Criminal Justice
Collection Assessment
Submitted by Doug Taylor
February 9, 2011
INTRODUCTION
Following guidelines established by the WLN Collection Assessment Service, which provide a framework for evaluating a library's current holdings and the level of activity of the collection development, the Criminal Justice collection is rated an overall 3cP (Advance Study or Instructional Support Level; predominantly in the Primary Language). This level supports all courses of undergraduate study and master's degree programs as well as the more advanced independent study needs of the patrons of public and special libraries. Refer to the Criminal Justice conspectus sheets and checklist analysis for a more detailed examination of the library's holdings.
HOLDINGS
The Criminal Justice collection contains 14,291 titles in the Library of Congress classification scheme HV6001 - HV9960. This number includes 6,579 titles from the Crime and Juvenile Delinquency microform collection and 147 e-books. In comparison, the 2005 assessment had 12,988 titles. Since the last assessment, 86 titles were withdrawn from the collection as out-of-date materials. The 2005-2010 expenditures in this area totaled $87,494. 96 and added 1,293 new titles. This comprises 9% of the current Criminal Justice collection.
SUPPLEMENTAL SUPPORT
The Criminal Justice subject areas also extend beyond the boundaries of the disciplines. A wide range of subject areas such as Law, Sociology and Social Work, Nursing, Philosophy, Ethics and Religion, Forensic Sciences, Psychology, Political Science and Public Administration, or Emergency Management are also important areas of research.
Number of titles held for various subdivisions outside the HV6000-HV9999 Classifications:
Classification / Category / TotalsB1-BX9999 / Philosophy, Psychology and Religion / 29,863
HM1-HN9999 / Sociology and Social History / 7,462
HV1-HV5999 / Social and Public Welfare / 6472
J1-JZ9999 / Political Science and Public Administration / 21,196
K1-KZ9999 / Law / 12,882
RA1001-RA1171 / Forensic Medicine / 167
RA1190-RA1270 / Toxicology / 342
RC512-RC569.5 / Psychopathology / 1467
RT1-RT120 / Nursing / 1,754
TITLES ADDED/TITLES PUBLISHED
Titles/Volumes Added 2005-2010
Date / HV6001-HV9960 / Blackwell Approval ProgramCoverage and Cost Study for HV6001 – HV9960 / Percent Held
2005-2006 / 207 / 789 / 26.2%
2006-2007 / 225 / 585 / 38.5%
2007-2008 / 187 / 603 / 31.0%
2008-2009 / 168 / 805[1] / 20.9%
2009-2010 / 140 / 818 / 17.1%
Total / 927 / 3600 / 25.8%
Compiled from Blackwell Approval Program Coverage and Cost Study reports and the YPB – Domestic New Titles Reports cataloging statistics 2005-2010
According to the WLN manual, a reasonable guideline to consider for assigning an acquisition indicator of 3 or higher would be a book acquisition rate that is equal to at least 15-25% or more of the appropriate universe of titles published annually in a division. The average acquisitions rate for the period between 2005 and 2010 is 25.8%.
Monograph Expenditures for Fund Account = Criminal Justice
2005-2006 / $18,337.232006-2007 / $18,155.51
2007-2008 / $19,153.98
2008-2009 / $17,110.97
2009-2010 / $14,737.27[2]
Total / $87,494.96
The following bibliographies were checked against the library's holdings revealing the corresponding percentages:
Publication
/Held
/Listed
/Percentage
ARBA, 2005 - 2010 / 57 / 123 / 46.3%Yankee Book Core 1000 / 60 / 76 / 78.9%
Resources for College Libraries 2007 / 101 / 132 / 76.5%
TOTALS
/ 218 / 331 / 65.9%PERIODICALS ASSESSMENT
Using the Serials Solutions database, the Criminal Justice collection contains 67 print periodical titles and 418 full-text electronic journals in the following classifications: Criminology, Family Violence, Law, Penology and Substance Abuse. See the Appendix for the complete list.
The bibliographies Magazines for Libraries and Proquest Criminal Justice Periodical Index were used to measure the quality of the Library’s collection:
Title
/Collected/Accessed
/Listed
/Percentage
ProQuest Criminal Justice Periodical Index / 100 / 250 / 40.0%Magazines for Libraries / 37 / 55 / 67.3%
Total
/ 137 / 305 / 44.9%Serial Expenditures for Fund Account = Criminal Justice[3]
2005-2006 / $16,236.222006-2007 / $12,952.83
2007-2008 / $7,486.58[4]
2008-2009 / $18,356.06
2009-2010 / $9,975.09[5]
Total / $65,006.78
NONPRINT MEDIA ASSESSMENT
The Criminal Justice collection contains 111 audiovisual titles in the HV6001 – HV9960 classification. This is an increase of 59 titles or a 53.2% increase since the 2005 assessment. The AV collection includes items such as videos, filmstrips, kits, software and audiotapes.
ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
Extensive coverage of Criminal Justice periodicals is available through the NCJRS database. The database states: "The National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) serves as the Information Clearinghouse of the Office of Justice Programs, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice. In this capacity, we house one of the largest libraries of justice-related literature in the world. Our library consists of more than 200,000 publications,
journals, newsletters, unpublished research, and videos related to any and all aspects of the criminal and juvenile justice fields. Currently the Library collection contains approximately 20,000 full-text electronic publications. Many of these publications (around 50 percent) reside on other Web sites and NCJRS links to them directly from the document record. The remaining documents are
housed on the NCJRS.gov Web site.” Limited coverage of Criminal Justice journals is also available through Academic Search Premier; Elsevier ScienceDirect; Expanded Academic ASAP; the EBSCOhost Psychology Databases; and Sociological Abstracts. We recently increased our ability to research in the criminal justice area with the acquisition of the JSTOR database. This extends our digital collection of these journals many years, if not decades back. These databases are available via the Internet to registered students and faculty in the Library, on campus, or off campus. Further, the majority of the electronic journal titles are integrated, analyzed, and accessible through the online Voyager catalog.
Also, the Library provides defined access to 147 e-books in criminal justice and police science. See the Appendix for a detailed list.
Subject specialists review and recommend World Wide Web sites for inclusion in the Voyager catalog. A few of the criminal justice sites that have been added are: Combating Terrorism Center at West Point and the Sentencing Project. Because the library supports a Master’s Degree Program in Criminal Justice the growth in these areas is very strong and is expected to continue to be so.
Defined Access means more than simply providing patrons with access to the Internet through one or more Internet browsers. It refers to menu options on the Library’s or institution's homepage, which link the user to owned or remotely accessible electronic resources selected by the Library with the needs of its patrons in mind. The Library maximizes access to Internet resources through several means: cataloging of each resource; regular updating of records when information, particularly the site's URL, changes; provision, maintenance, preparation, and loading of necessary software and hardware; appropriate staff and user support; and training. Because the Library provides access to electronic databases that encompass the area of Criminal Justice, the Library's electronic collection in this subject is rated a 3cP (Advanced Study or Instructional Support Level, predominantly in the Primary language).
SUMMARY
Strengths:
Total holdings, WLN conspectus evaluation, and checklist comparisons indicate the overall Criminal Justice collection is more than adequate to support the curriculum. Of particular note are the holdings in the subject areas of: Criminal Classes; Crimes & Offenses, Offenses Against Public Order; Crimes Against the Person; Crimes Against Property; Crimes Against Public Morals; and Prison, Corrections. These areas have shown a 26.9% growth rate since the last assessment. The following bibliographies also show a strong growth in our Criminal Justice collection: American Reference Book Annual, 46.3%; Yankee Book Core, 78.9%; and Resources for College Libraries 2007, 76.5%.
A review of the journal holdings reveals that the Criminal Justice collection is adequate to support the curriculum. The addition of JSTOR database, with access to many of their retrospective full text journals, has made our journal support even stronger.
Weaknesses:
Total holdings, WLN conspectus evaluations, and checklist comparisons indicate that the weakest areas of the Criminal Justice Collection are: Criminal Psychology; Crimes and Criminals; and Guards, Watchmen, Private Security.
Recommendations:
Although the monographic collection continues to be strong and the serials holdings have grown in strength sufficiently to support the Department of Criminal Justice program at the Intermediate Study level, but additional monographs in the area of Criminal Psychology; Crimes and Criminals; and Guards, Watchmen, Private Security need to be collected.
