Collection Development Statement
Nutritional Sciences

Written by Irwin Weintraub
Agriculture Resource Librarian
Library of Science and Medicine
November, 1994
Revised August, 1995
Approved

A. SYSTEMWIDE SUBJECT OVERVIEW

A 1. Type and Level of Program Supported

Nutrition BS, MS, PhD
Dietetics BS
Food Service Administration BS

A.2. Selectors

Agriculture Resource Librarian at the Library of Science and Medicine on Busch Campus. The Nutrition Department is located at Cook Campus but other disciplines at Busch Campus such as medicine, pharmacy, food science, and biology also offer in nutrition options. The selectors for these disciplines also add relevant material to the nutrition collection when appropriate.

The Medical Resource Librarian selects resources covering the relationship between health and nutrition. The psychology selector adds material on eating disorders and the chemistry selector adds food science and nutrition resources which have a chemical component such as toxins in food, nutritional chemistry, enzymes, minerals, etc.

A.3. Purpose

The nutrition program at Rutgers covers a range of courses and faculty from nutrition, chemistry, animal sciences, food science and home economics. The diversified program offers options in nutrition and health, nutrition and aging, nutrient metabolism, animal nutrition and problems of nutrition.

The undergraduate nutrition program offers students three options:

1. Nutrition option emphasizes research and prepares students for graduate study in the life sciences and medical, dental, and veterinary studies, as well as for immediate employment in the biomedical industry.

2. Dietetics option leads to work in the food industry and positions in cooperative extension, nutrition education, nutrition counseling or clinical research.

3. 3. Food Service Administration option emphasizes the managerial aspects of food service operation. After graduation students obtain employment in food service marketing, managing food services in institutions and child or long term care facilities.

The graduate program in nutrition is supervised by faculty from the departments of nutritional sciences, animal sciences, food science, the College of Pharmacy and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). Students may specialize in nutritional biochemistry, mineral metabolism, protein and amino acid metabolism, lipids and atherosclerosis, mineral and vitamin utilization, gastrointestinal absorption, and applied and developmental nutrition. Students are expected to have undergraduate courses in biological sciences, chemistry, physics and mathematics.

A preprofessional program is offered by the Departments of Chemistry and Home Economics for those interested in advanced courses with less depth than those offered to majors in nutrition and food science. The program is divided between liberal arts courses and basic studies in chemistry, nutrition and food science.

The Department of Human Ecology offers studies in human nutrition with emphasis on the relationships of nutrition to human behavior at individual and societal levels. This option is offered in cooperation with the Department of Nutrition. Health and nutrition are studied as social, behavioral, cultural and biological phenomena. It is designed to provide preparation for graduate study in disciplinary and interdisciplinary programs concerned with behavioral aspects of nutrition for careers in governmental and international agencies and industry.

The Animal Science Department offers study in nutrition of ruminant and nonruminant animals covering the adequacy of feedstuffs as related to nutrient requirements and the utilization, digestion and metabolism for production of animal products. Current research in protein, carbohydrate, lipid, mineral and vitamin metabolism are reviewed and discussed in graduate courses.

Wide ranging research programs are carried out by faculty and students independently and in cooperation with the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station in production agriculture and aquaculture, human health and nutrition, and environmental and natural resources management. It operates a comprehensive program of short courses and symposia for a broad and diverse clientele. Research centers are being developed for additional research and development. These include: Center for Advanced Food Technology, Center for Agricultural Molecular Biology, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Center for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Center for Food and Nutrition. Research in nutrition is designed to coordinate human nutrition, toxicology and food science. Current projects deal with metabolic processes, nutrition and health, fats and fatty acids, and nutrition and cancer.

The nutrition collection is designed to support instructional needs and research agendas of the Department of Nutrition. Nutrition does not stand alone as a discipline. It is built upon a variety of other disciplines which contribute to its theories and policies and it is imperative that nutrition be handled in a broad manner to reflect those disciplines. The acquisition of materials for a nutrition collection should be broad based covering biological, biochemical, physiological, clinical, behavioral, sociological, and psychological aspects of human and animal nutrition.

