Collection Development Practices - Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), Dudley Knox Library - Dudley Knox Library
Collection Development Policies
We support teaching, learning, and the research needs of NPS students and faculty with books, journals, and other formats as well as digital resources including online journals, ebooks, databases, and reference & instructional materials.
Our Collections
We collect scholarly content in all formats on subjects that support the current curriculum, instructional and research needs of the Naval Postgraduate School. We are not a historical collection and do not seek out archival materials except for those associated with Naval Postgraduate School and its predecessors, including the Hotel Del Monte.
General Collection
The four schools are given the highest level of coverage, followed by the needs of the institutes, and centers. Most annual library funds are spent on online journal and database subscriptions. Books and other materials are purchased upon request of students and faculty for general use and Course Reserves. We do not purchase textbooks.
The primary areas of instruction and research include:
- engineering (all except civil and aerospace)
- mathematics
- combat systems
- electronic warfare
- information systems & operations
- meteorology & oceanography
- national security & intelligence
- homeland defense & security
- operations research
- space systems
- information warfare
- command, control, communications
- computers and intelligence [C4I]
- special operations
- undersea warfare
- business (including acquisition, financial management, logistics, manpower, etc.)
- physics
- computer science
- modeling & simulation
- aeronautics & astronautics
The geographic areas covered in the collection are very broad. Although the majority of the collection is comprised of publications from the United States and Europe, we seek materials from any country containing content that supports the school’s teaching and research demands, and as appropriate, will include some foreign language materials. To meet the professional military education needs of all our students – who come from all service branches as well as other countries -- we collect relevant materials from all US DOD organizations as well as from the Defense agencies of other countries.
We also collect in the areas of military, naval and maritime history. The core of our collection in these areas is the Buckley Collection.
Federal Depository
We serve as the federal depository for Congressional District 17. Through this designation, we receive free copies of material published by the Government Printing Office with the condition that they will be made freely available to the general public. We elect to receive materials primarily from the following agencies: Commerce, Congress, Defense, General Accounting Office, NASA, OMB, presidential materials, and the State Department.
Calhoun: The NPS Institutional Archive
Calhoun is the institutional archive (repository) for the Naval Postgraduate School. Calhoun offers publicly accessible NPS theses, dissertations, technical reports, faculty/researcher publications and more. Content is indexed by search engines such as Google Scholar. Digitized content spans a period from school's earliest days to the present. Learn more about the NPS Archive: Calhoun collection policies.
Restricted Collection
Find restricted NPS theses, dissertations, reports, and more. Learn more about Restricted Resources.
Search Restricted Collection
or request an account
Special Collections & Archives
Our archival collections focus on the history of the Naval Postgraduate School and two Navy commands that utilized the hotel on an emergency basis during World War II: the Del Monte Pre-Flight School and the Naval Training School, Del Monte, as well as the history of the landmark Hotel Del Monte. Special Collections & Archives also has some specialized holdings such as the Yangtze River Patrol Collection and Buckley Collection of rare books on naval and military history. Digitization initiatives are ongoing. Learn more about our Special Collections & Archives, including links to digitized materials from our collections.
Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL)
The nation's premier collection of documents related to homeland security policy, strategy, and organizational management. Learn more about the HSDL.
Removing Materials
Under certain circumstances, public access to materials may be terminated. Reasons for doing so include but are not limited to:
- Usage: Is the item frequently or recently used?
- Uniqueness: Is the item widely held or is DKL the only library holding the item?
- Research value: Does the item have intrinsic value and/or does it support current research or educational needs?
- Edition/Condition: Is the item dated, superseded, or damaged beyond repair? (Should it be replaced?)
- Distribution: Item clearly violates U.S.. law (e.g.., copyright law)
- National security concern: Continued public distribution would constitute harm to national security.
- Classification: Removed from public access if item contains information that has been deemed "classified."
- Distribution: Removed if item is barred, or contains information that is barred, from public distribution by the Naval Postgraduate School, the Department of Defense or another Government organization.
- Integrity: Item deemed to not meet the NPS guidelines for plagiarism, research methodology or integrity of research.
- PII: Item removed if it contains Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or other Privacy Act data, as determined by the NPS Director of Cybersecurity and Privacy/DON-CIO Privacy Team.
Materials falling into any of these categories may be brought to our attention to be considered for removal from public access by contacting us.
Additional note about the removal of items from Calhoun, the NPS Institutional Archive. In order to preserve the historical record for items archived in Calhoun, withdrawals will be noted in the publicly viewable record with a "tombstone" that reads:
|
You have reached the record for an item that has been removed. |
By far the most common reason for a withdrawal is administrative: we try to avoid adding duplicate items. Because any record in Calhoun that has existed at some time may have been cited, this "tombstone" record will stand for the removed record so visitors do not reach a broken link.
Gifts
We welcome your offer of a gift and will consider the offer according to our collection development policy and needs. We will not consider gifts that are in poor physical condition unless they are classics in specific research fields or in the area of naval or military history.
Gifts will only be considered with no restrictions or promises of immediate or future disposition. We can only acknowledge the number of items donated and we cannot legally provide an appraisal or estimate of the value.
Donors considering offering a gift to the Naval Postgraduate School should provide an inventory and value/appraisal with their completed Deed of Gift form. The offer will be forwarded to the appropriate Navy accepting official (NPS President is authorized to accept or reject gifts up to $12,000; Chief of Naval Operations is authorized to accept or reject gifts above $12,000).
- Collection Development Coordinator (831) 656-3500 or
- University Librarian (831) 656-2343
Contact Us
| Collection Development Coordinator | |
| (831) 656-3500 | |
| gmarlatt@nps.edu | |
| Floor Map | |