It’s nearly time for Doody’s Core Titles 2024 to publish and our team is excited to bring the newest edition of this critical collection development tool to health sciences libraries worldwide. 

For those who are new to us, our annual Doody’s Core Titles (DCT) list comprises the most distinguished and important book titles in over 120 health sciences specialties. Title selection occurs annually, is adjudicated by Content Specialists and Librarian Selectors, and involves a rigorous scoring process based on collection development criteria. If you’d like to learn more, I recommend reading our brief DCT history. 

At Doody’s, we celebrate DCT as the successor to the Brandon/Hill Selected Lists, which have a decorated history in the health sciences library community. As such, titles selected for DCT are not the “best” titles published in a given year. Rather, they represent essential knowledge in each specialty. Each year, roughly 30% of the overall list changes, largely due to new editions of essential texts. However, a sizeable amount of change is due to new books or books that cover knowledge that time has deemed essential for health professionals.  

The integral role librarians have historically played and continue to play in its production cements DCT as a librarian’s tool. As the professional landscape for health sciences librarians changes, so too must their tools. With that in mind, we’re excited to share some changes to Doody’s Core Titles 2024 that will continue to keep it the vital tool it has become: 

• An enhanced scoring process: This year, our Librarian Selectors have been tasked with evaluating titles through an updated scoring procedure aimed at sharpening the focus on each title’s worthiness to be purchased. While this does mean that titles will have a higher threshold for inclusion, it also means greater reliability, greater insights, and greater potential for collections impact. 
• A living taxonomy: For the first time since its inception in 2004, the DCT taxonomy has been updated to reflect new specialty areas (e.g., Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Veterinary Nursing & Technology) and updated terminology. This is the first step in keeping each annual DCT edition dynamic, refreshing, and impactful.  
• A new way to search: Coming shortly after DCT 2024 is published, our subscribers will gain access to a beta version of our newest way to query Doody’s book data powered by artificial intelligence. In a scholarly publishing landscape that hotly debates AI’s demanding presence, we are excited to leverage this new technology to create unique and exciting encounters with our proprietary dataset. 

And while it’s thrilling to think about the ways DCT has and will continue to evolve, it’s important to take stock of the elements that have made it a mainstay in the health information landscape for two decades and won’t be changing any time soon: collaborative insights from health professionals and librarians, a selection and scoring process that fosters objectivity, a divested interest in the sale of any chosen titles, and a commitment to making the collection development work of health sciences librarians more effective and efficient.  

As this update goes live, dozens of librarians around the world are diligently scoring books for DCT 2024, which publishes on April 23. On behalf of the entire Doody’s team, I’d like to take this opportunity to celebrate and thank these incredible professionals whose time, expertise, and energy on this project is an honor that, now working on my fifth edition of DCT, never loses its luster. Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

This article was written by Tim Butzen, Chief Operating Officer of Doody Enterprises. 

More DCT-related content: 

• Pre-order Doody’s Core Titles 2024 
• Learn more about becoming a Librarian Selector 
• Learn more about our Librarian Selectors 
• Learn more about our Content Specialists