I. PURPOSE
II. SUBJECT SELECTOR GUIDELINES
III. FORMAT GUIDELINES
IV. COLLECTION POLICIES
V. ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
I. PURPOSE
The purpose of the Hunter College Libraries Collection Strategies Policy is to state the principles which guide the selection, acquisition, access, renewal, and de-selection of library materials in response to Hunter’s mission and vision. The Policy also serves to clarify the purpose and scope of local collections for the College’s community of users. The Policy will aid in the fair allocation of resources and help protect the Libraries’ funds by explaining the rationale behind the Libraries’ collection strategies. To ensure that the Policy remains current and timely, it is regularly reviewed by the Dean of Libraries, the Collection Management Librarian and the Collection Curation and Development Committee. The objective of collection strategies is to provide access to a useful collection that reflects the curricular and research needs of the College community.
The Libraries support the College’s goals by providing access to materials in all relevant formats at the appropriate depth and breadth to support the degree programs offered by each department and school. Materials are primarily obtained to support student study, research, and preparation for class assignments, as well as faculty needs in preparing for the classroom. The Libraries recognize their responsibility to support the research needs of the faculty to the fullest extent financially possible. Furthermore, balanced learning requires access to cultural and general information resources that belong in academic libraries but are not covered by specific classroom instruction and research programs; such resources are acquired to the extent financially possible. The Libraries may not be able to support programs not dedicated to students matriculating for a degree, such as continuing education, unless they coincide with programs that we already support.
The Libraries intend to acquire materials at a breadth, depth, and quality appropriate to the research and instructional needs of the College’s faculty and students. As much as possible, we base our acquisition decisions on expressed, demonstrated, or presumed needs to support research and instruction, in compliance with discipline-specific collection development policies. Because the extent of intellectual and cultural material of potential interest is understandably vast and impossible to acquire in its entirety, the Libraries will enhance the available resources through resource-sharing partnerships, collaborative collection development initiatives, and participation in local and national consortia dedicated to preserving, disseminating, and sharing research materials and content.
The Libraries also attempt to support faculty research by either purchasing or subscribing to materials (especially if they can also be used by students) or by providing access to materials via interlibrary loan and other types of resource sharing. Material obtained by the Libraries intended for faculty research is subject to the same policies and procedures as all other materials.
Information resources are evaluated according to authority, comprehensiveness, validity, language, time periods, and the geographical areas outlined in the Subject Selector Guidelines. Specific considerations for choosing material to add to the collection include:
- Relevance to the mission and vision of the College
- Relevance to existing collections
- Strength of present holdings in the same or similar subject areas
- Scholarly value, including the reputations of the authors and publisher as well as currency and timeliness of content
- Scope of content
- Appropriateness of the level of treatment
- Bibliographic accessibility through indexing, online sources and databases
- Language and country of origin
- Cost of the item relative to the budget and other available material in the same subject area
- Availability within consortial holdings
- Suitability of format to content
- Demand or frequency of interlibrary loan requests for material in a subject area
The Libraries are committed to collecting materials we consider likely to serve patrons’ needs or interests, while also responding to the expressed immediate needs of faculty and students, to the fullest extent financially possible. The major focus is on collecting current materials, with retrospective acquisitions added only as necessary. Online access to e-journals and reference e-books are default options in order to facilitate use among all Hunter College library branches. Print acquisitions are primarily in the form of scholarly monographs. In an environment inextricably connected to digital information technologies, librarians are committed to providing the community with access to a wealth of resources in electronic form, as well as preserving these resources for future users whenever possible.
The Libraries use their partnerships to make digital collections accessible to the academic community. In addition, the Libraries support and advocate for open-access publishing in order to extend the range of resources they can offer and to improve the sustainability of scholarly communication. To this end, for needed items not held or collected, the Libraries can provide access via interlibrary loan and on-site access to most academic and special libraries in New York City. Holdings of other libraries and the ability to obtain items through interlibrary loan are factors in purchase decisions. Interlibrary loan data is used to determine items that could be added to the collection.
