Theological Library Resources in the Melbourne College of Divinity

Daniel Mannix Library – Catholic Theological College, East Melbourne

Collection Policy

1. Profile of the Library

The Daniel Mannix Library was initially established as the Corpus Christi College Library. Corpus Christi College was itself established in 1923 by Archbishop Daniel Mannix as a regional seminary for the formation of priests for the dioceses of Victoria and Tasmania. The library was located initially within the seminary community at Werribee but, with the establishment of a second seminary site at Glen Waverley, a second collection was begun.

In 1972, a single seminary complex was built at Clayton and the library collections from Werribee and Glen Waverley were integrated to form the basis of a single Corpus Christi College Library collection. At the same time, the Catholic Theological College was established on the same site and the library's role expanded to serve the needs of CTC as well as those of the CCC seminary.

In 1999 the colleges relocated. Corpus Christi College moved to Carlton and the Catholic Theological College to East Melbourne. With the separation of the two colleges, it was decided that the library should move to the same site as the theological college. The Archdiocese of Melbourne took responsibility for the funding of the library and the library was named the "Daniel Mannix Library".

There are 2.8 full-time-equivalent staff positions in the library filled by 3 people. Of these, 1.8 positions are held be professional librarians and the remaining position by a library technician. Casual staff are employed from time to time to meet additional opening hours or workloads.

2. Relationship to mission

The Library aims to provide resources to support the study of the Christianity, primarily from a Catholic perspective, at a tertiary level.

The library’s principal purpose is to meet the academic information needs of seminarians from dioceses in Victoria and Tasmania.

Reflecting the development of Catholic Theological College since its foundation, the library seeks to serve the entire academic community at CTC – staff and student, undergraduate and postgraduate.

As a significant Catholic collection, the library also serves the information needs of the wider community.

3. Purpose of the collection debelopment statement

• · To clarify the selection criteria by which potential acquisitions will be assessed

  · To set quality standards for the acquisition, retention and discarding of resources

  · To enable continuity in selection of resources in the event of staff changes

  · To ensure that resources are selected across all areas of the collection

  · To enable development of a balanced collection across all relevant subject areas

  · To facilitate an equitable distribution of funding across CTC teaching departments

  · To assist in any co-operative development that may occur with other libraries

   

4. Clientele of the library

The library’s primary clientele is the faculty and students of the CTC. As part of a cooperative effort between libraries associated with the Melbourne College of Divinty, staff and postgraduate research students of the MCD have borrowing rights. As CTC is affiliated with Australian Catholic University and Monash University, formal reciprocal borrowing agreements are in place covering staff and postgraduate students of these institutions.

Reading rights and library services are extended gratis to the general public but a borrowing fee applies.

5. Access to the collection

The library’s opening hours vary from time to time throughout the year, reflecting the academic calendar. The core opening hours are Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm. During teaching semesters, the closing time extends to 8pm. Professional librarians staff the library during core times and are available to assist patrons in using the library resources and provide a reference service.

Access to the book collection is via a computer-based catalogue using Dynix library managament software. All items acquired since 1995 are catalogued on the computer system only. All items in the Dewey Decimal Classification range 001-320 (covering philosophy, scripture, theology, liturgy, eccesiastical history and religion in general) have been retrospectively catalogued onto the computer system. Some older material may be accessible only by the card catalogue (closed in 1995) but as this material is borrowed, it is added to the computer catalogue.

The computer catalogue is accessible on the Internet.

Access to the serials collection is facilitated by indexes – principally the Catholic Periodical and Literature Index and the Australasian Religion Index.

The library lends items via the Australian inter-library lending scheme. To facilitate the location of holdings, the library contributes records to both the National Bibliographic Database and AULOTS (a union list of serials holdings in theological collections).

6. Description of the collection

The library collection is made up of approximately 90,000 monographs and 20,000 bound volumes of serials. Approximately 800 monographs are added to the collection each year and there are 211 current serial subscriptions.

The areas of focus in the collection reflect the ordination course requirements for the Catholic Church. Beyond this primary purpose, the library aims to develop and maintain a wider collection of materials that reflect the Christian (especially Catholic) religious, intellectual and historical tradition. The collection is predominently English language.

