The AACP Basic Resources for Pharmacy Education is produced as a guide for those who manage library collections that serve colleges of pharmacy. This list contains recommendations for works to be included in pharmacy library collections. The books and other works recommended in the Basic Resources are suitable for all pharmacy college libraries, but all pharmacy college libraries need not purchase every title in the list. Each pharmacy college has its own mission and its own program(s), and so each college’s library collection must reflect that mission and support the college’s program(s). Excellent library collections are built by knowledgeable librarians using their professional judgment along with the expertise of the college’s faculty. Basic Resources, therefore, should not be used as a benchmark and is not prescriptive, but is instead a starting place for librarians who are building a new collection or maintaining an established one.
Producing Basic Resources is a community effort. Each subject section is reviewed every three years by a contributor who makes suggestions for additions and deletions. Then, the editors compile the recommended additions and deletions for that review cycle and an advisory panel of pharmacy librarians and faculty members vote on the suggested changes. Approved changes are subsequently incorporated into the list’s database. There are two review cycles each year so that two sets of sections are reviewed during the course of one year. Our goal is to review the entire list every three years and to publish Basic Resources semiannually.