Cooperative Collection Development
The Libraries recognize that collaboration among libraries maximizes access to research and educational resources. To that end we participate in the following organizations. Almost all of our electronic resources have been acquired through one of these associations:
- CUNY Electronic Resources Advisory Committee
All of the CUNY libraries participate in the Electronic Resources Advisory Committee (ERAC). This committee evaluates and selects databases that are deemed to be of interest to the largest number of schools. ERAC negotiates directly with vendors. Because ERAC represents all CUNY campuses, it is able to acquire favorable consortial pricing that would not be available to the libraries individually. Some of the databases selected by ERAC are paid for by the CUNY Office of Library Services (OLS). These are made available to all campuses. Others are partially funded by OLS and partially by the individual libraries’ budgets. - SUNY In the past, the CUNY Libraries have been successful in negotiating with major vendors for large periodical packages that combine CUNY and SUNY consortial deals. This provides Hunter patrons with access to titles not only held by all of the CUNY campuses, but also by the SUNY campuses, at no additional cost.
- NYSHEI The most current collaboration initiatives are coming from the 2003 New York State Higher Education Initiative. NYSHEI is an organization of public and private academic libraries in New York, including all of CUNY and SUNY, Columbia, Cornell and many others. One of NYSHEI’s initiatives is to migrate consortial licensing to a statewide platform, providing the best possible pricing and access for its members.
- WALDO (Westchester Academic Libraries Directors Organization) We purchase several databases through this organization.
II. SUBJECT SELECTOR GUIDELINES
Under the Dean’s guidance, the Head of Collection Management coordinates with the Libraries’ faculty subject selectors, who are responsible for the overall development and management of the Libraries’ collection for their assigned departments or schools. Each selector consults with their academic departments, other subject selectors, and the Head of Collection Management to:
- Manage the funds for one-time purchases assigned to their assigned areas if funding is available that year
- Choose relevant materials in all formats
- Assess databases and other electronic products available from vendors in their assigned areas, and make recommendations to the Head of Collection Management
- Evaluate the collection
- Advise on weeding
- Advise on the subscriptions to and cancellation of periodicals
The Libraries comply with the Library Bill of Rights of the American Library Association (ALA), which includes the Intellectual Freedom Principles for Academic Libraries, and work to comply with the CUNY IT Statement on Accessibility.
To accomplish their selection duties, subject selectors:
- Keep abreast of developments in assigned fields.
- Review course syllabuses relevant to their subject area.
- Maintain a level of contact with teaching faculty that provides sufficient knowledge of academic and research programs.
- Keep teaching faculty informed about the Libraries’ issues, policies and procedures.
- Review faculty requests to initiate orders within the scope of the collection strategies policy and available funding.
- Assess the quality and physical condition of the monograph collections, making recommendations on format migration, replacement, transfer, withdrawal or preservation of individual titles. Materials considered for withdrawal are described in the De-Selection Policy section of this Policy.
- Assist in responding to calls from potential donors and select from materials received as gifts.
- Prepare reports (as requested) to be used by the department for reviews and accreditation as well as bibliographic guides and other publications in support of the collection.
- Serve as needed on the Libraries’ Collection Curation and Development Committee to ensure that current policies are followed and to formulate new policies and practices as needed.
- If appropriate, join organizations which focus on collaboration in collection development.
Note: Contact information for all subject specialists is found on the Libraries’ web page.
III. FORMAT GUIDELINES
1. ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
Curriculum support in the form of electronic resources includes databases, ejournals, ebooks and streaming media. Products may either be licensed or purchased outright, sometimes with an annual access fee. The decision to subscribe to or license vs. purchase products will depend on budget considerations and the nature of the content. New products requiring a signed license must be approved by CUNY Office of Legal Services and/or CUNY Purchasing. Major new products are often trialed before procurement with feedback solicited from library staff and users.
