How We Collect

Our collecting process

Collection Development relies on the guidance of our subject specialists, whose deep subject expertise, strong relationships with NYU faculty, students, and scholars, and close connections to subject-based communities guide and ground our decisions about what materials to prioritize for collection. Collection Development works with content providers, publishers, and library colleagues to obtain materials and proactively plan acquisitions. We rely on the expertise of our acquisitions and cataloging teams to make materials available to users.

Collection Development maintains the general collections and prioritizes to meet our growing and changing community needs. We decide where things are kept, for how long, and the format they are in. We keep our collections relevant by revisiting our needs and goals.

Read more about our collection criteria for more information about what we collect and how we make collection decisions.

Our partner organizations

We participate in several organizations that work together to collect, provide and preserve scholarly materials (HathiTrust, EAST, CRL,PALCI). We are interested in collaborating with institutional partners on prospective collecting, purchasing, housing, describing, and preserving resources. We also borrow and lend materials to other institutions outside of these organizational partnerships.

Read more about Collections’ role for more information about our commitments and values.