A.4. Resource Sharing Arrangements : No Special Arrangements

A.5. History

Collection development in nutrition is the responsibility of the Agriculture Resource Librarian at Library of Science and Medicine. In the past, Douglass Library collected materials covering fundamental and introductory works to serve the nutrition undergraduates. A small collection still exists at Douglass but the bulk of materials in nutritional sciences for instruction and research are housed at LSM.

A.6. Location of materials

Library resources covered in this policy are located at the Library of Science and Medicine.

B.COLLECTION GUIDELINES

B.1. Language Guidelines

Most of the nutrition collection at LSM is in English and published in North America and Europe. Seminal or classical works in other languages will be added selectively when requested by faculty or considered relevant to the Nutrition Department needs.

B.2. Chronological Guidelines

The collection contains a wide range of materials covering older materials dealing with early theories of nutrition and current materials covering modern theories. This enables users to observe the changes in nutrition as the discipline grows. Emphasis is placed upon acquiring the most current information reflecting the latest theories or research findings in this rapidly changing field.

B.3. Geographical Guidelines

Materials published mainly in English from all countries are included in the collection. Periodicals, conference proceedings, special reports and other resources dealing with current trends and research in nutrition are included.

B.4. - B.5. Treatment of Subject and Types of Material

Definition

Nutrition is the science of nourishing living systems. Specifically, it is the science of food, the nutrients and other substances and the action, interaction and balance in relation to health and disease. The purpose of food is to generate energy for growth, to supply reducing agents that help make enzymes, to carry out cellular functions, and to provide materials for cell building. Nutrients are constituents of food that are supplied to the body. These include water, proteins, amino acids, fats, fatty acids, carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins.

Nutrition science studies the processes by which an organism ingests, digests, absorbs, transports, utilizes, and excretes food substances. Nutritionists are concerned with four main areas:

1. The changes that occur in food from the time of ingestion.
2. Incorporation into body tissues.
3. Participation in biological reactions.
4. Excretion from the body.

Patterns of eating in human nutrition are based upon three broad needs:

1. Biological needs - Amounts and kinds of food needed to sustain physical life.
2. Psychological needs - Use of food to provide emotional satisfaction.
3. Social needs - Contributions that food makes to the relationships between people.

Animal nutrition is concerned with the feeding of animals for production of meat, milk, eggs, fiber and activity. Applied animal nutrition is concerned with formulation of diets, rations and supplemental feeds for different species in various situations, observation of deficiency signs and symptoms and metabolism of nutrients. Most animal nutritionists specialize in either monogastric (simple stomached) animals or ruminant (multicompartment stomached) animals. Monogastric animals include poultry, swine, horses, pets, fish, aquatic species, laboratory animals or captive animals in zoos. Ruminants include sheep, goats, cattle, buffalo, deer and other wild or captive species.

Nutritionists must be knowledgeable about the function, occurrence and interaction of nutrients, management and behavior of organisms, digestive physiology, biochemistry, analytical chemistry, endocrinology, bacteriology, genetics, disease, and crop and soil sciences.

Collection Responsibilities

Human and animal nutrition are the focus of this policy. Plant and insect nutrition are components of the agriculture and biological sciences policies.

LSM will acquire works which reflect the wide variation of theories and processes that occur from the time of ingestion to the completion of excretion. Materials should be obtained which cover both the traditional philosophies of nutrition and the alternative philosophies which challenge or replace the traditional ones. These alternative philosophies include works on nutrition and health and the role of organic and natural foods, irradiated foods, synthetic diets, reducing diets, and other areas in which nutrition and health are linked.

The resources acquired for LSM should consist of scientific or technical publications that provide the kind of information needed to present students with a level of knowledge suitable for research and further study in human and animal nutrition. Basic monographs and selected textbooks, abstracts and indexes, and core serials are essential for this purpose. Access to the appropriate computer based and CD ROM databases would provide additional instructional support. The above resources are necessary for a comprehensive approach to the discipline of nutrition and an understanding of its complexity.

