APPENDIX A: GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS COLLECTIONS POLICY
Subject Area: The Government Documents Collection contains primarily Canadian documents, and to a lesser extent the publications of international organizations and other governments. As a full depository library for Canadian federal documents, the library has a responsibility to receive, organize, and make accessible to the public in general and the Mount Allison community in particular, all Canadian federal publications provided through the Depository Services Program. As a member of the Data Liberation Initiative (DLI), and through agreements with Service New Brunswick (SNB) and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), the library can also acquire statistical and geographical data files for teaching and research at Mount Allison.
Purpose: The government documents collection serves the teaching and research needs of the faculty and students in all disciplines. Government publications are most heavily used by students in Canadian Studies, History, Environmental Studies, Biology, Political Science, Sociology, Anthropology, Economics, Commerce, Geography, International Relations, and Fine Arts.
Existing Collection Strength:
CA1 (federal) - Advanced (4)
CA2 (provincial & municipal) - Advanced (4) for provinces in the Atlantic Region, Basic (1) for all other provinces and municipalities
CA5 (inter-provincial) - Representative (2) for those groups which involve the federal government or the provincial governments of the Maritime Provinces
CA6 (para-government: associations, institutes, etc.) - Basic (1)
CA7 (annual reports and special publications produced by Canadian corporations) - Advanced (4) for Canadian corporations listed in the Financial Post 500
CA8 (international organizations) - Representative (2) for organizations of which Canada is a significant member, Basic (1) for others.
CA9 (EU, other countries) - less than Basic
Current Collecting Intensity:
CA1 - Advanced (4) for agencies covered by the DSP, Selective (3) for departments and agencies not covered by the DSP (e.g. National Gallery, National Archives, National Museums)
CA2 - Advanced (4) for the provinces of the Atlantic region, Basic (1) for others and for municipalities
CA5 - Selective (3) for the governments of Canada and Maritime Provinces, Basic (1) otherwise
CA6 - Basic (1)
CA7 - Advanced (1) for annual reports of companies listed in the Financial Post 500
CA8 (international organizations) - Selective (3) for organizations of which Canada is a significant member, Basic (1) for others
CA9 - Basic (1)
Geographic Focus: Emphasis is on Canada for federal publications, on the Atlantic Provinces for provincial, on the local communities for municipal publications, and on the publications of IGOs and NGOs for worldwide issues.
Chronological Focus: 1867-present for federal publications. Emphasis is on current documents with important earlier material obtained when possible. The collection is valuable for current and historical research.
Languages Collected: Primarily English. French for jurisdictions such as Quebec where no English translation exists. Most NB and federal publications are bilingual.
Formats Collected: Print and Internet resources primarily. Video, all manner of electronic formats, maps, micro formats, etc. are received via the DSP, DLI, SNB and NRCan agreements.
Preservation: Major preservation issues involve electronic formats: 1. Internet documents are not yet fully archived by the authoring governments. When documents are removed from government web sites access to them may be lost forever. Stable URLs, NLC and DSP URLs are linked to when possible. A few, selected documents are printed off. 2. Format changes. Federal government documents have been issued in many formats, some of which were never easy to access, some of which have become obsolete. Care needs to be taken to ensure that important content is available in alternative formats.
Indexing: All government documents (other than maps) are accessible to some degree from the online library catalogue. Each title in the Microlog collection on microfiche (documents from all levels of government pertaining to the Atlantic Region) is catalogued individually and is accessible through the online library catalogue. The Canadian Research Index can be used to find Canadian documents from provinces outside the Atlantic region. Key government journals are indexed in Canadian Periodical Index and CBCA and other subject-specific indexes. Numerous finding aids and indexes to government information, such as the Statistics Canada Catalogue, exist online and are linked to from the Government Information & Statistics web page.
Date: May 2001, Revised May 2003
Selector Responsible: Anita Cannon