Collection Policies

The Gene W. Hirschfeld School of Dental Hygiene and Dental Assisting offers programs leading to the degrees of Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene and Master of Science with a major in Dental Hygiene.

The baccalaureate program in Dental Hygiene is designed to prepare men and women as professional dental hygienists, qualified for positions in a variety of health care settings and/or for graduate study in dental hygiene.

The master of science degree is obtained within a multidisciplinary framework that interrelates theory, research, and practical experience. The program integrates dental hygiene with the current and future issues of health care and society. Students may specialize in advanced practice, education, administration/management, research, gerontology, marketing and community health.

The office of Continuing Education offers courses leading to a certificate in Dental Assisting. The Dental Assisting program is designed to prepare qualified individuals for positions as chairside dental assistants, dental laboratory assistants, dental disease-control therapists, and office managers in the dental specialties and general dentistry.

The collection should support the research of faculty and the various subfields that comprise Dental Hygiene and Dental Assisting. There will be an interest in the areas of biology, physiology, pharmacology, education, management, radiology, and psychology.

Collections from Dental Schools may be accessed by interlibrary loan and the world wide web and the library of the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, VA may have some needed material.
 

Language: English will be the primary language of the collection. It would be very unusual to collect in another language except for faculty research material.

Chronological Guidelines: There is no chronological guide for this collection and subject area.

Geographical Guidelines: U.S., Canada, and Great Britain will comprise the majority of the countries of origin of material for this collection with U.S. being foremost.

Treatment of Subject: Material on technique, textbooks, and standards would be useful in this collection.

Types of Material: Serials, monographs, videos, and electronic formats to include cdroms, web sites, and internet sites would serve this collection and new technology should always be review for its usefulness to Dental Hygiene and Assisting.

Date of Publication: Dental Hygiene and Dental Assisting both use current material and seldom will use anything older than the last five years.

Other General Considerations:

• Interdisciplinary Relationships - There will be some interdisciplinary relationship with the departments of Biology, Community Health Professions, Education, Management, Nursing, Psychology, and Sociology.

• The Virtual Library of Virginia project will continue to add electronic materials and the health area will be one of the supported areas. Its collection should be checked on a regular basis for new or improved information useful to this discipline.

• United States Government Publications are increasingly being changed to electronic formats and should regularly be checked for useful information.

• Distance Education -  The Old Dominion University Distance Education Program already is serving the outlying areas with a very few Dental Hygiene classes. All core collection material bought for classes at distant sites should also be held in the ODU Library. Dental Hygiene should be kept in mind when selecting reference materials for the Distance Education core collection. The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) has been added to the VIVA FirstSearch service and can be used by distance education students.

Dental Hygiene
Date: July 1996
Linda Erickson