on regularly reviewed policy  Differ for company libraries  Hall and Russell, 1996

Literature Review  Four global corporation library selection activities assessed  Towards developing a theory of corporate collection development  Performance, operation (cost, centralization, formalization)  Include ideas within content, choose from vast amount of content, contain cost, support browsing  Edgar, 2003

Literature Review  Frito-Lay Corporate Library  Engineering library  Categories of standards, sources for standards, access points to collection  Ogden, 1990

Methodology  Obtain collection policy documents  Components, structure, criteria  Contextually placed  Viewed with models  Actual – corporate, academic, special collection  Theoretical  Gather more documents?

Setting & Environment  Starbucks – Seattle, WA  REI – Sumner, WA  Hallmark – Kansas City, MO Analysis will take place in Kansas City, MO

Data Analysis  Summary documents  Spreadsheets – consistencies/discrepancies  Reformulated and reconciled  Conclusions  Suggestions

Timeline  November – Complete literature review  December – February – Obtain collection policy documents  March – April – Compare and analyze documents  May – Construct comparative documents, develop conclusions  June – Compose and submit final report

Obstacles  Will concrete documents be available?  Will additional corporations need to be approached?  Will there be unforeseen obstacles?  Can the timeline be met?

Stakeholders  Corporate librarians  Benefit by a better understanding of successfully implemented collection development policies  Benefit by suggestions resulting from a comparative analysis

Conclusion  Based on comparative analysis, conclusions can be drawn about the effectiveness of collections policies in large, international corporations  Suggestions for future collections developments can be made

References  Edgar, W. (2000). Corporate library resource selection and corporate core competencies: Exploring the connections. Tuscaloosa, AL. The University of Alabama.  Edgar, W. (2003) Toward a theory of collection development: An activities and attributes approach. Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services. 27(4), 393.  Green, L. (1995). Evaluating a corporate library collection. Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Information Supply. 6(1), 49.  Hall, H., & Russell, A. (1996). Resource management in the electronic environment: Company library web pages and collection development principles. In Proceedings of the International Online Information Meeting. United Kingdom.

References  Jones, A. A., Cantelon, P. L., & Adkins, E. W. (1995). Corporate archives and history: Making the past work. Libraries & Culture. 30(2), 226.  Nelke, M. (1999). The role of the corporate library in the knowledge management process. Information Services and Use. 19(1), 49.  Ogden, S. M. (1990). Standards in the Frito-Lay corporate library. Science & Technology Libraries. 10(3), 49.  Xie, H. (2006). Understanding human-work domain interaction: Implications for the design of a corporate digital library. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology : JASIST.. 57(1), 128.