Notre Dame Rome Library Collection Guidelines
The primary purpose of the Notre Dame Rome Library is to support the academic and research needs of faculty, scholars, and students affiliated with Notre Dame Rome and Notre Dame programs. Secondary goals are to enrich the experience of all members of the Notre Dame community during their time in Rome, supporting cultural exploration in Rome, Italy, and in Europe, as well as academic interests beyond the curriculum.
The Notre Dame Rome Library's physical collections are selected to meet these goals as part of multi-faceted network of support, including electronic access to materials via the Hesburgh Libraries collections and services, and access to a range of partner libraries.
General Collection Guidelines
Linguistic: Priority is given to English and Italian language materials.
Chronological: Currently published material has priority over retrospective material, although some older material may be obtained or held when subject-appropriate.
Geographical: There is an emphasis on material published in or focused on Rome and Italy, and then other European countries.
Treatment of subject: Scholarly and authoritatively works, appropriate for use at undergraduate and graduate levels, are selected. Popular treatment is generally avoided, unless it is added to the collection in support of the secondary goal of cultural exploration.
Types of material: Print material is preferred. Requests for electronic-only resources will be addressed in partnership with the relevant teams in the Hesburgh Library.
Selection Guidelines
- Selection of Library materials include the following considerations:
- how well the material supports the primary goal of the collection
- how the faculty member intends the material to be used, if applied to a particular course
- how well the subject area addressed by the material is already supported in the collection
- how available the material is from other sources, such as The Biblioteca Vaticana, the Biblioteca Gregoriana, the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma
- whether the material is available electronically via library.nd.edu
- the value for money and effectiveness of the formats selected (eg hardback vs paperback vs electronic).
De-selection Guidelines
As the Notre Dame Rome Library's space is finite, regular deselection of stock is necessary for the collection to effectively meet its goals.
Material will be considered for deselection if:
- it is in poor physical condition (should the item be replaced, repaired, or discarded)
- it has not been borrowed in five years
- the currency of the information contained within it is in question (should either a new edition, or a new title be purchased? Has the material been replaced with other, more recent, works? Is the information time-sensitive?, e.g. travel guides, etc.).
Donations
The Notre Dame Rome Library welcomes gifts of materials that will significantly enhance its collections of established strengths or subject areas targeted for collection development. Limited physical space and human resources for storing, processing, and making materials accessible prevent the Library from accepting all donations. In such instances, the gift offer will be declined with thanks.
Once a gift is given to the Libraries, it becomes the property of Notre Dame Rome Library. The Notre Dame Rome Library retains the right to dispose of unwanted or unsolicited gift materials in the manner of its choosing. Gifts that are accepted will be processed according to priorities established by the Notre Dame Rome Library.
