RIT Home

Directories

Info Center/SIS

I. General Description of the Collection and its Users

The Criminal Justice/Law collection falls generally into the Library of Congress classification "HV6000" (to the end of that schedule division +KF). The HV6000+ section covers criminal justice systems and their administration, as well as criminology theory and practice, both historical and current. Current practice divides into police/law enforcement, private security, adult corrections, and juvenile corrections. Criminal law, criminal judicial procedure, juvenile law, and corrections law fall in the KF's.

The collections includes monographs, pertinent reference sources, and a balanced collection of journals representing professional groups, academic scholarship, and current applied practice. The original collection was based on bibliographies prepared by faculty of SUNY Albany School of Criminal Justice. The law collection includes U.S. & N.Y.S. statutes, regulations and cases along with the city code of Rochester.

The primary users of this collection are the faculty and students of the B.S. professional degree program in Criminal Justice. This program has been offered at RIT since 1973. In addition, College of Business students and faculty make use of the collection to study legal aspects of business.

Besides the "HV" and "KF" collections mentioned above, the program relies heavily on materials in the following areas:

• Sociology
  • marriage, family
  • minorities
  • role of women in society
  • urban problems
• Political Science
  • public policy and the CJ system
  • proposed legislation
  • civil liberties
  • constitutional law
  • court system and procedure
• Psychology
  • abnormal
  • drug abuse
  • behavioral and other therapies
• Economics
  • urban
  • employment policies
  • welfare policies
• History
  • U.S. society and institutions
  • minority groups
• Philosophy/Religion
  • ethics
  • social justice

II. Description of the Programs Served by the Collection

A. Undergraduate Programs - Non-Degree

College of Liberal Arts-Sociology Department

Courses on criminology and juvenile justice are offered as electives through the sociology department.

B. Undergraduate Programs - Degree

College of Liberal Arts - Social Science Division

B.S. in Criminal Justice

The curriculum for the B.S. in Criminal Justice emphasizes the following concentrations:

• Law
• Law Enforcement
• Corrections
• Security
• Criminology

Growing curriculum areas are those dealing with White Collar Crime and Computer Crime, as well as computer applications to the Criminal Justice system.

C. Undergraduate Programs - Degree

College of Business

Core courses in the "legal environment of business" rely heavily on the law collection.

III. Subject and Language Modifiers

A. Geographic Areas

The geographic focus of the collection is primarily on the United States and New York.

Selective examples of practice in Canada, Great Britain, Europe and other countries are acquired for comparative purposes. Monroe County and other local materials are also acquired.

B. Chronological Periods

Emphasis is on current developments and analysis of recent events.

C. Languages

No restrictions. Emphasis is on English-language materials.

IV. Date of Publication

General emphasis for acquisition of new titles is on current publications in all subject areas. Acquisition/retention of material older than ten years is based upon importance of the work to the discipline; usefulness for historical information/perspective; extent of current publishing in the discipline; curriculum needs for new program development; usage of existing material of same age; and physical condition of the material. Retrospective acquisition of serials to meet new program needs will be extremely selective and limited to the past five years. Document delivery will be utilized instead to meet these needs whenever feasible.

V. Treatment of Subject Matter

A. Level of Treatment

Emphasis is on a collection which supports curriculum driven needs of students (primarily undergraduate) and faculty. The special needs of the NTID students are considered where relevant. Major published source material appearing in core collection bibliographies or recommended lists will be included. Pertinent reference sources will also be acquired. Every effort is made to accommodate faculty requests for specific curriculum related titles.

B. Scholarly Works

The law Reference collection consists of U.S. and N.Y.S. laws, regulations, and cases. It also includes the codes of the CIty of Rochester. These are kept current.

C. Manuals of Practice

Acquired selectively to maintain an emphasis on current practice and policies.

D. Textbooks

Textbooks are not routinely acquired unless useful as general surveys or handbooks for a particular area not otherwise represented.

E. Newspapers/Newsletters

Significant publications of professional groups or agencies will be acquired.

F. Government Documents

Government publications are acquired when the content is appropriate to the subject scope of the collection; not maintained separately. The catalogs of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service and the National Institute of Justice will be reviewed for summary reports. U. S. statistical sources concerning criminal justice will be acquired. Pertinent U. S., N. Y., Monroe County, and local agency plans and annual reports will be acquired.

G. Maps/Atlases

Acquired selectively when appropriate for specific representations.

H. Serials

Serials are of importance in this field to keep current on changing practices and implica- tions of the law. Scholarly law journals and law treatises will be acquired selectively , as lawyers, rather than undergraduates, are the intended audience for such works.

I. Other

Pamphlets are selectively acquired if sufficiently important to warrant cataloging; no pamphlet/vertical file is maintained.

J. Multiple Copies

Multiple copies of monographic titles are acquired only when heavy use is anticipated or demonstrated or at the curriculum-based request of a faculty member.

