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Collection Development Policy

Mission & Statement of Policy¹

The Las Positas College Library exists to support the educational programs of Las Positas College and to serve its students, faculty and staff.

As the programs and other information needs of the college change, collection development must evolve to meet these changing needs. All members of the college's communities are encouraged to contribute their ideas concerning the nature and content of the collection development policy.

This policy is intended to guide the building and enrichment of the collection in accordance with the mission of the Library and Las Positas College. The Las Positas College institutional objectives, as stated in the college catalog, include offering a two-year curriculum designed to:

1. permit students to transfer, typically as juniors, to leading four-year colleges and universities;

2. provide technical training to prepare students for employment in occupations requiring two years of study or less, or to assist persons already employed;

3. make continuing education available to residents desiring to increase their knowledge and skills.

Objectives

The collection development policy is intended to:²

 

1. aid in decision-making processes for administration and organization

2. encourage operational effectiveness and efficiency

3. provide accountability for actions

4. set standards for selection and weeding process

5. facilitate continuity, cooperation, and coordination

6. assist in allocating funds

 

Responsibility for Collection

The Library Coordinator, reporting to the Dean of Academic Services and Computer, Applied Technology, Social Sciences (CATSS), supervises the collection development process. Although Library faculty are responsible for the overall development of the library collections, faculty in all disciplines of the college are expected to take an active role in recommending library print and media materials. The library faculty act as contact persons for each of the academic areas to assist faculty with library resource selection use.  The library also maintains voting membership to the Curriculum Committee each year; ensuring that the library is actively involved throughout the curriculum process.

Students, college staff, and administrators are also encouraged to make recommendations for book and media purchases to the Library faculty. Requests for purchase of library materials, from all sources, will be considered in light of this document and in relation to the overall instructional and educational purposes of the college. After a request meeting these criteria has been made by faculty, staff or students, an order will be placed for the materials if funds are available, or the request will be placed in a future-orders file for such time when funds will allow it to be reconsidered for purchase.

Selection Criteria

Materials for the library will be selected in the following order of priority:

1. curriculum support;

2. outstanding items in other fields of knowledge;

3. items supporting student civic and cultural engagement.

4. materials for professional growth of faculty and staff.

Materials considered for addition to the collection will be evaluated with attention given to: written reviews; relevance, immediate or potential, to teaching, learning or research; size and adequacy of the current collection; potential use of materials by students and faculty; appropriateness for lower-division college use; and currency (current material is given high priority); price; and availability of funding.  

Note: Selection criteria is based on best practices and not always feasible based on available funding.³

Materials Collected  

1. Online Databases

The library will maintain subscriptions to online databases that meet the general selection criteria.  Online databases provide access to the following materials: media, books, reference, images, and periodicals.  Since every database represents a continuing expense, these resources will be added very selectively.  In addition to considering the general selection criteria, the online databases are also reviewed for technical feasibility, accessibility, functionality, reliability, vendor support, and licensing.⁴

 

2. Books (Circulating Collection)

In addition to the collection of books (eBooks) accessible through the subscriptions to online databases, the Library will purchase single copies of hardbound books when possible. Paperbound books will be acquired only when there is no choice in the binding, or when the Library must exercise judgments of economy. Relative price when compared to the perceived long-term value and use will be considered.

3. Reference

The reference collection is composed of information sources that are most successfully utilized in the library to assist in responding to information requests. With few exceptions, reference materials are not meant to be read continuously from beginning to end, but contain relatively short and discrete articles or bits of information which users will consult one or a few at a time. Reference materials include, but are not limited to: indexes, encyclopedias, handbooks, directories, dictionaries and compilations of statistics.

Reference material is chosen because of its authority, scope, treatment, arrangement, cost and need. It must be as up-to-date as is necessary for the provision of current and reliable information. Superseded editions that are removed from the reference collection may be added to the circulating collection if the information in them is not obsolete or likely to be misleading to users. At least one general encyclopedia shall be replaced every 3-5 years on a rotating basis.

The Library does not actively acquire maps. A representative collection of general and specialized atlases will be acquired and maintained in the reference collection.

 

4. Textbooks

Textbooks are not normally selected for purchase. However, exceptions will be made when textbooks are considered classics by experts in the field, when other kinds of books in a curricular area are sparse, or when textbooks treat important areas not otherwise represented in the collection. No attempt will be made to purchase every text that is being used for courses at the college. The Library may accept as gifts relevant texts that are not superseded by a subsequent edition.

5. Foreign Language Materials

Foreign language material will not be acquired, except those materials, whether in monograph, serial or audiovisual format, which directly support the foreign language teaching programs of the college.

