About the Library

Collection Development Policy

Mission

To view a PDF of the Library's collection development policy, click here.

The Research Library, in the Division of Research and Statistics, provides support for the mission, programs, and activities of the Federal Reserve Board by selecting, acquiring, organizing, and providing access to a relevant collection in multiple formats, as well as offering data acquisition services to all Federal Reserve Board staff.

Although the Research Library primarily serves the Board, library resources also are available to Federal Reserve Bank staff and, to a limited extent, the public.

A comprehensive and up-to-date selection of materials on domestic and international banking, business, finance, economics, mathematics, monetary policy, and statistics are maintained. Most publications of the Federal Reserve Board and major publications of the Federal Reserve Banks and other central banks are collected. In addition to print material, librarians select various electronic resources, including databases, Internet sites, electronic books and journals, and web-based news services. Acquisition is through purchase, contractual agreements, gift, or exchange-of-publications agreements with other organizations.

To provide access to and maintain control of these materials, the Library maintains an online integrated library system. The gateway to all services, including the Library's online catalog and most of its electronic resources, is the Library's site on the System intranet, FedWeb.

The Research Library also maintains the Board Special Library for the use of the chairman, governors, and their staffs. A collection development policy for the Board Special Library can be found at Appendix A.

The Research Library supports contingency operations by maintaining a small collection of print at and electronic resources authenticated for the Board's Contingency Site.

The Board's Law Library, in the Legal Division, is independent from the Research Library. It maintains a collection of legal treatises, federal and state statutes, federal regulations, periodicals, loose-leaf services and reporters. Collection development for the Law Library is the responsibility of the Law Librarian.

Objectives of the Policy

This collection development policy is intended to guide Research Library staff in the selection of library materials and to communicate to users the Library's selection goals and intents. The policy is a working document and will be reviewed annually and updated as necessary.

Selection Responsibility

Ultimate responsibility for the selection of library materials and the development of a strong collection rests with the Chief Librarian. In practice, the work of collection development is shared between the Chief Librarian and the other librarians on staff, some of whom may specialize by subject, by type (e.g., government publications, periodicals), by format, or by source (e.g., certain publishers). The acquisition of suggested materials and resources is subject to the final approval of the Chief Librarian.

Board staff with subject expertise may be consulted for advice on selections. Staff recommendations for expanding and strengthening the library collection are encouraged and given careful consideration on the basis of overall contribution and cost. A recommendation form (http://library.frb.gov/acquire) is available on the Library's website.

Data acquisitions that are facilitated by the Library's Data Contracts Librarians for any Board division are selected by staff within a division, according to its need. The Data Contracts Librarians consult and advise as necessary in this process, based on their knowledge of the disciplines, the resources available, and the Board's accessioning and licensing processes.

Selection Sources

Selection is a complex process using librarians’ professional judgment, education, experience, and expertise. Librarians consult a variety of selection aids, including the following:

1. Book reviews from a variety of sources, such as economics and banking journals, American Book Publishing Record, Choice, Library Journal, and the New York Times Book Review.
2. Publishers' catalogs, advertisements, and exhibits at conferences.
3. Announcements, news, and electronic alerts from and websites of publishers and other government departments and agencies.
4. Announcements, news, and electronic alerts from and websites of international institutions and think tanks.
5. Acquisition lists from other libraries (e.g., Federal Reserve Banks, central banks, other government agencies).
6. Recommendations from Board staff.

Selection Criteria

Research Library staff use the following general criteria in the selection of library materials:

Interest and needs of Board staff
Attention of critics and reviewers
Current and historical significance
Content and scope
Quality
Reputation of author(s) and publisher
Relationship to existing collection
Timeliness
Space and budgetary considerations
Format
Language (primarily English)

Additionally, criteria for electronic resources include:

Licensing terms and conditions acceptable to the Board
Level and method of access, including archival access
Method of delivery

Other considerations unique to the collection development and management of electronic resources are addressed in greater depth later in this document, in the section titled “Formats of Materials Selected.”

Criteria for Withdrawal

The factors listed above also are considered when withdrawing materials from the collection, as well as these criteria:

Duplicate copies, no longer in demand
Foreign language not read by current researchers
Insufficient use
Outdated or superseded by a new edition or online version
Physical condition
Subject matter no longer of interest

Periodicals Review

Periodicals to which the Library subscribes are reviewed biennially for retention, cancellation, or conversion to online-only acquisition. User input is solicited both for print and electronic material, and use statistics (collected monthly) are consulted for material that exists only in electronic format. Titles deemed no longer necessary to support the Board's research are cancelled and may be withdrawn. In addition, there is an ongoing review of all print subscriptions to assess whether they can be obtained electronically, or if there is already adequate electronic access through any of the Library's aggregated online serials packages.

