SFU Library Publishing Collections Policy

The Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing (CCSP) has a Master in Publishing Program, a professional degree program in the Faculty of Arts.   The Minor in Publishing is housed in the School of Communication, which is part of the Faculty of Applied Sciences. The CCSP also hosts the non-credit Summer Publishing Workshop program.

The Centre’s course and research areas are:

Professional Core Courses: Editorial Theory and Practice; Design and Production Control in Publishing; Book Publishing Project; Magazine Publishing Project; Publishing Technology Project;
Publishing Internship and Project Report (generally a case study).

Academic Core Courses:  History of Publishing; Publishing Industry Structure, Functioning and Policy; Technology and the Evolving Form of Publishing; Topics in Publishing Management.

Collection development is the responsibility of the Publishing Liaison Librarian. Liaison with the Publishing Program is maintained through the Departmental Representative as well as with other faculty members when required. Regular contact with other liaison librarians and teaching departments is nurtured through the sharing of relevant review material.

SFU Resources

The Belzberg Library is the major location for the University’s Publishing collection, although the Bennett Library has useful materials in the Communication, English (Print Culture) and Business Administration collections.

Regional Resources

The University of British Columbia also has a collection supporting its Creative Writing MFA.

Consortia and Document Delivery

SFU belongs to three consortia (BC Electronic Library Network; Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries; and the Canadian Association of Research Libraries). Document delivery agreements exist with all three of these consortia which allow delivery of journal articles and books from member libraries in a timely manner. Holdings and direct requesting from over 40 libraries are accessible through the Interlibrary Loan web page and from many databases, and interlibrary loans are also arranged with other libraries around the world, as needed. Besides document delivery benefits, membership in these and other consortia, including the Canadian Research Knowledge Network, also offers substantial savings on the collective purchase of licensed electronic resources.

General Collection Guidelines

Languages: the emphasis is on the acquisition of materials in English and French.
Chronological guidelines: not applicable.
Geographical guidelines: the emphasis is on Canadian materials.
Treatment of subject: selection will be primarily from Blackwell's and Coutts profiles, as well as bibliographies, reference works, etc.
Types of materials: collecting is split between books and journals. There is a growing emphasis on e-journals and web resources.
Date of Publication: emphasis is on current publications. Retrospective acquisitions are normally only for the replacement of important titles which have deteriorated or disappeared.
Coordination and cooperation with other campus resources: Publishing has a reading room with periodicals, government reports, Publishing theses, publishers' catalogues and some reference materials.

Subjects and Levels of Collecting

Note: subject headings from Blackwell’s guides.

Book industry & trade
Electronic publishing
Online publishing
Business Administration-Printing & publishing industry
Publishing as a career

Secondary headings (as needed)

Individual publishers
Periodicals publishing
Individual periodicals
Other specific publishing

Book selling
Literary market
Authorship

Information technology
Technical documentation
Science & technology history - general

Printing history
Private presses
Book design
Book binding
Printing technology
Paper technology

Book collecting
Books about books
Libraries and society
Copyright
Censorship
Intellectual freedom

The Library uses approval plans with two book vendors that canvasses a range of publishers. This plan is customized to provide approval forms in a variety of vendor-described subdisciplines of publishing. The emphasis here is on monographs.

The Library also selects books through vendor catalogues, publication lists of relevant publishing associations, and requests from Publishing faculty and students. Throughout, the Liaison Librarian will exercise discretion in any of these categories.