6. Fiction

The Library will purchase current fiction when it is of sufficient literary merit and contributes to the overall enrichment of the library collection. Routine expenditure of limited library funds for popular fiction will not be made because of the proximity of the Livermore Public Library and the Alameda County libraries. However, efforts will be made to provide a balanced and representative selection reflecting the cultures of the world and the world's major literary figures and award winning fiction, along with the supporting biographical and critical studies.

7. Periodicals
    

Periodicals include journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, print and electronic. Since every journal title represents a continuing expense, titles will be added very selectively. Most serials that the Library acquires will be indexed or abstracted in sources that the Library owns. When indexing is not available, a periodical will be acquired only when there are assurances from faculty that class assignments will be made directly to utilize the serial. The library faculty, in consultation with the area faculty, will periodically evaluate the periodicals collection and identify titles no longer needed, so that new titles may be added.

Two regional newspapers will be acquired but not preserved in paper issues. Access through electronic will be provided for selected titles in order to provide retrospective reference information.

Gift subscriptions and back issues of serials will be accepted if they meet the criteria of this collection development policy. However, in no case will serials older than four years be accepted on a routine basis.

8. Media Resources

In addition to the collection of audiovisual materials (images, streaming video, and streaming music) accessible through the subscriptions to online databases, the Library will purchase audiovisual materials needed to support the curriculum in all formats for which it has equipment or facilities. Current formats include DVD’s, Blu-Ray, and CD’s. These formats may expand as technology changes.

The Library normally acquires audiovisual materials at the request of faculty members. Requests for more expensive material will be scrutinized more closely than requests for inexpensive material. Factors such as potential use, published reviews, the quality of the product, accessibility, and overlap with material already owned will be considered. Efforts will be made to provide a balanced and representative selection of award winning blockbusters.

The Guidelines for Media Resources in Academic Libraries prepared by the Academic, College and Research Libraries Media and approved in March 1999 will be used as a guideline to help develop the selection, purchase and use of LPC Library media resources.

9. Government Publications

The Library is not a federal or state depository and does not maintain a separate collection of government publications. Government publications, whether monographs or serials, are acquired and integrated into the collection as appropriate.

Collection Depth Policy

The LPC Library will use the Library of Congress Collecting Levels as a tool to help define collection depth.  Subject areas and materials that do not meet our selection criteria are designated a collecting level of one, Out of Scope.  Subject areas and materials within the library’s selection criteria generally fall within collecting levels two, Minimal Level, and three, Basic Information Level.  In general, the library does not collect materials beyond levels two and three.

Collecting Levels

1. Out-of-Scope: The Library does not collect in this area.

2. Minimal Level: An area in which few selections are made beyond very basic works.

3. Basic Information Level: A collection of up-to-date general materials that serve to introduce and define a subject and to indicate the varieties of information available elsewhere. It may include dictionaries, encyclopedias, selected editions of important works, historical surveys, bibliographies, handbooks, a few major periodicals, in the minimum number that will serve the purpose. A basic information collection is not sufficiently intensive to support any courses of independent study in the subject area involved.

4. Instructional Support Level: A collection that in a university is adequate to support undergraduate and some graduate instruction, or sustained independent study; that is, adequate to maintain knowledge of a subject required for limited or generalized purposes, of less than research intensity. It includes a wide range of basic monographs, complete collections of works of more important writers, selections from the works of secondary writers, a selection of representative journals, and reference tools and fundamental bibliographical apparatus pertaining to the subject.

5. Research Level: A collection that includes the major published source materials required for dissertations and independent research, including materials containing research reporting, new findings, scientific experimental results, and other information useful to researchers. It is intended to include all important reference works and a wide selection of specialized monographs, as well as a very extensive collection of journals and major indexing and abstracting services in the field. Older material is retained for historical research. Government documents are included in American and foreign law collections.

6. Comprehensive Level: A collection which, so far as is reasonably possible, includes all significant works of recorded knowledge (publications, manuscripts, and other forms), in all applicable languages, for a necessarily defined and limited field. This level of collecting intensity is one that maintains a " special collection." The aim, if not achievement, is exhaustiveness. Older material is retained for historical research. In law collections, this includes manuscripts, dissertations, and material on non-legal aspects.