Subjects Collected

Subjects collected include, but are not limited to the subjects listed below:

Agricultural economics	Asset-backed financing
Automated clearing houses	Balance of payments
Balance of trade	Bank Capital
Bank Competition	Bank Examination
Bank failures	Bank fraud
Bank management	Bank mergers
Bank regulation	Bank supervision
Bankruptcy	Banks and banking
Bonds	Branch banking
Business cycles	Business forecasting
Capital markets	Central banking
Checks	Commerce
Computer science (limited)	Consumer protection
Credit	Credit unions
Currency	Debit cards
Debt	Deposit insurance
Depressions	Derivatives
Econometrics	Economic conditions
Economic indicators	Economic policy
Economic projections	Economic statistics
Economic theory	Economics
Electronic funds transfers	Employment and Unemployment
Euro (currency)	European Monetary System
European Union	Federal Reserve System
Finance	Financial crises
Financial futures	Financial institutions
Financial regulation	Financial stability
Fiscal policy	Forecasting
Foreign economies	Foreign exchange
Government securities	Housing
Income	Industrial production
Inflation	Insurance
International banking	Labor economics
Library and information science (limited)	Macroeconomics
Management (limited)	Mathematics (as it relates to economics)
Microeconomics	Monetary policy
Monetary theory	Money
Money laundering	Money market
Money supply	Mortgages
National income	Options (finance)
Payment systems	Pensions
Prices	Productivity
Rational expectations	Recessions
Risk	Risk management
Savings	Savings and loan associations
Securities	Securitization
Social Security	Statistics
Swaps (Finance)	Time series analysis

Formats of Material Selected

Various publication formats are considered for selection, providing the content falls within the guidelines set forth in this document. Consideration is given to the format and durability of materials. Non-print materials are selected according to the same criteria as print materials for content, quality, and scope, together with considerations unique to electronic resources.

In general and when possible, the electronic equivalent of a print publication is preferred over print format, both for the enhanced content and additional functionality of electronic resources, and for the convenience of Board staff (e.g., unrestricted access in terms of location and time).

The following formats generally are not collected:

Audio and video tapes
Computer software
Photographs
Training material

Special Considerations for Electronic Resources

Access to electronic resources may be the result of:

• Individual electronic-only subscriptions for electronic books (e-books), electronic journals (e-journals), or other electronic data
• Multi-title electronic packages, ordered from publishers
• Electronic versions bundled with print subscriptions (i.e., if full-text access is available only to print subscribers)
• Aggregate packages of titles from information providers or publishers (e.g., EBSCO, Oxford, Springer, or ProQuest), the content of which the Library cannot control
• Open access e-books and e-journals (may be linked to from a serials service provider (e.g., Serials Solutions))

As noted earlier, selecting, acquiring, and providing access to electronic resources (both e-books and e-journals, as well as other electronic data) require specific issues to be addressed that are unique to the format.

In addition to evaluating electronic resources using the same guidelines as specified above, collection development for these materials will address the following criteria:

Content

• Equivalent or superior to print
• Available online in full-text before or simultaneously with print publication
• Includes letters, editorials, supplements, calls for papers, association announcements, etc.
• E-journal itself is stable (excludes aggregator titles as candidates for e-only)

Archival availability

• Perpetual access for content for subscribed years is available electronically either at the desktop from the publisher or distributor; on media sent annually to subscriber; or via third party mirror site
• Perpetual access to content for subscribed years is assured even if publisher changes

Licensing issues

• Publisher/vendor must hold appropriate rights for permanent access to content
• Permanent access to leased content
• Scholarly sharing in accordance with fair use principles (i.e., in-house sharing and ILL are acceptable)
• Performance clause to ensure compensation from licensor in the event of extended downtime
• Licensing agreement corresponds to or is amended to conform with the Board's licensing boilerplate

Effective searching, browsing, and retrieval capabilities

• Full-text availability in PDF and/or HTML or SGML
• Open URL compliant; hot-linking between and among related full-text documents
• Ability to export citation data to third party software (e.g., RefWorks)

Cost

• E-only subscription is cost-effective compared to print subscription
• Archival content accessible electronically for no or nominal cost

Image quality

• Equal or superior to print publication
• Adequate reproduction of high-quality color images

Printing capability

• Supports printer-friendly formats, preferably Adobe PDF

Use statistics

• Generated by publisher/vendor
• Easily manipulated and/or exported
• Conform to industry standards (e.g., COUNTER compliance)

Server reliability/technical issues

• Prefer Internet Protocol (IP) recognition for authentication, or some improved successor authentication method
• Speed of loading must be acceptable
• Server downtime minimal
• Format must be stable (PDF and/or HTML or SGML)
• Each e-resource should have its own durable URL for access
• Publisher/vendor provides technical support and training when needed

In some cases, print may be deemed preferable.