Databases and collections of ejournals, ebooks, and streaming media will have their usage collected for each academic year. Low usage will be an indicator that a licensed product may not be continued, barring other considerations.
The Libraries have an overall commitment to acquiring electronic resources in the arts and humanities, particularly primary sources, in perpetuity, and to licensing or subscribing to scientific and social scientific resources to retain currency, although exceptions may occur.
The Libraries attempt to acquire electronic resources that are accessible to all who want to access them. Please see Accessibility Policy following this section.
Selection Criteria: Selection decisions for electronic resources will include as many of the following as are relevant and feasible within the procurement timeframe:
- Cost, whether one-time or continuing
- Demand, including suitability to curricular support and uniqueness of material
- Interdisciplinary coverage or contribution to the balance of subject coverage of the title list
- Comprehensiveness, authoritativeness, and currency of updates, if applicable
- Reviews of the product in the library literature; feedback from trial period if applicable
- Accessibility compliance
- Quality of search capabilities and general platform usability
- Overlapping of material elsewhere in the collection
- Vendor reputation, when known
- Licensing or procurement restrictions, or technical support requirements
- Ease of use and training requirements for staff and users
Selection Responsibilities: Selectors may suggest electronic resources in their subject areas or may communicate faculty requests for these to the Head of Collection Management. Vendor contacts, if any, should be passed on to the Head of Collection Management. If a trial is initiated, the selector is responsible for informing the appropriate faculty and/or students.
Licensing: Licenses are forwarded to the Hunter College Purchasing Department with a request to forward them to CUNY Legal for review. Only the Hunter College Purchasing Director is allowed to sign licenses or orders, and she only does so after receiving written permission from either CUNY Legal or CUNY Purchasing. This process can be lengthy, although it is impossible to estimate how long each transaction will take. There have been cases where licenses could not be successfully negotiated and products could not be acquired. Because of this uncertainty, time has to be allowed for the process; therefore, initiating new licenses in the late spring is usually not possible.
Access: Because of our commitment to off-campus access, databases which require user IDs and passwords are rejected in favor of databases with IP recognition. The Libraries’ computers are not password protected, and so the electronic resources listed on our web page are available to all authorized library users on campus. A few databases with restricted access are not included on the public list of databases. However, all electronic resources are available off-campus.
Renewals: Products are renewed unless one or more of the following applies: budget shortfalls, low usage, or a change in the curriculum. Renewal periods are spread throughout the calendar year, so it is not always possible to cancel a resource at the optimal time. When a product is considered for cancellation, it is the selector’s responsibility to inform the relevant faculty members to solicit their input before the final decision is made.
Freely Available Online Resources: Open access and other freely available resources are evaluated using similar criteria used for a purchased resource: authorship/authority, publisher, point of view or bias, currency, coverage, and verifiability of the information.
Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines: The Hunter College Libraries follow the Association of Research Libraries’ Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries
More information can be found on the CUNY Guide Fair Use and Copyright.
Accessibility Policy: Hunter Libraries strive to comply with the CUNY IT Accessibility Statement [], which says, in part, “All of the University’s electronic and information technologies must be accessible to all individuals who wish to access them, and accessibility must be addressed in connection with the procurement, development, implementation, and ongoing maintenance for all existing and new electronic and information technology acquisitions . . . . Compliance means a person with a disability must be able to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability and be able to do so in an equally effective manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use. The person with a disability must be able to obtain the information and services as timely, fully, equally, and independently as a person without a disability.”
To that end, when acquiring, licensing, or purchasing new digital resources, the libraries will:
- Request a current Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) that reflects the current state of the resource from the vendor, as well as any
- Consult any known professional accessibility reviews such as those at Big 10 Academic Alliance: Library E-resource Accessibility Testing https://www.btaa.org/library/accessibility/library-e-resource-accessibil... to see if the product has been reviewed and if any problems
- Read the VPAT and documentation provided by the vendor, and perform manual checks of the resource, such as those described in the 2013 "Identifying Web Accessibility Issues”Cheat Sheet*. These checks include navigating without a mouse, looking for captioning of any videos, checking for unique page titles and zooming in. Additionally, if any technical accessibility experts are found to be available to help, such as CUNY’s Accessibility Specialist in CUNY IT, they will be consulted for advice about evaluating the product for accessibility and understanding how any accessibility problems would affect users.
