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Computer Science

Collection Development Policy Guidelines

  1. General Scope
    1. Audience
      Undergraduate majors in computer science have been offered at Dartmouth since 1979. The PhD program in computer science was approved in 1986. Between 1980-1988 M.S. degrees were granted in the Computer and Information Science program which combined studies in information systems and business. From 1983-1994 computer science was part of the Mathematics Department. In 1994, an independent Department of Computer of Science was established assuming responsibility for the undergraduate and graduate programs. The computer science collection primarily supports the research activities and instructional programs of the faculty and students in the Department of Computer Science. The collection supports the Thayer School of Engineering's engineering science major modified with computer science and researchers in computer engineering. The computer science collection is also a resource for faculty and students in other disciplines which might use computing or computational methods in their research.
    2. Boundaries
      This policy focuses on computer science, but does not include computer engineering, business data processing, management applications (management information systems), biomedical applications, and telecommunications. Most of the computer science collection is in the Cook Mathematics and Computer Science Collection (located on Berry level 3) in the Q325-Q342 and QA75-QA76 sections of the Library of Congress classification schedule. Materials related to artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, and multimedia (including the internet) are interdisciplinary and collected by Cook, Baker-Berry, Dana, and Feldberg. Computer architecture, computer software design, neural computing, computer networks, graphics, and operating systems are important to both computer science and computer engineering so both Cook and Feldberg have collections in these areas. Computer science examines the mathematical/theoretical aspects (QA) of these topics, and focuses less on the engineering aspects (TK). Other collections will also include computer science material, mainly concerned with applications of computers to individual disciplines. Biomedical computing and digital humanities are two examples. The papers of George R. Stibitz, which include research in computing devices, electronic music, and computer models for biomedical and physiological systems, are found in Special Collections. The notebooks and published materials of John G. Kemeny, creator of the BASIC programming language and former president of Dartmouth College, are also important additions to the computer science collection. A small collection of papers of Ernest G. Andrews could be of interest to computer scientists. His work included computer design at Western Electric Company. Technical reports produced at Dartmouth College and Ph.D and Masters dissertations of Dartmouth graduate students are a rich resource and copies reside in Special Collections.
    3. Partnerships
      The Library seeks opportunities to develop partnerships in building the computer science collection through strategies such as shared print retention projects.
  2. Specific Delimitations to collecting in this subject area
    1. Languages
      English is the main language collected. No language is excluded.
    2. Geographical Areas
      No geographical areas are excluded.
    3. Types of Materials Collected
      The principle focus of the collection is monographs and serials. National and international conference proceedings and journals are an important part of this collection. Technical reports have been collected in the past but most technical reports are now freely available online. Dissertations produced at Dartmouth College are comprehensively collected, while other dissertations are selectively collected. Electronic access is provided to indexes and abstracts.
    4. Format of Materials Collected
      The collection includes print, microform and electronic media including CD-ROM and web based materials. Serials and monographs are increasingly collected in electronic format.
    5. Collective Collections
      The BorrowDirect partnership allows Dartmouth College faculty, students, and staff to borrow books and other circulating items from the libraries of Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, MIT, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Yale and the Center for Research Libraries. Interlibrary Loan offers interlibrary loan and is Dartmouth College Library's system for requesting materials (books, articles, video recordings, etc.) that are not available on campus.
  3. Revision History
    • August 2016, updated by Katie Harding
    • September 2011, updated by Ann Perbohner
    • May 2010, updated by Ann Perbohner
    • 2006, updated by Ann Perbohner
    • February 1997, updated by Mark Mounts
    • August 1991, updated by Karen Sluzenski & Sheila Gorman
    • June 1981, created by Jim Fries & Sheila Gorman
    • Current selector: Matt Benzing