The Newark Museum

Library and Archives

Collection Development Policy

I. Mission:

The main purpose of the Library and the Archives of The Newark Museum is to meet the research needs of the professional staff of The Newark Museum. This staff includes the art curators, the scientists, the educators, the exhibition staff, and the administrative staff. The Library and the Archives also serves the docents, volunteers, and members of The Newark Museum. Secondarily, the Library and the Archives is open to the general public, by appointment only, particularly to serious researchers, university professors, graduate students, and undergraduates.

II. Scope of Collection:

The Library and the Archives collects in the areas where the Museum’s collections are strong, and in the areas of curatorial and scientific expertise. These areas correspond to the Museum’s departments, which include: American Art; the Decorative Arts; Asian Art; the Arts of Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific; Classical Cultures; Numismatics; as well as the Natural Sciences, the Mini-Zoo, and the Planetarium; and last, but not least, Education.

III. Subject Areas:

The primary subject areas in which the Library and the Archives collects are:

American art, including painting, sculpture, and works on paper;

Decorative arts, both American and European;

Asian art, especially Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Tibetan;

Arts of Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific;

Classical cultures, including Egyptian, Greek, Coptic, and Roman art;

Numismatics;

Natural sciences, including geology, botany, zoology, and astronomy;

Museum education;

History of The Newark Museum, especially its founder, John Cotton Dana,

and his early supporters.

Of secondary importance are the following areas:

Art education;

Science education;

History of Newark and New Jersey;

Museology.

And lastly, of tertiary interest are the following areas:

European painting and sculpture;

History of the United States.

IV. Collection Levels:

The above-mentioned subject areas correspond to the following levels of collecting: the primary areas are collected at the research level, i.e. a collection that includes the major published source materials required for independent research; the secondary areas are collected at the instructional support level, i.e. a collection that is adequate to impart and maintain knowledge about a subject in a systematic way; and the tertiary areas are collected at the basic information level, i.e. a selective collection of materials that serves to introduce and define a subject and to indicate the varieties of information available elsewhere.

V. General Guidelines for Selection:

The Library and the Archives relies heavily upon the expertise of the curators, scientists, and educators in determining what to acquire. It also uses published reviews from scholarly journals and newsletters of professional organizations. Maintaining currency in the areas relating to the Museum’s collections is the top priority, but the Library and the Archives also acquires materials in anticipation of future exhibitions and programs. The basic criteria for acquisitions are as follows: 1) relevance to the mission of The Newark Museum; 2) relevance to the mission of the Library and the Archives; 3) appropriateness to the subject areas of the Museum’s departments; 4) appropriateness to the secondary and tertiary subject areas as outlined above; and 5) potential usefulness to the professional staff and the other users of the Library and the Archives. The Library and the Archives acquires materials through purchase, exchange, and donations.

VI. Types of Materials:

The Library and the Archives will acquire materials in a variety of different formats. For the Library, it will acquire monographs, exhibition catalogs, handbooks of museum and private collections, conference proceedings, dictionaries, directories, indexes and abstracts, auction catalogs, and periodicals. Rare books may also be acquired, usually through gifts or donations, but also upon the recommendation of the curators, if they fall within the primary subject areas of the Library. All reasonable attempts will be made to preserve them and to safeguard them for future use. This will include providing for their security. Ephemeral materials, such as pamphlets, newspaper clippings, press releases, publicity announcements, especially in regards to artists and exhibitions, will be added to the vertical file, whenever appropriate or useful. Whenever possible, the Library will attem