Research materials will be acquired to support dissertation preparation and independent research. This will include reports of original research, specialized monographs, publications of learned societies, conference and symposia proceedings and an array of periodicals which enable faculty and graduate students to gain the widest possible access to the research literature of nutrition and its related disciplines.

Encyclopedias, dictionaries, glossaries, bibliographies and directories are needed for both instructional and research levels to provide basic facts and data which will supplement the users' existing knowledge. Abstracts and indexes covering world literature in animal and human nutrition will be acquired in either print or electronic format to enable users to scan the literature of nutrition and examine the materials of interest to their needs. The essential abstracts and indexes providing the widest possible nutrition coverage may include: Nutrition Abstracts and Reviews, Bibliography of Agriculture, Biological Abstracts, Food Science and Technology Abstracts, Biological and Agricultural Index and others. These should be available in print or electronic formats for patrons seeking nutrition related literature.

Criteria for inclusion/exclusion

Future acquisitions should reflect the changes in conventional and alternative theories of nutrition. Much has been published lately about the relationships between nutrition and health and particularly, the relationships of particular nutrients, vitamins, minerals and other food ingredients and their roles in health and disease. Thus, works covering nutrition and its role in obesity, eating disorders, diet therapy, exercise, and mental and physical health will be acquired. Some of the controversies facing the discipline today include the role of pesticides and other chemicals in food, irradiation, biotechnology, bovine and ovine somatotropin, antibiotics, fat, cholesterol, etc. Works on these issues are necessary acquisitions in order to offer the widest possible coverage of new knowledge and diversity of ideas in nutrition.

The history of nutrition covers works on the trends in eating patterns over time and among cultures. These publications are important in helping readers understand how eating practices emerged in various cultures and their influence on eating practices around the world. Such works will be selectively acquired by the history of science selector.

Cookbooks which provide recipes for standard or exotic dishes are not needed for the LSM collection. Those which provide information on cooking special diets related to health may be acquired selectively. Related materials such as the science of cookery and the equipment and machinery used in cookery will be acquired only if relevant to a particular instruction or research program such as food service administration.

B.6. Strengths and Weaknesses

The nutrition collection at LSM is moderate to strong in all areas of nutrition. It ranges from the older materials going back two or three decades to the more recent materials now being added. Current works on the role of nutrition in health and disease will be added when available. Topics such as obesity, vegetarianism, meats and meat products and other aspects of applied nutrition are weak. Materials in these areas will be added to bring the collection up to date. More materials are needed on the physiology and metabolism of animal nutrition. The bulk of works acquired in this area deal mainly with feeds and feeding of domestic animals. They inform readers about procedures, ration formulation, and nutrient composition. More works are needed for readers interested in the physiology of nutrition and the mechanisms of digestion and metabolism of feedstuffs in animals.

The periodical collection in Nutrition and related materials is strong. Nearly 30 periodicals in nutrition are received covering general, clinical, physiological and biochemical aspects of nutrition. Journals in other disciplines such as biology, chemistry, biochemistry, physiology, and medicine also contain nutrition related articles. Users have access to the full array of these journals as well as the abstracts and indexes that will help them find appropriate articles for their needs. New nutrition journals are added upon request from faculty or students when budgets permit.

NUTRITIONAL SCIENCES COLLECTING LEVELS
LC Class		Subject	Current		Existing
QP141-144		Physiology of nutrition	3		3
QP145-185		Physiology of the digestive tract	3		3
QR115-129		Microbiology of food	3		3
RA784		Nutrition in public health	2		2
RC620-627		Nutritional diseases	3		2
RJ399		Nutritional disorders of children	2		2
RK281		Nutritional aspects of tooth development & disease	2		2
RM214-259		Nutrition and Diet therapy	3		3
TX341-641		Human nutrition. Dietetics. Health and food.	4		3
TX645-819		Cookery and food preparation	2		1
TX820-950		Institutional cookery and food service	2		1