* As of March 2021, the Identifiying Web Accessibility Issues cheat sheet is understood to be current except that zooming in should work at 400% (press Cntl+/Cmd+ about 8 times) and check that text does not become hidden or unreadable. - Discuss with the vendor any accessibility concerns that arise and request improvements to any problems. The current version of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Level AA lists the technical criteria that the Libraries will ask the vendor to meet. It is understood that librarians involved with collection development are not web accessibility experts and will not be responsible for explaining technical requirements under WCAG to vendors. Technical specifics may be negotiated with vendors in more depth if technical support to do so is available, such as from the College or University.
- Attempt to include an accessibility statement in the license agreement. An example of standard licensing language is available at Big 10 Academic Alliance: Library E-Resource Accessibility-Standardized Licensing Language https://www.btaa.org/library/accessibility/library-e-resource-accessibil...
If accessibility concerns arise, faculty or other Hunter Libraries constituents interested in having the Libraries acquire a resource will be consulted or informed about the accessibility concerns so that they may be aware of the need to plan for issues that students or other users with disabilities may encounter in situations such as required assignments using the resource.
For DVDs, the Libraries will attempt to purchase a version with captioning. Audio description is infrequently available, but the Libraries will purchase DVDs with audio descriptions if found.
2. MONOGRAPHS
The Libraries endeavor to acquire, efficiently and in a timely manner, the variety of books needed to support the curriculum and research needs of our users. All materials purchased with funds from the Libraries’ acquisitions budget are housed in one of Hunter’s libraries and are accessible to all Hunter College faculty, staff and students.
Hardcover/paperback: Hardcover editions are preferred for print books which are expected to be heavily used or maintained in the collection for a long time. Paperback editions are preferred when there is a significant price difference between the hardcover and paperback editions, or if a title is expected to have short-term value. Most paperbacks are sent to the bindery before they are circulated in order to extend their shelf life.
Ebooks: Individual ebooks are acquired when that format is requested by the selector or when heavy usage is anticipated, and when it is an option. At the selector’s request, the Acquisitions Division will supply pricing, access and platform options for ebooks from GOBI. It should be noted that not all print books have an ebook option. Ebooks have evolved as the format of choice for STEM titles and for reference works. However, the considerably higher prices of online resources often prompt selectors to choose print.
Multiple Copies: The Libraries’ budget does not allow us to purchase every item needed to support teaching and research, and space is always limited; therefore, duplication will be held to a minimum. Multiple copies may be acquired for titles in heavy, continuous use. When copies are required by two branches, ebooks will be considered.
Standing Orders: Serial titles that are published annually or irregularly and monographic series may be placed on standing order with the publisher or a vendor. These are generally titles that must be kept up to date or are of lasting value to the collection. Because this is a continuing commitment, particular care is taken in making this decision. Electronic access is the current preferred access for most standing orders, although there are some remaining print standing orders.
Textbooks: College-level textbooks of a general survey nature published primarily for classroom use will rarely be selected as library material. The exception is when a faculty member requests a textbook to be put on reserve for a class.
Workbooks and Manuals: In general, workbooks, lab manuals, materials in three-ring notebooks and user manuals associated with a particular task or a particular version of a product will not be acquired. If they are necessary for library research they will be put on reserve. Spiral-bound material will not be purchased unless absolutely necessary. If possible, the contents will be sent to the bindery.
Children’s Books: Children’s books are acquired selectively to support the education curriculum. Currently, the majority are acquired through the YBP Children’s Book Awards Program.
Musical Scores: Musical scores are acquired selectively to the support music instruction. Scores are available both in print and online formats.
