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Collection Development Policy:
Minnesota and Duluth Collections

The Duluth and Minnesota Collections are non-circulating reference collections of documents of local and regional interest. They have many similarities, but because of some fundamental differences in the purposes of each collection and in what we attempt to achieve with them, we have devised a specific collection development policy for each collection.

Duluth Collection
The Duluth Collection is a collection of materials relating to Duluth's history, people, architecture, politics, laws, climate - in other words, most anything having to do with Duluth. Materials in the collection date from the latter half of the nineteenth century to the present, and include City Council Proceedings from 1907 to date, Annual Reports from various City departments, yearbooks from Duluth high schools, old Duluth city directories, books by local authors, and many books on Duluth's history. While not an archive, the collection does include a limited amount of non-book material: audio- and videotapes, for example.

The Duluth Collection is extremely important to the community in terms of both current and historical information about the City of Duluth. Unlike the Minnesota Collection, much of the information in the Duluth Collection may not be collected anywhere else. For this reason, we attempt to be comprehensive in collection development. The collection should include, but not be limited to, books on Duluth history, people, climate, travel, laws, politics, architecture, and fiction.

Materials are chosen for the Duluth Collection with thought both for what is of interest now and what may be useful in the future for historical purposes.

The following are some areas of special concern for the Duluth Collection:

• Almost all books by Duluth authors are acquired when possible, although it is difficult to be aware of everything. We do not attempt to collect all books written by UMD faculty members - only those we feel are appropriate.
• Documents produced by the City of Duluth and by the state about Duluth are collected with some amount of selectivity. (For example, major reports of projects, annual reports, and financial reports are cataloged; departmental memos and the like are not.)
• All city laws and City Council Proceedings are kept.
• Annual reports of Duluth companies are acquired whenever possible.
• Periodicals published in Duluth are cataloged for the collection when pertinent. (For example, The Duluthian is cataloged, as was Children's Magic Window, which was produced by a Duluth woman; periodicals published by Edgell Communications are only printed in Duluth and are not really by or about Duluth and therefore are not collected.
• If possible, all maps, atlases, and plat books of Duluth should be acquired.
• All Duluth phone books and city directories are collected; when possible, two copies are kept. City directories are also kept on microfilm.
• Cookbooks by Duluth authors are purchased when possible (especially anniversary editions or when connected with Duluth's history).
• There is an incomplete collection of programs from Duluth cultural events (they are nice to have but are difficult to collect).

Minnesota Collection
The Minnesota Collection is a collection of books and other materials relating to the State of Minnesota. Because of space limitations and financial restraints, we do not attempt to gather all the materials available on this subject. The collection includes Minnesota Legislative Manuals from the late 1800's, a complete run of Minnesota History Magazine, older city directories from the Twin Cities and some Range towns, annual reports from various state departments and commissions as well as some of the larger corporations, fiction and poetry by Minnesotans, numerous Minnesota county histories, and many books on Minnesota history.

Since it is not physically or economically possible to collect all books and documents relating to Minnesota, it is necessary to carefully select those which will be most useful in our library. The collection consists of books and other materials dealing with Minnesota history, geology, climate, people, politics, laws, counties, travel, and other topics deemed necessary. Books by Minnesota authors and about Minnesota as well as books by famous Minnesotans but not necessarily about Minnesota are also included. The collection usually contains only one copy of each book or document; if a high interest is expected, we will collect multiple copies. Often, duplicate copies of materials in the collection may be found in the non-fiction collection.

Several areas of collection development are given special consideration:

• Books or documents concerning St. Louis County or the Arrowhead region are collected.
• Books or documents about the Great Lakes are purchased when they include a large amount of information on Lake Superior or are only about Lake Superior (we also collect documents from the International Joint Commission and the Great Lakes Water Quality Board). The collection does not include information on either Isle Royale or the Apostle Islands.
• Recently, we have made an effort to collect annual reports of "well-known" Minnesota corporations as well as non-Minnesota corporations which have an impact on the state (U.S. Steel).
• Cookbooks by Minnesota authors or groups are purchased for the collection only when the author is famous or when the cookbook marks a special occasion. Generally, cookbooks are considered appropriate for the nonfiction collection.
• Documents produced by Minnesota state departments are selected by much the same criteria as books.
• Periodicals both from Minnesota and about Minnesota are purchased when possible. The Library also collects newsletters from some Minnesota groups if they contain useful information.
• The Library purchases Minnesota legislative items and state laws and statutes. Some of these materials are kept permanently and others for a limited time.
• Minnesota maps and atlases are collected when possible.
• The collection contains city directories from Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Range cities.
• Children's books by Minnesota authors are not purchased.
• Documents from St. Louis County are collected as we become aware of them, but often they are difficult to locate.

Materials in the Duluth and Minnesota Collections are cataloged and can be located by searching the Library's online system. For security reasons, these collections are kept in a locked room. The materials are accessible through the reference staff at the Information Services Desk. The collections are supplemented by the Duluth and Minnesota Clipping Files, the Biography Files (for biographical information on Duluthians and Minnesotans), the local newspaper index, the regional magazine index, and the newspapers on microfilm.

2/18/05
Duluth Public Library, 520 W. Superior St., Duluth, MN 55802