Statistics collection development policy

General scope
Language
Format

Other resources and collections
Collection development policy review for Statistics

Introduction

For Statistics the Library does not aim to have a complete research collection covering the whole of Statistics, but will acquire research material relating to the application of statistical methods in the social sciences. The Library therefore particularly welcomes suggestions from staff for relevant material in this area.

The general policy for Statistics is to provide a working collection to teaching support level. For details of collection levels see in the General Policy Statement: Principles of collection policy.

The policy for developing the collections in Statistics needs to be seen within the context of the complete acquisitions policy. The interdisciplinary nature of the social sciences and its publications means that subject boundaries cannot always be easily determined and described in isolation. Statistics and its applications thus extend also into Mathematics, Operational Research, Sociology, Social Psychology, Economics and other areas. Please refer also to the policy statements for these subjects.

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Selection criteria

General scope

The following is an outline of the subject scope and coverage of collecting policy for Statistics:

Statistical methods
Statistical applications in the social sciences
Social research methodology. Survey design and analysis
Sampling theory and methods
Stochastic processes
Time series analysis
Sequential analysis
Latent structure analysis
Discriminant analysis
Econometrics. Econometric models
Methodology in economics
Economic statistics
Business cycles: economic fluctuations
Foreign exchange: mathematical models
Mathematical statistics, inference
Financial mathematics and statistics
Actuarial statistics
Bayesian statistics
Spatial statistics and spatial methods
Statistics in social history, social indicators
Game theory
Decision theory
Risk theory
Probabilities, distributions
Correlation, regression
Variance

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Language

Material will normally be collected in English, but important works in other European languages may also be collected.

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Format

No distinction is made regarding format of material. The Library will therefore collect relevant material in print, microform, video, electronic format (eg CD-ROM), and provide access to electronic journals and remotely held datasets.

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Other Resources and Collections

The Library actively pursues other means of information provision such as access to electronic resources.

Bibliographic databases.

An example is MathSciNet, the database of the American Mathematical Society, available via the Electronic Library

Electronic journals

Please refer to the Electronic journal section of the Library webpages, where the INGENTA service, for example, offers a number of relevant journals online.

Electronic delivery

The Library participates in LAMDA, an interlibrary loans project which offers rapid electronic delivery of journal articles.

Data sources

The Library is actively engaged in promoting through the Data Librarian the network of national data providers, the main one being the Data Archive (formerly the E.S.R.C. Data Archive), which provide access to a huge amount of socio-economic data from national governments; international organisations as well as academic research data from around the world. Full access is available to DataStream which provides financial and economic information such as Bond data, Stock market indices and Economic indicators. Please refer to the Data Sources page of the Library home page and the Statistical Data page of the Electronic Library.

Other collections

For statistical theory we rely to a large extent on collections elsewhere especially University College, which houses a major collection in mathematical statistics. Researchers are advised to make use of this collection through our collaborative arrangements. We thus avoid expensive duplication within the University of London. The Library is aware that if conditions of institutional collaboration begin to change this situation may no longer be satisfactory and may need to be reviewed.

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Collection Development Policy Review for Statistics

This collection development policy will be reviewed on a regular basis in the light of the following: developments in teaching, the interests of the Department and other departments in the School, and relationships with other libraries with whom collaborative arrangements exist. Such reviews will be conducted in co-operation with the Department of Statistics.

Reviewed 02/05

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