The University of the West library commits itself to the education of the whole person as reflected in the university’s mission statement. In accordance with the mission of the university, the goal of the library is to provide access to information resources and services essential for the university’s academic programs and community.
The purpose of this Collection Development Policy is to provide guidelines for acquisition, maintenance, and evaluation of library information resources for UWest. The guidelines established in this policy provide a systematic method of developing the library's collection of materials. It also serves as a statement of the library's collection development policy for library patrons.
I. Overview of Collections
The library’s collection is essential in supporting the current and prospective programs offered by UWest. Collection strengths include subjects covered in the core curriculum, such as Buddhist studies, Comparative religious studies, Business administration, Psychology, and English. Materials that support the academic components of general education are also collection priorities; these would include subjects in areas of humanities, sciences, and social sciences. In addition, resources also provided for the informational needs of faculty, students, and staff.
II. Selection and Acquisition
A. Responsibility
The library director has the responsibility for conducting the collection development process and coordinating the work of collection development.
Each department is responsible for submitting the bibliography of its course outlines for departmental course offerings to the Academic Policy and Curriculum Committee (APCC) meeting for approval. In the bibliography, the faculty will identify the appropriate print, electronic, and media materials recommended for purchasing to fulfill the needs of the course. The library will purchase the materials once the course outlines are approved. This is a cooperative venture of the faculty members and library staff in developing the library collection.
Department Chairs/Coordinators will be asked to serve as the library liaison for their departments. Faculty may send their recommendations to department chairs. The library liaisons will also work with the library director in assessing and enhancing the library's resources in their respective departments. The library director will be responsible for collecting materials in the general and interdisciplinary subjects.
B. Selection Criteria
Criteria are developed as a means of comparing relevancy for the teaching and research needs of faculty and students. Print, non-print, and electronic resources will be selected and acquired according to criteria as follows:
1. Overall:
• Importance of the material in relation to the curriculum and academic research;
• Currency and accuracy of contents;
• Timeliness and importance of information;
• Recommendation in standard reviewing sources;
• Price;
• Availability;
• Duplicates - Generally only one copy of any library item is acquired for the collection. Duplicate copies of library materials may be acquired if there is a possibility of heavy use. Duplicate copies of the materials received as a gift will be added to the collection if warranted by usage;
• Out of print items - The library will attempt to acquire the out-of-print materials if those materials provide a unique coverage of a topic related to current instruction and coverage is not available in other sources.
2. Textbooks:
The library does not usually purchase textbooks. Exceptions are made if the textbook is recognized as a reference or will meet the need of a specific collection. Textbooks received as a gift are sometimes added to the collection.
3. Periodicals:
Periodicals are acquired in both paper and electronic format depending on use and availability. The selection of periodicals should reflect the subject area of research need.
4. Theses and Dissertations:
Two copies of each UWest thesis or dissertation will be bound, cataloged and retained. One copy will be kept in the Archival Collection and one will be shelved in the Theses collection. Non-UWest theses and dissertations which have been purchased or given will be cataloged and added to Theses collection.
5. Media Items:
Audio-visual materials may be added to the library's collection upon request by a faculty member or based on special interest. The format of these materials is as follows: videotapes, videodiscs, audiocassettes, and compact discs.
6. Archival Materials:
The library’s archival collection includes: Video/audio tape copies of the university’s distance learning courses and other important events, the university’s newsletters, catalogs, WASC documents, and theses & dissertations.
7. Special Collections:
The materials in special collections would generally be those items where the subject matter or significance is relevant to the mission of the university. Additionally, out of print items whose age or physical condition warrant special treatment also falls under this category. Current special collections include: Fo Guang Studies, Dunhuang manuscript, Chinese rare books, and manuscript from other languages.
8. Electronic Resources:
Materials available electronically include electronic books and journals, online indexes, full-text databases, and other information items available through the internet. Materials in these formats are subjected to the same scrutiny as other materials added to the collection. The selection of an electronic source should reflect the subject area of research needs. Stability and accessibility of the resource will be a primary consideration. Links are prepared on the library website to lead students to basic reference works and resources related to specific subjects and courses offered by the university. Quality control of content and proper updating will proceed on a periodic basis to ensure relevancy and usefulness for the current programs. Specific criteria for selection of electronic access acquisition are:
• Guaranteed ownership in perpetuity;
• Full-text contents;
• Low or no cost annual hosting fees;
• Availability of remote access via IP authentication;
• Easy-use interface;
• Multiple simultaneous users;
• Ability to download and read offline;
• Availability of usage statistics.
III. Replacement
Library materials are identified as missing either in the inventory process or in the non-return status. Missing materials will be replaced as follows:
• Materials not located after one year will be considered for replacement;
• If the lost material is a heavily used item currently needed for instruction or research, the replacement will be made as soon as possible;
• The item to be replaced will be evaluated by using the library's selection and acquisition criteria stated above.
IV. Weeding
Systematic removal of library materials no longer useful is an essential task of collection development process. Materials that have been weeded out may be transferred to storage, donated to other libraries, sold at a book sale, or discarded. Criteria for weeding materials may include:
• Poor physical condition;
• Infrequent amount of use;
• Not relevant to current curriculum;
• Duplicate materials;
• Superseded editions;
• Antiquated materials;
• Library space constraints;
• Specific guidelines for collection development in that subject area.
V. Interlibrary Loan Service
Realizing that no library can provide all the materials that might be needed for research, UWest library participates in cooperative lending programs with other regional, state, and national libraries and library consortia. Through interlibrary loan, the library is able to make available to its users materials not found in its collection. Reciprocal borrowing agreements will be established and maintained with area libraries, allowing our faculty and students the use of those libraries.
VI. Other Considerations
The UWest library is concerned with the freedom of all members of a democratic society to read, hear, and see what they will in the course of making the social, educational, and political judgments on which that society is based. In view of this freedom, this collection development policy incorporates the principles expressed in the American Library Association's "Library Bill of Rights."
