HISTORY

 

1967 - Books for College Libraries grew out of the collection development initiative for the University of California's New Campuses Program. The program's goal was to create three identical library collections for the new Irvine, Santa Cruz, and San Diego campuses. Drawing upon published library catalogs from Harvard and the University of Michigan, editors Melvin Voight, university librarian, and Joseph Treyez, head of the New Campuses Program, set out to build a new collection of 50,000 core titles. The result became Books for College Libraries, a single-volume resource offering 53,410 hand-selected titles with publication dates prior to 1964.
 
1975 - The second edition of Books for College Libraries was funded by the Council of Library Resources, and for the first time editorial development was led by Choice magazine. 38,651 titles published before early 1973 were included in the six volumes. Seven main subject classifications were covered: Humanities, Language & Literature, History, Social Sciences, Psychology, Science, and Technology.
 
1988 - Thirteen years later, Books for College Libraries (3rd edition) debuted. While still managed by Choice, BCL3 was published without the aid of outside funding. An all-volunteer staff of subject specialists compiled 49,662 titles in the same seven main subject areas (this was approximately 50% of the then-current ACRL recommendation of a minimum library collection of 104,000 titles).
 
2005 - Choice partners with Bowker to develop Resources for College Libraries, a major collaboration of approximately 60 subject editors, 200 bibliographers, and 60 referees vetting all core title selections. Subject areas have expanded to cover interdisciplinary fields, and coverage now includes electronic resources as well as books. In addition to the print volumes, a continually updated online version will be available, and a collection analysis tool using the RCL core list will be offered. RCLweb.net, the online version, will also feature enhanced content and functionality including "Hooks to Holdings" and Choice full-text reviews.
 
November 2006 - Resources for College Libraries is released in both a print and online version (RCLweb.net) as well as for use in the collection analysis tool Bowker’s Book Analysis System. The collaboration between ACRL’s Choice, Bowker, and more than 300 editors and subject specialists brings to fruition an academic core list 62,000 titles strong. The resource covers 58 curriculum-specific subjects and for the first time includes electronic resources and essential websites.