The physical collection is divided into a reference collection, reserve collections for each teaching semester, serials collection and the main monograph collection. There is little non-book material in the collection although publications on or including CD-ROM disks are becoming more common and a separate multi-media collection is developing.

Books are catalogued using a modified Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme and Library of Congress Subject Headings. Current serial issues are on display shelves with bound retrospective volumes shelved in alphabetical sequence by title.

Internet and third-party email services are available to patrons via workstations in the library.

The library has 60 individual study carrels and a reference area which seats 10.

7. Budget

Nett library expenditure in the 2004 financial year was $320,000. Of this, approximately $71,000 was spent on the acquisition and processing of library resources (41,000 on books ; 24,000 on serials).

Expenditure on monographs is recorded and monitored on the basis of subject area.This breakdown is used as a means of promoting the collection of resources across the various disciplines. The budget is not definitively broken down beyond monographs and serials.

As building, infrastructure and insurance costs increase, pressure will be brought to bear on the book vote. At the same time, the advent of more and more electronic resources may well mean that costs related to providing a library and information service will increase.

8. Selection of Material

Although there will be an emphasis on the Catholic tradition within Christianity, selection of material to be added to the library collection is not based solely on ideological or confessional criteria.

Actual selection of monographs to be acquired by the Library is the responsibility of CTC and JP2 (and CAEM) academic staff. Staff members act as subject specialists in their respective areas of expertise, requesting the Library to acquire materials to develop and balance the collection in their subject area. Professional library staff may draw to the attention of the relevant staff members materials that may be suitable for inclusion in the collection.

While recommendations may be made by staff members on the basis of information received through the mail, as a result of their research needs or recommendation by colleagues, they should ideally be based on scholarly reviews.

The professional library staff may make recommendations to academic staff concerning the serials subscripions.

The library accepts donations of books and serials. Donated items may be added to the library’s own collection, offered to other libraries as donations, sold or discarded. Donations are not normally accepted if there are restrictions on their use or location.

9. Special collections

The library holds approximately 225 items that fall under the National Library of Australia’s heading "early imprint" (ie. pre-1800) and 300 items classified as "rare". The library also holds a number of books that constitute a ‘Hibernica" collection although these have yet to be catalogued.

The library does not seek to develop or increase its "special" collections.

10. Limitations

The major limitation on the library is financial. Generally, the library buys print media in English at undergraduate level. Acquisition of items outside the scope of CTC course units is limited to that which is specifically Catholic and is unlikely to be purchased for any other collection in Melbourne.

11. Cooperative relationships with other libraries

As a result of the formal affiliation of Catholic Theological College with Monash University and the Australian Catholic University, reciprocal borrowing rights exist for certain categories of borrowers from those institutions. Similiarly, through CTC’s relationship with the Melbourne College of Divinity, borrowing rights are extended to MCD staff and postgraduate students.

St Mary’s Seminary (the formation house for the Oblates of Maru Immaculate) in Mulgrave is a member college of the Catholic Theological College. On this basis, its library is available to students of CTC. Some out of print material is borrowed from the St Mary’s library to supplement the Reserve Collection for a particular CTC unit.

No formal cooperative collection development scheme is in place with any other library in terms of evaluating items for purchase.

12. Preservation activity

Monographs are usually purchased in paperback and covered as part of the initial processing. Hardback and paperback monographs in need of repair are are bound as they are identified.

All completed volumes of scholarly journals are bound (usually in annual volumes).

In general, the storage conditions for the library collection are good. Air-conditioning is adequate and ensures reasonable temperature and humidity ranges. Conditions in the compactus storage area could be improved. The lack of ceiling between the compactus shelving and the air-conditioning plant may create a problem with dust in the future.

13. Weeding

Weeding is not a priority for the library. Storage space is not an issue for the forseeable future and therefore no formal weeding programe is envisaged. In the interests of historical research, it is unlikely that the last copy of any title will be discarded. If and when space does become a problem, there is a significant amount of material that falls outside the library’s principal subject areas that could be discarded.

14. Review of the collection development policy

This policy statement is intended to be flexible and allow some discretion in its implementation. Aims are broadly stated in the expectation that the library staff in consultation with the CTC academic staff will be able to acquire and make accessible library resources and sevices that are commensurate with the College’s mission.