Appendix
Searching the Serials Solutions database (http://we8af9qh2e.search.serialssolutions.com/)
418 full-text Criminal Justice journals were found to be available either electronically or in-print. The following is an alphabetical list of these journals:
Journal Title / Electronic / PrintABA journal / X / X
Access control & security systems integration / X
Accounting and financial planning for law firms / X
Addiction (Abingdon, England) / X
Addiction & recovery / X
Addiction biology / X
Addiction research & theory / X
Addictive behaviors / X
Administrative & regulatory law news / X
Administrative law review / X
Advocate (Boise, Idaho) / X
Affiliate / X
African journal of criminology and justice studies / X
African terrorism bulletin / X
Air and space lawyer / X
Alabama lawyer / X
Alaska justice forum / X
Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.) / X
Alcohol alert (London, England) / X
Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford) / X
Alcohol health and research world / X / X
Alcohol research & health / X / X
Alcoholism & addiction magazine / X
Alcoholism & drug abuse week / X
Alcoholism report / X
Alternatives to incarceration, county programming ... annual report / X / X
American bankruptcy law journal / X
American criminal law review / X / X
American jails / X
American journal of correction / X
American journal of criminal justice / X
American journal of criminal law / X
American journal of drug and alcohol abuse / X
American journal of family law / X
American journal of jurisprudence (Notre Dame) / X
American journal of police / X / X
American journal of police science / X
American journal on addictions / X
American lawyer (New York. 1979) / X
American University journal of gender & the law / X
American University journal of gender, social policy & the law / X
Amnesty International (New York, N.Y.) / X
Amnesty International report / X
Annual report - British Columbia. Police Complaint Commissioner / X
Annual report, Section of Public Utility, Communications and Transportation Law / X
Annual report - State of Tennessee, Dept. of Correction / X
Antitrust (Chicago, Ill.) / X
Antitrust law journal / X
Arrests in Wisconsin / X
Asian journal of criminology / X
ASLH newsletter / X
@Law (Tulsa, Okla.) / X
Australian & New Zealand journal of criminology / X
Banking & financial services policy report / X
Bankruptcy developments journal / X
Bankruptcy strategist / X
Banks in insurance report / X
Bar bulletin (Seattle-King County Bar Association : 1988) / X
Bar leader / X
Behavioral health management / X
Behavioral health treatment / X
Bench and bar of Minnesota / X
Berkeley journal of gender, law & justice / X
Berkeley women's law journal / X
Bifocal / X
Boletín criminológico / X
Brief (Chicago. 1980) / X
British journal of addiction / X
British journal of addiction to alcohol & other drugs / X
British journal of criminology / X / X
Broadcasting and the law / X
Brown University digest of addiction theory and application / X
Brown University long-term care quality advisor / X
Bruce R. Hopkins' nonprofit counsel / X
Bulletin on narcotics / X / X
Business law today / X
Business lawyer / X
Business torts reporter / X
BYU journal of public law / X
Calendars of the United States House of Representatives and history of legislation / X
Campus crime / X
Canadian journal of criminology / X
Canadian journal of criminology and criminal justice / X
Capital University law review / X
Capítulo criminológico / X
Cardozo arts & entertainment law journal / X
Case & comment / X
Casino journal (Las Vegas, Nev.) / X
Center court / X
Champ pénal / X
Child Abuse Review (Chichester, England: 1992) / X
Clinical law review / X
Columbia journal of gender and law / X
Commerce business daily / X
Commercial law bulletin (Chicago, Ill.) / X
Commercial law journal / X
Commercial leasing law & strategy / X
Communications lawyer / X
Compliance reporter / X
Compliance week / X
Computer & Internet lawyer / X
Computer fraud & security / X
Computer lawyer / X
Conflict resolution quarterly / X
Congressional record (Daily ed.) / X / X
Connecticut public interest law journal / X
Construction lawyer / X
Contemporary drug problems / X
Contemporary justice review : CJR / X
Contract management / X
Corporate counsel (New York, N.Y.) / X
Corporate counsellor / X
Corporate governance advisor / X
Corporate legal times / X
CorrectCare / X
Corrections case law quarterly / X
Corrections compendium / X
Corrections digest / X
Corrections forum / X
Corrections magazine / X
Corrections management quarterly / X
Corrections today / X / X
Counselor (Arlington, Va.) / X
Crime and delinquency / X / X
Crime and justice (Chicago, Ill.) / X
Crime and justice bulletin / X
Crime & justice international / X
Crime in Wisconsin / X
Crime, law, and social change / X
Crime prevention and community safety / X
Criminal behaviour and mental health / X
Criminal justice and behavior / X / X
Criminal justice ethics / X / X
Criminal justice policy review / X
Criminal law forum / X
Criminal science monograph / X
Criminology (Beverly Hills) / X / X
Criminology & criminal justice / X
Criminology & public policy / X / X
Crisis (Toronto) / X
D&O advisor / X
Daily digest (United States. Federal Communications Commission) / X
Daily journal of commerce (Portland, Or. : 1987) / X
Debates and proceedings in the Congress of the United States / X
Debt3 / X
Defense counsel journal / X
Defense counsel journal / X
Deviant behavior / X
Digital investigation / X