• Cataloging and Acquisitions Home
• About the Organization
• Contact
• FAQs
• News

• Acquisitions
• Cataloging Tools, Documentation
• Catalogs, Authority Records
• Classification
• Cooperative Programs
• General, Descriptive Cataloging
• Products for Purchase
• Professional Activities
• Publications, Reports
• Subject Headings

Subscribe

Receive an e-mail when a new issue of the Library of Congress Cataloging Newsline is available.

• More about this feature

Collection Policy Statement Index

Contents:

I. Introduction
II. General overview of science and technology collections
III. Policy

I. Introduction

This Collections Policy Statement deals with science and technology as subjects and attempts to provide a framework both for supporting current strengths of the Library's collections and identifying appropriate extensions and fields of concentration. In order to make the task of considering such broad topics as science and technology more manageable, the statement has been divided into chapters which deal with logical groupings of subclasses within classes Q, Science and T, Technology of the Library of Congress Classification. The first of these chapters describes the history of both science and technology in order to focus on the parallel and interactive nature of these fields. The succeeding chapters deal in turn with the various branches of science and technology as set forth in classes Q and T. The complete list of the eleven chapters comprising this statement appears below in Section III, and includes a brief synopsis of their content as adapted from the Library's schedules for classes Q and T.

The following points are relevant to collections development for the entire subject area of science and technology in the Library of Congress.

1. Challenges of maintaining full coverage of scientific and technical publishing.
   
   Science and technology in the modern world are constantly changing; fields are expanding, growing, merging, and spawning subfields in a blur of complexity. Throughout the world governments, industry, and the academic community invest large sums of money in scientific and technical research as well as in publishing the results of such research. As a result, published scientific and technical literature is voluminous. To satisfy public demand for full representation of current scientific and technical research, library collection development officers must aim at very broad coverage, while at the same time acknowledging that some of the material acquired may ultimately prove to be of interim or transient value. In recent times this broad coverage must be attempted with shrinking budgets. A further complication is that during this same period a steadily rising proportion of scientific and technical literature also has tended to appear in the newest and most expensive formats of communication, rather than in traditional and generally less expensive printed form.
   
   These key factors - volume, currency, transience, limited budgets, and a relatively high proportion of publications issued in non-traditional formats - force collection development in science and technology to be highly disciplined to ensure that all important and appropriate information is included in the collections of the Library and that the formats represented allow continued access to this information. Recommenders should keep in mind that full coverage of the subject matter does not mean exhaustive coverage of all publications in all formats.
2. Inclusion of science- and technology-related topics not treated in classes Q and T.
   
   While the collections policy statement for science and technology has been arranged in general according to broad subject ranges within the framework of the Library of Congress schedules for classes Q and T, certain important topics draw from a wide range of class numbers outside these classification schedules. Science and technology policy, the environment, oceanography, and computer science are examples of such topics. In this statement topics drawn from schedules other than classes Q and T are interpolated where appropriate into the collections level tables found in the following chapters under the heading General policy and collecting intensity levels.

II. General Overview of Science and Technology Collections in the Library of Congress

1. Scope
   
   In the Library's general book collections the subject areas encompassed by science and technology are found primarily in four subject classes in the Library of Congress Classification: Q (Science), R (Medicine), S (Agriculture), and T (Technology). In addition, a large amount of scientific and technical information appears in parts of several other classes: B (Psychology), G (Geography, Oceanography, Anthropology), H (Statistics, Transportation, Drug Abuse, Alcoholism), N (Architecture), U (Military Science, V (Naval Science), and Z (Library and Information Science). The Library collects materials in depth in all of the areas of science and technology except clinical medicine and technical agriculture. By long-established policy the Library defers to the National Agricultural Library and the National Library of Medicine in the collection of the technical and/or clinical aspects of these two broad subject areas. For further information on these subjects, see Agriculture and Medicine.
   
   The following Collections Policy Statements are relevant insofar as they pertain to materials dealing with science or technology, and should be consulted as needed. For the policy on patents, see Patents and Trademarks. For the policy on the collection of standards, see Standards. For the policy on scientific and technical literature falling into the category of "grey literature," see Technical Reports, Working Papers and Preprints. For general considerations on collecting electronic media dealing with science and/or technology, see Optical and Electronic Computer Files. The collecting intensity levels for scientific or technical materials falling into the above categories, however, are governed by the prescriptions set forth in the relevant chapters of Science and Technology, below.
   
   The Library's various special collections also contain a significant amount of scientific and technical information. The voluminous collection of maps and related publications in geography make the Geography and Map Division the premier American location for geographic and cartographic research. The interested scholar can also find similarly fertile scientific and technical information in other special collection areas such as the Prints and Photographs, Manuscript, and Rare Book and Special Collections Divisions.
2. Size and general characteristics of the collection
   
   The Library's science and technology holdings comprise roughly one fourth of its total collections of books and journals. The collections devoted to technology are roughly coequal with those of science. The collections of Classes Q and T amount to over four million books (volumes) and 61,000 journal titles. Materials are collected worldwide, with the preponderance of materials in English and major the European languages. In keeping with its goal to reflect to the fullest extent the history and civilization of the United States, the representation of scientific and technical materials published in this country is especially extensive.
   
   The extent and depth of this collection is the result of the Library's determined effort to acquire scientific and technical publications beginning in its early years and continuing to the present day. Its collections therefore include long runs of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century scientific serials as well as the intensive coverage of more recent times. A particularly significant component of its earlier scientific and technical holdings came through the Smithsonian Deposit, dating from 1866, which led to the transfer of approximately 1,000,000 volumes to the Library over a lengthy period.⁽¹⁾ The Library's interest in these fields has created both an in-depth collection of purely scientific and technical literature and also an especially broad and deep representation of material relating to the history of science and technology. The value of the collection is further enhanced by its relationship to other materials in the Library that are not classed as science and technology but contain supporting political, social, and economic information. In addition, the Library has a very extensive collection of foreign and domestic technical reports and standards (more than 3.5 million items), the vast majority of which are not included in the Library's classed collections.
   