Deselection Criteria

Library faculty will withdraw library materials when, in their professional judgment, such a course of action is necessary to remove unneeded material.  Library faculty use the CREW (Continuous Review, Evaluation, and Weeding) model within its cycle of service⁵ and MUSTY (Misleading, Ugly, Superseded, Trivial, Your Collection has no use for this work)⁶ to identify materials to be withdrawn from the collection.  Continuous evaluation of holdings is an essential ongoing routine, in which unneeded materials are removed permanently from the library collection. Examples of unneeded materials which might be targeted for withdrawal could include multiple copies, badly damaged or deteriorated materials, out-of-date or chronically unused materials, dated periodicals, and obsolete media materials. The Library faculty may also withdraw materials because of a shortage of shelf space or other serious constraints.  A loose goal is to have shelves 75%-85% full & weed 5% of collection each year (for complete turnover every 20 years)⁷.

Whenever possible, faculty members and other subject specialists should be invited to participate in the weeding process to assure that materials of historical or research interest are not inadvertently removed. Weeded materials are officially withdrawn from the collection and disposed of by direct sale, gifts to other libraries, discard, or other appropriate means.
 

Note: Deselection criteria is based on best practices and not always feasible based on funding for replacement materials.

Deselection Goal Chart⁸

Replacement of Lost or Missing Items

Library materials reported missing are not replaced automatically. Instead, potential replacements are evaluated using the same criteria for selection as regularly purchased items. Heavily used materials, necessary for teaching or research, will be replaced as quickly as possible if they are still available and funds allow. Other materials will be replaced upon recommendation of the Library faculty. If after two (2) years an individual bibliographic item is still missing and cannot or will not be replaced, it is to be considered permanently lost and all records of it will be eliminated from the catalog.

 

Donated Materials

The Las Positas College Library is pleased to accept gifts and/or memorial gifts from the community. Gifts are gratefully and willingly accepted as long as no restriction is placed upon their use and disposal. Acceptance of gifts (of books and other library materials) will be determined by the library coordinator on the basis of their suitability to the library's purposes and needs in accordance with the library's stated materials selection policy. Use of all gift materials will be determined by the library coordinator or a designated agent. The library has the right to discard any gifts that are in poor physical condition (e.g. brittle paper, water/mildew damage, torn/missing pages). Values will not be placed on donated items for income tax purposes but receipts will be provided for items in good or better condition. ⁹

 

Policies on Controversial Materials

The library subscribes in principle to the statements of policy on library philosophy as expressed in the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights, a copy of which is appended to and made a part of this policy.

<sup>1. Headings derived from those recommended in "Workbook for Selection Policy Writing." Office for Intellectual Freedom. American Library Association. http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=dealing&Template/ContenManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=11173 ↩
2. From Marshall, A., & Fieldhouse, M. (2012). Collection Development in the Digital Age. London: Facet Publishing. on page 166 at http://lpc1.laspositascollege.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=558464&site=ehost-live&custID=s5868231&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_166 ↩
3. Marshall, A., & Fieldhouse, M. (2012). Collection Development in the Digital Age. London: Facet Publishing. Retrieved from http://lpc1.laspositascollege.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=558464&site=ehost-live&custID=s5868231&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_169 ↩
4. International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. (2012). Key Issues for e-Resource Collection Development: A Guide for Libraries. Retreived from http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/acquisition-collection-development/publications/IFLA_ELECTRONIC_RESOURCE_GUIDE_DRAFT%20FOR%20COMMENT.pdf ↩
5. CREW: a Weeding Manual for Modern Libraries. (2012)., p. 10. Retrieved from https://www.tsl.texas.gov/sites/default/files/public/tslac/ld/ld/pubs/crew/crewmethod12.pdf↩
6. CREW: a Weeding Manual for Modern Libraries. (2012)., p. 46. Retrieved from https://www.tsl.texas.gov/sites/default/files/public/tslac/ld/ld/pubs/crew/crewmethod12.pdf↩
7. CREW: a Weeding Manual for Modern Libraries. (2012). Retrieved from https://www.tsl.texas.gov/sites/default/files/public/tslac/ld/ld/pubs/crew/crewmethod12.pdf↩
8. Chart from DVC’s Collection Development Policy, p. 8 at http://www.dvc.edu/library/pdfs/collection-development-policy.pdf and based on CREW: a Weeding Manual for Modern Libraries. (2012)., p. 49-68. Retrieved from https://www.tsl.texas.gov/sites/default/files/public/tslac/ld/ld/pubs/crew/crewmethod12.pdf↩
9. CREW: a Weeding Manual for Modern Libraries. (2012)., p. 23. Retreived from https://www.tsl.texas.gov/sites/default/files/public/tslac/ld/ld/pubs/crew/crewmethod12.pdf↩</sup>