Collection Development Philosophy

Yale University Library respects and values the diversity of the record of human thought, creativity, and experience. We build, organize, preserve, and provide access to collections in support of the university and worldwide scholarly communities. We define collections broadly to include physical and digital materials in a wide range of formats as well as electronic resources licensed by the library. We assess our collections for their quality, enduring value, and alignment with Yale’s teaching and research mission. We aim to make our collection development efforts transparent and shape them through persistent engagement with our diverse users. We acknowledge and seek to address systemic inequities and biases within the work of collection development, and we follow best practices in the ethical stewardship of collections. We advocate for open access, author rights, scholarly sharing, and user privacy within the ecosystems of creators, publishers, distributors, and technology providers. We increase overall collection breadth and depth in the context of growing inter-institutional collaborations to build, share, manage, and preserve collections. 
 
This philosophy anchors the library’s collection development efforts.

Adopted March 2013; revised November 2021.

Collection Development Statements