   In the history of technology the Library possesses not only a significant number of rare works, but also many examples of such hard-to-locate items as the publications of major technical exhibitions and world fairs, and the memoirs, transactions, and periodicals of important technical societies. Within Class T, taken as a whole, electrical engineering and electronics-related titles comprise the largest segment, in which are located virtually all of the most important published source materials about these subjects in English and the major European languages. Other areas of strength are in mechanical engineering and machinery, aeronautics and astronautics (especially their history), and photography. The Library's collection in chemical technology is the strongest component in Class T. Other specific subjects of notable strength include gastronomy, history of psychoanalysis, and cold regions.
   
   The collection of military, industrial, and engineering standards totals more than 500,000 titles. Included are copies of current and historical standards and specifications issued by ANSI and its affiliated standards-producing organizations, as well as federal and military standards (active and historical). In the collection of foreign national standards may be found the European Harmonized Standards, the complete and up-to-date sets issued by the International Organization for Standards (ISO), the standards of the International Electrotechnical Commission, as well as those of the major industrial and military powers.
   
   The research strengths of particular subject fields in science and technology are presented in greater detail in the separate chapters which follow this introduction.

III. Policy

The Library considers scientific and technical information from all countries and in all languages to be of significance, and therefore collects on a worldwide basis to ensure full representation of substantial literature in these fields. The materials so acquired not only reflect the levels and distinct areas of scientific and technical specialization in their countries of origin, but are also of historical, cultural, and social value.

As indicated in Section I above, the collections policies governing the various individual topics of science and technology are given detailed treatment in separate chapters, as listed at the end of this section. The following general policy considerations, however, apply equally to all topics within the scope of this statement.

General publications. The Library endeavors to acquire all the important current reference works, monographs and serials, in all major languages, in the various fields of science and technology which constitute Classes Q and T. The only fields excepted are technical agriculture and clinical medicine as defined respectively in Agricultureand Medicine. The Library endeavors to acquire all substantial subject bibliographies and other general works or collections at research-level . These include periodicals, yearbooks, encyclopedias, the publications of societies and congresses, treatises, works on the theory, method, Scope, and history of science and technology, and biographies of authorities in these fields. Scientific and technical literature is acquired in all formats including but not limited to print, microformats, CD-ROMS, and electronic formats.

Textbooks. The Library comprehensively acquires U.S.-published textbooks on science and technology written at the college level; foreign textbooks in these fields and at this level are acquired selectively. Textbooks below this level are rarely acquired. Textbooks published in the U.S. on the methodology of teaching science and technology below the college level are also acquired.

Publications from developing nations. Because scientific and technical information from all countries is considered significant, special efforts are made to obtain as full a representation as possible of substantial literature in all scientific and technical fields (except for the technical and/or clinical aspects of agriculture and medicine). In this connection it should be noted that many developing nations devote a significant part of their scientific research efforts to agriculture and medicine. Consequently, to the extent that their scientific and technical enterprises are dominated by agriculture and medicine, scientific and technical publications from some of these nations may have a relatively lower representation in the collections of the Library. For further guidelines on collecting publications from developing nations please consult the Collections Policy Statement on Developing Countries (DEV).

A list of the separate chapters in this statement treating the various individual topics of science and technology follows:

1. History of Science and History of Technology Chapter A
   1. History of these disciplines as treated in Classes Q and T and taken together
2. Science, General Chapter B
   1. Q - Science (General)
3. Mathematics Chapter C
   1. QA - Mathematics. Included here is a statement on computer science
4. Physical Science Chapter D
   1. QB - Astronomy
      
   2. QC - Physics
      
   3. QD - Chemistry
5. Earth Sciences Chapter E
   1. QE - Geology
      
   2. GC - Oceanography
      
   3. GE - Environment (See also Chapter H below)
6. Life Sciences Chapter F
   1. QH - Natural History (general; Microscopy; Biology (General)
      
   2. QK - Botany
      
   3. QL - Zoology
      
   4. QM - Human Anatomy
      
   5. QP - Physiology
      
   6. QR - Microbiology
7. Technology, General Chapter G
   1. T - Technology (General)
8. General and Civil Engineering Group Chapter H
   
   1. TA - Engineering, General. Civil Engineering (General)
      
   2. TC - Hydraulic Engineering
      
   3. TD - Environmental Technology. Sanitary Engineering.
      Included here is a general statement on the environment
      
   4. TE - Highway Engineering. Roads and pavements
      
   5. TF - Railroad Engineering and Operation
      
   6. TG - Bridge Engineering
      
   7. TH - Building Construction
9. Mechanical Engineering Group Chapter J
   1. TJ - Mechanical Engineering and Machinery
      
   2. TK - Electrical Engineering. Electronics. Nuclear Engineering
      
   3. TL - Motor Vehicles. Aeronautics. Astronautics
10. Chemical Engineering Group Chapter K
    1. TN - Mining Engineering. Metallurgy
       
    2. TP - Chemical Technology
       
    3. TR - Photography
11. Composite (i.e., assorted) Group Chapter L
    1. TS - Manufactures
       
    2. TT - Handicrafts. Arts and Crafts
       
    3. TX - Home Economics. Cookery

¹For further background on the Smithsonian Deposit, see "The Story Up To Now" in Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress, 1946, pp. 114-116.

 Back to Top