UWA Library | Reference Collection Policy

Responsibility: Subject Librarians

General information

Why the Library collects in this area

The Library's reference collection is intended to support undergraduate, postgraduate and research needs for information by providing access to a wide range of general reference tools, and to specific titles for significant areas of study. Individual subject collection policies cover levels of collecting for reference as well as for other material; collecting for the reference collection may be at a greater intensity than for the general collection.

Primary user groups served; relevant academic courses and research information

The collection supports research at all levels, and provides general and introductory material as well as titles acquired to support advanced research. The primary users of the collection are all the staff and students of the University.

Description of existing collection

The existing collection is housed with the subject collections over a number of sites. The Library also maintains a Core Reference Collection of networked databases that arefull-text, multi-disciplinary resources available via the Library Web site. The collection is kept up to date by the acquisition of new titles, new editions of selected works and relegation of titles which are outdated or infrequently used. Superseded material is either discarded as it is replaced, housed in the main collection, or sent to store.

The collection contains a wide range of indexing and abstracting services. These services are primarily networked databases available via the Library Web site, and supplemented by earlier printed back-sets. Specialised encyclopedias and dictionaries are held at all sites. A general reference collection, housed in Reid Library, contains a wide range of national bibliographies and "in print" sources, as well as general encyclopedias, a large collection of English and foreign language dictionaries, biographical dictionaries and a substantial collection of university and college handbooks.

Interdisciplinary relationships

Related subject areas; overlaps

The dispersed nature of the reference collection means that a certain limited amount of duplication is required in order to provide an adequate reference service at each site. In addition to duplication of a number of general reference tools, some duplication of titles in specific subject areas is required. In general, material which falls into the area of "general reference" is held in the Reid reference collection. This includes national bibliographies, general biographical dictionaries, a large collection of university and college handbooks, and a wide variety of foreign language dictionaries.

Coordination and cooperation in collecting (within UWA; with other institutions)

There are no cooperative arrangements with other institutions in place.

Scope of collecting

Languages collected or excluded

Material to support foreign language teaching and research may be purchased in those languages. Generally, English language material is preferred, though in some subject areas (e.g. history), material in relevant foreign languages is acquired.

Geographical areas collected or excluded

No areas are excluded; there is an emphasis on collecting material relevant to current teaching and research areas as specified in subject policies.

Chronological periods collected or excluded

No chronological periods are excluded.

See individual subject policies for more details.

Types (forms) of material collected or excluded

Material is purchased for the collection regardless of format, subject to the availability of suitable equipment for using it. Items required for reference purposes are housed in the reference collections regardless of format, with the exception of material on compact disc or floppy disk, which is normally available from library staff.

The following guidelines apply to types of material collected:

indexing and abstracting services - titles are kept in multiple formats if funding permits, when warranted by demand;

atlases, gazetteers and road directories - a representative collection of current material is kept in the Reid reference collection, current Australian and international atlases and local street directories and subject atlases may be kept in the branch collections;

biographical dictionaries - international who's who are kept in the Reid reference collection ; dictionaries about particular classes of people are kept in the appropriate subject library's reference collection;

books in print - current editions are held in the Acquisitions Section of the Library workroom, pre- current editions in Reid and branch reference collections, and in print listings for specific subjects are kept in the appropriate library;

statistical sources - ABS material (federal and Western Australian) is kept in Reid Library;

University and college handbooks - the main collection of this material is housed in the Reid Library reference collection.

Publication dates

Material in the reference collection is either current, or currently used for reference purposes. Pre- current material is either discarded, stored or housed in the Main collection.

Titles with publication dates which qualify them as rare are housed in the Rare Collection.

Reference Collection Policy