Presentation on some of the issues surrounding collection development for the criminal justice subject area. SDSU used as an example.

1. Current Opportunities & Challenges
in Criminal Justice & Criminology
Collections Development in
Academic Libraries
Wil Weston
Head of Collections
San Diego State University

2. Elements of Criminal Justice Collection Development

3. Criminal Justice: At SDSU
• Undergraduate and Masters Programs in
the School of Public Affairs. (with Dept. of
Soc.)
• Holistic Program: covering such subjects as
criminology, criminal justice, law, political
science, psychology, sociology, & social
work.
• Globalization, World-wide and home grown
terrorism, and the WWW have made the
world smaller. The crime committed half a
world away isn’t so far removed anymore.
• Graduate Program in Homeland Security.
• Including an examination of the issues of
economic policy, and social justice.
• New emphasis on such things as: Border
security, human and drug trafficking, and
internet crime.

4. User Community: SDSU Faculty and Students
Faculty:
• Research interests vary from law and
society; bureaucratic accountability;
criminal procedure; police behavior;
public safety and individual liberty;
deviant behavior; capital punishment;
international and homeland security;
impact of history on criminal justice
policy; juvenile justice; youth gangs;
girls’ involvement in gangs; and the
sentencing and treatment of criminal
offenders.
Students:
• Non-traditional: preparing for a
second career or returning student to
expand career goals, working,
commuting, preparing to undertake
law school; and frequently from the
military.

5. Challenges for Faculty
• Impossible to own all the research materials that
they require. Subject area is too big and too
broad.
• Connecting them to other libraries: interlibrary
loan, other local university libraries.
• Complications: ebooks (can’t borrow), restricted
access to collections, slow ILL, backfilling the
following year (too late?).

6. Challenges for Students
• Hesitant to look beyond the subject heading. Don’t
frequently see the connections to other subject areas:
like social work, psychology, sociology, or political
science.
• Time sensitive. (NOT the materials) Because I have so
many non-traditional students I have to take into
consideration deliverability (format: ebooks, etc.). Want
it now, want it from home, want it easy to understand.
• Critical thinking skills sometimes need a little dusting
off. Occasionally too accepting of the first thing that they
find. (But, they turn into information sleuths pretty
quickly.)

7. Challenges for the Librarian: Subject
Specialist in Criminal Justice.
• Recognize the holistic nature. Purchase and search
accordingly. Determining the scope of your collection is
more important than ever. Where are there other parts
of the collection that can fill in or support Criminal
justice program.
• Staying in contact with your faculty. Their research
needs change. Inform them that you want to meet their
needs, but have little funding. Ask for priority items.
NOTE: Keep your wish lists and revisit them with your faculty every year.
• Ebooks.
• LESS and LESS money for monographs. Journal
cancelations. Approval plan evaporated and having to
select title by title.

8. There are opportunities…
• Increased focus upon Information literacy. Better use existing or
free resources.
• Assisting and guiding student research. How can I help your
graduate students. Methodology class, or the Intro/Orientation
class. Better learn their needs.
• Embedding in classes and departments. You learn more in one
semester long class (or keeping an office hour in the department)
than in a year with just students at the library point of service. Also,
another way of learning their material needs.
• Exploring Patron Driven Acquisitions (consortial PDA: CSU
Electronic Access & Resources Committee). Having your users take
a more active role in selection.

9. Questions… thoughts…
discussion?