Library Collection Development Guidelines

Chemeketa Community College is committed to the comprehensive community college philosophy of meeting the educational needs of the community it serves. In this endeavor the college is dedicated to providing opportunities for students. Library resources are selected to support the educational mission of the college.

In accordance with College Policy #4210POL, the library observes the pertinent intellectual property laws.

Guidelines for selection

The following considerations shall apply in selecting material for inclusion in the library:

• Students' need for material to support the curriculum
• Faculty's need for material to support instruction
• Need of students, faculty, and staff for material supporting a variety of professional and academic skills and literacies (e.g., reading, critical thinking, information literacy, quantitative literacy)
• Currency of content, particularly in technical publications
• Quality of content
• Reviews
• Language
• Reputation of author
• Probable demand for material based on use or interlibrary loan requests for similar items
• Reading/content level: The majority of material purchased should be at an introductory or non-specialist level, with more advanced material provided where indicated by the demands of the curriculum or general literacy
• Format, organization and ease of use
• Material already existing in the collection and in collections shared with the library
• Price in relation to other material with similar content and in relation to the library's budget
• For electronic materials technical requirements, licensing, user support, provisions for updates if pertinent), backfiles (if pertinent) and permanence of access should also be considered
• For periodicals the availability of indexing should also be considered
• Although all the above criteria are considered, items purchased need not meet every criterion

Recommendations for purchase

Faculty requests for purchases to support the curriculum will be given high priority.

In accordance with college procedure #4110 PRO, faculty and staff may make requests in writing to library staff. Librarians will review requests and make a decision to purchase based on collection guidelines available funding. If funding is not available, the librarian will notify the requestor. If funding is available, the library will order the item(s) and can notify the requestor when the material is available, if desired.

Students and public users are encouraged to recommend materials for purchase by the library. Such requests will be reviewed according to library selection criteria by the reference librarian who has collection responsibility in that subject area.

Responsibility for collection development

The librarians are primarily responsible for collection development. College faculty and staff may recommend purchase or deselection of materials to support course research or assignments in their program areas. Faculty members, particularly in professional or technical programs, are encouraged to review with librarians the collections supporting their areas.

Individual librarians are assigned responsibility for selection of materials in specific subject areas of the circulating collection. The librarians share responsibilitiy for recommending and coordinating purchase of all materials for the reference collection. 

Final responsibility for the development and management of the collection lies with the Dean of Library & Learning Resources and the Executive Dean of Student Development & Learning Resources.

Selection tools:

The librarians shall purchase materials based on recommendations from reputable review sources, bibliographies of recommended material for subject areas; input from instructors in the relevant subject area; or personal review by librarians, when these resources are available. In some areas, particularly in professional/technical areas, timely reviews of material may not be available and librarians may need to rely on thein reputation of the publisher and or author to guarantee quality.

Types of material:

Printed material includes books, maps, pamphlets, government documents, periodicals, charts, broadsides, and microform copies of the above.

Textbooks for Chemeketa Community College courses are not purchased for the library collection, unless they happen to be selected by the librarians as the standard or best source of information for a given area. Donated textbooks may be added to the collection as appropriate. Chemeketa programs or faculty may place copies of textbooks for student use on reserve in the library.

The library purchases materials for Popular Reading and Adult Literacy collections to support student learning, promote a habit of reading, and to provide relaxation/recreational reading.

Periodicals (scholarly journals, trade and popular magazines, newspapers, etc.) are available in print and/or through full-text periodical databases. Print periodicals are kept according to a retention schedule set by the reference librarians.

With the exception of a Spanish language collection, materials in languages other than English are usually limited to dictionaries and language study. Novels, plays, and poetry may also be available in the original language.

Streaming audio and video files are the preferred media format when available.  Perpetual access to streaming media is preferred.  In cases where perpetual access is not available an option, a limited term access license will be considered.  Programs may be asked to share the cost of media requested by faculty.

Audio-visual materials in physical formats such as DVDs or CDs may be purchased with library funds and will circulate outside of the library and be available for consortial borrowing and interlibrary loan to the extent that copyright and/or the publisher allow. Changing loan periods or the circulation status of library-purchased audio-visual materials is at the discretion of library staff.

The guidelines for selection listed above will apply to audio-visual materials purchased with library funds. In addition, librarians will consider anticipated or demonstrated interest beyond the classroom, consortial interest and availability, and advantageous purchasing opportunities.

Electronic materials, including electronic databases and e-books, may be purchased individually or consortially. If possible, the library should purchase licensing for a minimum of three simultaneous users. Consortial purchases of online items are preferred when such purchasing arrangements substantially improve user purchasing power.

Leisure reading such as popular novels or hobby books are not purchased, but may be accepted as donations to the paperback browsing collection or other pertinent area.

Self-published works are generally not purchased or accepted as donations. A self-published work may be purchased if it meets the criteria of these guidelines and has received positive professional reviews in published review sources. Exceptions may be made for works published by Chemeketa faculty.

Donations:

Currently the library does not accept donations of books or other materials. Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the librarians for extraordinary materials.

Weeding:

Reference librarians review materials in their collection development areas and remove items deemed to be: outdated/superseded, items in poor physical condition, copies no longer needed to support demand, or items in subject areas no longer supporting the college's curriculum. For periodicals, indexing and use should also be considered as factors. Librarians may query faculty regarding items whose value is uncertain. Standard bibliographies may also be consulted. Faculty in areas where timely information is critical (for example, nursing) are encouraged to participate in regular collection reviews.

All items withdrawn from the collection are disposed of in accordance with the college’s Surplus Procedure #6220 PRO.

Academic Reserves:

The purpose of academic reserves is to provide increased availability of course materials for students. Instructors can place their personal textbooks, media items, and articles on reserve for limited checkout times. Some items may be designated for in-library use only. It is the responsibility of the instructor to obtain permission from the publisher of copyright protected materials. Reference librarians may also place library-owned materials on reserve at the request of an instructor or through their own discretion.