Maps and Atlases: Maps are not acquired. Neither are geological series that include maps in pockets as primary material. Atlases are acquired in print and online.
Because of the CUNY book contract, Coutts is the Libraries’ main vendor for print books. Orders are placed through the technical services interface of the Libraries’ catalog and are transmitted via EDI overnight. YBP/GOBI is the Libraries’ main vendor for individual ebooks, and we order through the GOBI platform. Amazon, Alibris and Strand are also used for rush orders (Amazon), DVDs and CDs (Amazon and Alibris), foreign titles (Amazon and Alibris) and out of print books (Amazon, Alibris and Strand). Because of CUNY procurement restrictions, OTPS funds cannot be used to pay these three vendors, so non-tax levied funds must be available for them.
3. JOURNALS
Journals and other serials are issued regularly and are expected to continue indefinitely. Electronic is the format of choice for serials, but those titles that aren’t available online are maintained in print. Additionally, the Libraries maintain some magazine titles in print for browsing by our users.
Back issues are either in a stable digital archive, like JSTOR, Project Muse or Gale Digital Archives, or bound, or kept as loose issues for a limited time. The bound back volumes represent a small collection, chiefly consisting of art journals and foreign titles, or titles without a digital archive. Since shelf space is limited, this title list should not be increased except as a last resort. When a stable electronic resource adds a year’s worth of a title, the print issues are discarded.
Since they represent a continuing expense, requests for new serial titles are scrutinized more carefully than requests for books. Certain subject disciplines rely more upon serials than books, and this is considered when reviewing serial holdings.
The most important factor in deciding to add a journal subscription is the relevance of the title to the curriculum and its relation to the Libraries’ total collection. New course offerings often result in new subscription requests, and these are added as permitted by the budget.
In addition to general collection criteria, journals are selected and retained according to the following:
- Accessibility through indexing and abstracting
- Cost
- Availability, either full or partial, in aggregator databases already subscribed to
- Usage and demand as measured by ILL and document delivery
4. NEWSPAPERS
News websites: Access to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal websites is provided by CUNY Central, as funds permit, for those with a current CUNY email address.
Historical digital content: The Libraries have purchased archival content to several major papers, including The New York Times and The Times of London. We also have permanent access to some historical American newspapers.
Current online news content: The Libraries provide access to hundreds of newspapers and other news sources through databases such as Nexis Uni, U.S. Major Dailies (Proquest), and more, including special interest databases like Alt-press Watch, Ethnic Newswatch and Genderwatch. A full listing of our digital newspapers can be found on the Libraries’ website.
Print: The Libraries no longer subscribe to print newspapers.
5. PRINT REFERENCE COLLECTIONS
Hunter Main: Librarians are currently weeding the print reference collection and integrating the still useful materials into the circulating collection.
Social Work & Urban Public Health Library, Health Professions Library, and the Zabar Art Library: Reference sources serve to provide a wide range of information, discipline-specific foundational knowledge, direction to other materials in the Libraries, and access to scholarly resources housed at institutions outside of the Libraries. Reference materials also provide selective coverage of subjects of current interest not directly within academic disciplines as well as general information.
Periodic evaluation of the Reference Collection to systematically weed older, less desirable, or superseded items should be conducted frequently, as determined by the branch librarians and the needs of the collection. General criteria to consider when de-selecting reference material include:
- Significance of the publication
- Age and currency of the publication
- Availability of later editions
- Supersession by online resources
- Physical condition
- Continued relevance to Hunter’s mission, curricula, and reference queries
- Standing order obligations, if applicable
6. MEDIA/STREAMING
Streaming is currently the format of choice for video and audio, although other formats are still selectively collected. Films may be streamed via an annual license through Kanopy or purchased on platforms like Alexander Street. Kanopy requests are mediated by the Libraries, and we are generally only able to support acquiring Kanopy films requested by faculty for classwork. We may be able to acquire streaming rights on other platforms subject to our ability to get a license signed.