The criteria for retention of print resources (with or without online access) are:

• High-profile title
• High-profile users prefer print
• Content of online version differs significantly from print version (e.g., print contains substantially more material)
• Poor image quality in online version
• Access to online content unacceptably restrictive (cf. fair use)
• No cost benefit to online only (i.e., significantly more expensive than print)
• Poor interface design of online version
• No assurance of archival access
• Significant delay of access after print version is published
• Print versions are needed to enable accurate references to an official or authoritative version (including those recognized in court hearings)

Core FRS Publications

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Annual reports	Conference proceedings
Monographs	Periodicals
Special Reports	Speeches
Statistical releases	Testimony
Working papers

Federal Reserve Banks

Annual reports

Conference proceedings

Monographs

Periodicals

Selected newsletters

Sources for Core Non-FRS Publications

Primary sources for non-FRS publications include, but are not limited to:

Central Banks

All countries of the world, with emphasis on developed countries

Commercial publishers of major relevant material

Accuity
Bloomberg
Cambridge University Press
Elsevier Science
John Wiley & Sons
Kluwer/Springer-Verlag
MIT Press
Moody's Analytics
Oxford University Press
Princeton University Press
Routledge (Taylor & Francis)
Standard & Poor's
Thomson/Reuters
University of Chicago Press

Foreign government statistical agencies

All countries of the world, with emphasis on developed countries

International institutions and organizations

Bank for International Settlements
Centre for Economic Policy Research
International Monetary Fund
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
United Nations
World Bank

U.S. institutes and organizations

American Economic Association
American Enterprise Institute
Brookings Institution
Conference Board
Institute for International Economics
National Bureau of Economic Research

U.S. government departments and agencies

Bureau of Economic Analysis
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Census Bureau
Comptroller of the Currency
Congressional Budget Office
Council of Economic Advisors
Economic Research Service
Energy Information Administration
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Federal Trade Commission
Government Accountability Office
Office of Management and Budget
Office of Thrift Supervision
Securities and Exchange Commission
Social Security Administration
Treasury Department
U.S. Congress (House and Senate Banking Committees)

Preservation

The Research Library strives to maintain its physical collection in good condition, and ensures that electronic resources are accessible and/or saved locally to secure servers. The Library maintains appropriate humidity levels for print material to ensure physical preservation, and binds material that is valuable, unique, and/or fragile.

A disaster plan for the physical collection has been created, and is reviewed and updated annually.

Print material that is under-used or that is duplicated in electronic format, but which the Library has not discarded, may be collected, boxed, barcoded for retrieval purposes, and housed off-site at the Records’ Section’s Iron Mountain facility. Off-site print materials may be permanently discarded if the content is fully replicated and preserved electronically.

Related Policies

Board Special Library Collection Development Policy (Appendix A)

Gift Policy (Appendix B)

Appendix A

Board Special Library Collection Development Policy

The Board Special Library, located on the third floor of the Eccles Building, is maintained by the Research Library primarily for the use of the Chairman, Governors, and their staffs. Research Library staff determined that the following categories of material would be maintained in this special collection:

• Federal Reserve Board annual reports
• Federal Reserve Bulletin
• Transcripts of the Federal Open Market Committee meetings
• National Monetary Commission's publications
• Conference proceedings by Federal Reserve Board and Federal Reserve Banks
• Books about the Federal Reserve System's history, functions and its policies
• Major works by or about Board members
• Books about the history and operations of central banks
• Public papers of the Presidents of the United States
• Classic economics books focusing primarily on monetary policy
• Gift and commemorative volumes presented to the Board by foreign central banks or governments.

Appendix B

Gifts Policy

The Research Library gladly accepts material donated to the collection, providing the following conditions are met:

1. Gifts will be evaluated by the same criteria as materials purchased for the library collection. The Library may refuse to accept gift items that do not contribute to the mission of the library.
2. The Library need not accept an entire collection. Staff may choose selected items relevant to the collection and return others to the donor.
3. Gifts will be accepted providing there are not restrictions as to their disposition. Librarians may dispose of gift volumes in whatever manner deemed appropriate, including donating them to others or discarding them.
4. The Library will not maintain gift collections as separate entities but will integrate gift volumes into the general collection.
5. The Research Library will acknowledge receipt of gifts in writing, if requested by the donor; however, appraisal of gifts for tax purposes is the responsibility of the donor.
6. The Research Library does not accept gifts from organizations defined to be prohibited sources to the Board.