VI. Cooperative Collection Development Arrangements

No contractual cooperative collection development agreements for this discipline have been made between RIT Library and any other library. Students and faculty, however, may make use of the Appellate Law Library in the Hall of Justice in Rochester.

Where faculty and student research needs fall outside the primary undergraduate curriculum- based scope of the onsite collection, access to this information will be provided through traditional, as well as, commercial document delivery services.

VII. Publication Formats

A. Microforms

Journals are routinely retained in microfilm with the exception of titles containing substantial graphical material or mathematical notation. (See Bindery Policy/Procedure-Periodicals)

B. Non-Print Materials

Acquisition of traditional non-print materials (slides, videotapes, video discs, films, sound recordings, slide/tape programs) is very selective and made in consultation with the Media Resource Center Media Specialist, usually at the request of a faculty member. Non-print materials are generally housed in the Media Resource Center.

C. Software and CD-ROM

Indexing and abstracting services and other specialized sources will be acquired in these formats where they meet subject collection criteria, as well as, the Electronic Resources Policy criteria (in process).

VIII. Collection Maintenance

Continuous maintenance of the collection is based upon systematic evaluation of materials in all locations in relationship to curriculum shifts, use statistics, core bibliographies, physical space limitations and the availability of information in alternative formats. Current periodical titles are reviewed annually prior to their renewal. All other areas of the collection should be reviewed every three to five years. The collection maintenance process includes weeding materials no longer relevant to curriculum needs, elimination of superfluous titles where information is duplicated in more current or authoritative sources, and ordering replacement copies of damaged and heavily used items still relevant to curriculum needs.

A. Weeding

1. Not Weeded
Law, regulation, and case materials for the U.S., New York, and Rochester.
2. Duplicates Only Weeded
At least one copy in good condition of standard and classic titles listed in major general bibliographies and special subject lists, such as those prepared by the SUNY Albany School of Criminal Justice, should be retained in the collection.
3. Selective Weeding
   a. Monographs
   In general, criminal justice and law materials should be reviewed every three to five years to remove materials no longer relevant to the curriculum, older materials where sufficient coverage is provided by more contemporary titles, and multiple copies of materials where high use is no longer a factor.
   b. Serials
   1. Indexing and Abstracting Services
      Indexing and abstracting publications need to be available to cover all curriculum-based topics. Publications should only be discarded when equivalent or improved coverage is available through new sources, printed or electronic (i.e. covers approximately same or more pertinent journal titles in the field and/or provides enhanced search capabilities pertinent to our programs).
   2. Scholarly Publications
      Long runs of key scholarly journals in all aspects of criminal justice and law that meet the criteria given in the introduction to this section should be retained indefinitely. Priority for retention should be given to titles accessible through indexing and abstracting services available at RIT Library and titles not available in any other Rochester-area library. Short runs and broken runs should be scrutinized more carefully and retention decisions should be based on the collecting levels assigned in Section IX: Subject Divisions, usage statistics, importance of title to discipline, and alternative availability.
   3. Trade Journals
      Retention of trade journals should be carefully scrutinize. Those that provide, primarily, timely information (industry or organization news, new products, etc.) should be discarded after a period of one to five years. Those that include articles of more lasting value should be considered for longer retention, particularly if they are accessible through indexing and abstracting services available at RIT Library.
   4. Annuals
      Annuals should be subjected to the criteria outlined in the intro- duction to this section and retained indefinitely where appropriate, particularly if they are accessible through indexing and abstracting services available at RIT Library.
4. Current Edition/Year Only Retained
   a. Monographs
   1. Textbooks
   2. Manuals of practice
   3. Career guidance and professional information
   4. Standards and policy guidelines
   b. Serials
   1. Newsletters, calendars, other current awareness services providing timely information about events and activites of organizations and institutions, and employment opportunities.
   2. Membership directories

B. Replacement of Materials

1. Lost or Mutilated

Every effort should be made to replace lost or heavily mutilated titles if they are judged to be of continuing relevance to the collection. When mutilation is confined to a few pages, replacement copies of these pages should be requested through the Information Delivery Service. (See Bindery Policy/Procedure-Periodicals & -Monographs)

2. Gifts

   Gifts which duplicate existing holdings should be used to upgrade the condition of the collection by replacing worn circulating copies with more sound gift copies.

C. Stacks Maintenance

The condition of all materials should be monitored to ensure those in need of repair and rebinding are attended to before they are irreparably damaged.

IX. Subject Divisions

 

	Support Level (see Introduction for key)
A. Criminology Theory	C-1
B. Crimes: White Collar, Computer Crime, etc.	C-1
C. Police/Law Enforcement	C-1
D. Private Security	C-1
E. Corrections (Adult)	C-1
F. Corrections (Juvenile)	C-1
G. Criminal Law	C-1
H. Criminal Procedure	C-1
I. Juvenile Law	C-1
J. Legal Research/Primary Sources	C-1

[rev. 7/94]

Maintained by Sheila Smokey