DVDs are acquired for classes when streaming is not an option or when permanent access is desirable. VHS will no longer be purchased.
Music CDs will be acquired as necessary to support the curriculum. The Libraries subscribe to Naxos and many Alexander Street streaming audio collections, and those should be checked first for content.
Collections of streaming video and audio can be located on the database list on the Libraries’ website.
7. THESES
Nearly all Masters’ theses are now digitized and available through OneSearch. The one exception is Creative Writing MFA theses. These are archived in Special Collections, as are other, earlier theses.
8. MICROFORMS
The library retains only a small number of titles on microform.
9. GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS
Hunter College Libraries are not a Depository Library. Government documents that meet the evaluation criteria for all materials may be selected for curriculum support and will be cataloged and integrated into the collection.
10. CURRICULUM MATERIALS
Curriculum materials that directly support teacher education are acquired very selectively based on faculty requests. Preference is given to materials used by the New York City Department of Education. Standardized diagnostic and other tests which directly support education and psychology courses will be collected selectively based on faculty requests.
IV. COLLECTION POLICIES
1. PRESERVATION POLICY
The Libraries take reasonable measures to preserve the physical integrity of the print collection, as warranted, including in-house repair, commercial binding, or replacement.
The Circulation Department brings volumes in need of repair to Technical Services. The volumes are evaluated with regard to whether or not they should be repaired, discarded, or replaced. The Libraries do in-house repairs involving tipping in pages, gluing covers, and re-labelling spines. When time permits, we will do complete reconstruction of volumes. However, there is no longer a staff devoted to this process, so these books can only be dealt with when time permits.
Heavily used print volumes may be replaced with digital copies if available.
Books with an intact text block can be sent to the commercial bindery. A select group of print journals have their back issues sent to the bindery on a regular basis.
2. DE-SELECTION POLICY
The final authority for the withdrawal and disposal of library materials lies with the Dean of the Libraries, who delegates the responsibilities for decisions regarding specific titles to the Head of Collection Management and liaison librarians as appropriate. Liaisons should coordinate de-selection activities with their corresponding departments/schools.
Decisions regarding the withdrawal of specific items are subject to one or more of the following considerations (the word “title” refers to each individual item):
- The actual or anticipated use of the title
- The relevance of the title to Hunter’s curricula
- The importance of the work for the discipline
- The currency of the information contained in the title, with currency especially important for schools or programs which are subject to accreditation
- Physical condition and possibility of repair
- Whether the edition has been superseded
- For textbooks, currency is the chief consideration, and old textbooks are not retained unless they are considered standards or classics
- The dollar evaluation/market value of the title
- The availability of the title through other consortia
- The likely availability of the title through interlibrary loan or open access
- Space considerations
All titles withdrawn from the collections will be removed from the Libraries’ catalog and website.
3. REPLACEMENT POLICY
The Libraries do not automatically repurchase materials that are missing, lost, or mutilated.
The decision to replace materials is based on the following:
- The importance of the item to the collection;
- The demand for the material;
- The availability of the item for purchase;
- Whether the Libraries have another edition of the item.
Material will be replaced with the most appropriate edition if physical ownership is considered important. If an item is no longer in print an attempt will be made to locate an original in the out-of-print market at a reasonable price.
4. GIFT POLICY
The Libraries welcome donations that enhance the existing collections in scope and academic quality such as recent scholarly titles, classics in subjects currently in the Hunter College curricula, and any material relating to the history of Hunter College (see Archives/Special Collections Policy). The Libraries can refuse any gift which does not fit with its needs or mission at the discretion of the Dean of the Libraries.
Acceptance and Selection: The term “acceptance” refers to whether the Libraries will approve items offered for donation to be brought to the library.
