Library Policies

Responsibility for Selection
The Library accepts recommendations for library materials from any user; however, ultimate responsibility for the overall quality and balance of the Library collection rests with the professional librarians. Faculty members are especially encouraged to request Library materials to support their instructional needs, to recommend general items for the Library’s consideration, and to incorporate Library materials and online resources into their courses. Any faculty recommendations for purchase or subscription should consider the needs of distance learning students.

Budget and Measurement

The Library will report annually on its collections (web, audiovisual and print) and will identify the following characteristics of the collection:

• Division supported
• Selector
• Usage
• Support of new College initiatives

Levels of Collecting

• Criteria for Selection

General factors to be taken into account are:

• Curriculum-based needs of students.
• Instructional needs of the faculty.
• Need of existing programs and collections.
• Intellectual content and scholarly worth.
• Cultural enrichment.
• Cultural diversity.
• Out-of-print publications will not be ordered unless they are core requirements of a program or class.
• Cost of the materials versus their potential usage.
• Potential permanency of the materials in the collection.

• Priorities for Selection 
• First priority in selection is given to materials which meet the curriculum and programs of the college.
• Second priority in selection is given to materials which directly support intellectual enrichment.
• After the primary needs have been met, and if budget and space are available, consideration may be given to other desirable materials which will give balance to the collection or meet special interests and recreational reading needs of the students, faculty, and staff, i.e., books on sports, hobbies, travel, and popular fiction.

• Materials We Will Consider
• Contemporary popular fiction (genre) may be purchased as a way to encourage and support literacy and life long learning.
• In addition to purchasing materials directly related to the College's curriculum, the Library may selectively acquire popular materials of general interest. 

• Materials We Will Not Select
• Materials to primarily support professional level research interests of faculty and staff. The Library does seek to meet the needs of faculty professional interests through interlibrary loan and document delivery to the extent possible within policy, budgetary and staffing limits.
• Materials to support courses being taken at other institutions. Library support for those courses should come from the library at the institution where the course is taken.

• Formats to Collect

The Library will develop a collection of resources with materials in a variety of formats. These formats will include, but are not limited to, books, serial publications, audiovisual materials and electronic resources.  The following criteria will influence the choice between print and digital formats:

• Needs of campus-based users vs. online learners
• Price
• Physical space requirements
• Ongoing maintenance costs

All non-book materials will be subject to the same criteria of selection as apply to printed materials.

Interlibrary Loan

The Library will supplement its resources by participating in an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) program.  This program allows for access of resources, from other libraries around the world, including books, audiovisual materials, and other returnable items as well as copies of journal articles, book chapters, excerpts, and other non-returnable items. Frequent interlibrary loans of particular materials will be cause for purchasing those or similar, materials for our library collections. Textbooks will not be available through the  Interlibrary Loan program. The resources of the Library will be utilized first before utilizing interlibrary loan from another library. The professional development of faculty and staff will be supported through the ILL program.

Collection Maintenance

The library collection will provide reliable, up-to-date, and attractive materials.  In subject areas that are controversial, it will assure that a variety of opinions are represented. This evaluation process provides information that can be useful in making decisions regarding purchases and weeding. 

Weeding is the removal of obsolete materials for purposes of discarding, and is an integral part of maintaining the Library collection. Excess copies, seldom-used titles, and badly damaged copies will be removed from the collection at regular intervals. 

The following categories of materials will be considered for weeding from the collection.

• Outdated materials.
• Superseded editions.
• Excessively worn or damaged materials. Items in poor condition, but still valuable in terms of intellectual content will be considered for repair or replacement.
• Multiple copies of monographs which are no longer needed to support the curriculum.
• Textbooks and instructional materials or previous editions of more recent texts.