- Hunter College Libraries will accept print books, provided there are no restrictions placed upon the gift. The Libraries will not accept donated material with conditions or stipulations;
- Gifts are not accepted from religious groups or organizations;
- All donated materials must be in good condition;
- The Libraries do not accept print journals, DVDs, CDs, VHS, audio tapes, instructor’s copies, editor’s editions, or collections of rare materials unrelated to the history of Hunter College (see Archives/Special Collections policy);
- Accepted donations become the property of the Libraries and the Libraries may select or dispose of donated material at their discretion.
The term “selection” refers to the process determining which donated items will be added to the collections versus those that will not.
- Selection is based upon the individual librarian’s evaluation and professional judgment, recognizing that all gifts incur processing and storage
- The Libraries may choose not to select donated books that are duplicates of material already in the collections, are not relevant to our
- Donated materials that are not selected for integration into the collections may be given away to library patrons, sold, or discarded.
Monetary Gifts: The acceptance of monetary gifts is at the discretion of the Dean of Libraries and dependent upon whether the terms of the gift are in accordance with the needs and mission of the Libraries. Such funds will be placed on deposit and spent by the Libraries accordingly.
Faculty Publications: Autographed copies of Hunter College faculty publications which are donated to the Libraries are placed in Archives & Special Collections, as are single copies of faculty publications received as gifts.
Acknowledgement: The donor will receive a letter of thanks acknowledging the number of books donated. Unsolicited and anonymous gifts or sample copies will not be acknowledged.
Appraisal: Appraisal of donated material is the privilege and responsibility of the donor; the Libraries do not assign value to donated material. Donors may wish to consult IRS Publication 561: Determining the Value of Donated Property at https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p561.pdf.
Procedures for Donating Materials: Those who would like to donate materials to the Libraries should contact the Head of Collection Management.
V. ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
The Hunter College Libraries Archives and Special Collections are the repository for records that document the history, daily function, and mission of Hunter College. Archives and Special Collections acquires, preserves, promotes, and provides access to original records of enduring value along with rare items related to faculty, alumni, organizations, individuals, and events affiliated with the College.
The collections are open to students, faculty, staff, and other researchers by appointment. All materials are non-circulating and must be viewed in the reading room.
The Archives contain records from Hunter’s founding in 1870 as the Normal College of the City of New York, an all-women’s school for training teachers. Other collections include:
- Papers of past presidents, noted faculty, and alumni
- Records of administrative offices, academic departments, and governance organizations
- Official publications including annual reports, minutes, course catalogs, yearbooks, commencements, student publications, newsletters, event programs, and building plans
- Records of organizations that are closely affiliated with Hunter College and its history.
Significant and broad ranging collections include:
- The Records of The Normal College of the City of New York, 1869-1917
- Hunter College Student Clubs, Organizations and Publications Collection, 1871-2016
- The Lenox Hill Neighborhood House Collection, 1892-2015
- The Records of the Women’s City Club of New York, 1915-2011
New archival material is acquired through donations or by transfer from departments and offices. The final acquisition is at the discretion of the Archives, with the following criteria serving as guidelines:
- Departmental and office records retained in compliance with the current retention and disposition schedule.
- Papers of faculty and alumni with the following records: correspondence, journals, biographical material, including curriculum vitae, original manuscripts, leture notes, course syllabuses, original empirical research material, photographs, master or access files of audio-visual material
- Hunter College related publications of student and staff organizations, events, and activities
Special Collections includes rare and unique books, the Hunter College faculty book collection, books written about Hunter College history, books containing Normal College identification, and historical textbooks. The bulk of the rare book collection comprises early English and American Literature.
Special Collections items are non-circulating and are discoverable through OneSearch.
Books and non-book materials to be included in Special Collections must fall into one of the following categories:
- Works produced by administrative and academic units of Hunter College
- Books written by Hunter College administrators and faculty
- Books written about Hunter College administrators and faculty
- Books written about Hunter College history
- Books written by Hunter College alumni
- Representative sample of books containing the Normal College bookplate, stamp, or embossed markings
- Books autographed by distinguished authors
- Books with imprint dates of 1860 or earlier