Collection Development
On This Page
- College Mission
- Goals
- Objectives
- Responsibility for Collection Development
- Budget Allocations
- General Selection Guidelines
- Limitations and Basic Standards
- Criteria for Selection of Materials
- Types and Formats of Materials Collected
- Deselection
- Replacement of Materials
- Reserves
College Mission
Lane Community College mission is a learning-centered community college that provides affordable, quality, lifelong educational opportunities that include:
- Professional, technical, and lower division college transfer programs.
- Employee skill upgrading, business development and career enhancement.
- Foundational academic, language and life skills development.
- Lifelong personal development and enrichment.
- Cultural and community programs.
The Library collection supports the college’s mission in accordance with the Library's principles, mission and philosophy.
Goals
The Library's Collection Development Policy provides guidance for the selection and maintenance of collections that support and enhance the curriculum and instructional programs of Lane Community College, and the information needs of students, faculty, and staff who comprise the College’s community of lifelong learners.
The Library's collection also includes general information resources that support a learning environment in subjects not covered by classroom instruction. The Library acquires materials and media in a variety of formats.
Objectives
This policy is intended to guide the development, management, and fiscal planning of LCC Library's collections. It provides guidance to librarians in providing resources to support students, faculty and staff.
Responsibility for Collection Development
Each librarian, as well as Library leadership, has collection development responsibilities to:
- Remain current on the information needs of the LCC community.
- Follow collection development policies and procedures.
- Develop budget allocations.
- Build collections and liaise with faculty, administrators and staff in assigned subject areas.
- Select in areas not otherwise assigned which contribute to a diverse collection.
- Participate in assessment and weeding.
- Market the Library's collections to the College community.
Although faculty librarians are ultimately responsible for the Library's collection, the Library encourages acquisitions suggestions from the community.
Budget Allocations
Each area of the curriculum has its own materials budget allocation. Allocations are determined by the faculty librarians and Library leadership, and based on curricular relevance, program size and research needs, publishing costs within specific disciplines, balance of the collection, and general overall collection needs. Faculty and staff planning new courses or programs are encouraged to contact the Liaison Librarian for their discipline. The Library materials budget may be adjusted depending on the overall Library budget and the needs of the College.
The materials budget and fund allocations will be reviewed by faculty librarians at least once a term during the academic year.
General Selection Guidelines
The following guidelines assist Library faculty in identifying resources for inclusion in the collection:
- Relevance to instructional needs of the faculty.
- Intellectual content and scholarly worth.
- Support for subject areas and vocational emphases currently represented by credit courses at LCC.
Limitations and Basic Standards
The following guidelines set basic standards and limitations for materials in the collection:
- The Library will select books and other instructional materials to secure an adequate basic collection to support all areas of the curriculum.
- Advanced level research is not supported by the book collection. Interlibrary loan and the Summit collection are provided to meet these needs.
- Non-English materials are limited to languages taught at the college.
- The holdings of the Summit consortium may be considered in purchase decisions.
- Items costing more than $125 require approval by the faculty librarians.
- The Library will attempt to balance print and digital formats without unnecessary duplication. Duplicate copies of a title may be purchased when high demand is anticipated, or to meet requirements for alternative formats.
In general, the Library does not purchase textbooks, audio books, sheet music or computer software.
Criteria for Selection of Materials
- Reviews.
- Currency and quality of content.
- Timeliness and lasting value.
- Reputation of the author or publisher.
- Physical and technical quality.
- Ease of access and user-friendliness.
- Depth of current holdings in the subject.
- Demand and frequency of Summit requests placed for material on the subject.
- Cost.
- Availability in alternate formats.
Types and Formats of Materials Collected
Books
Using the criteria for selection, books may be collected in print and electronic/online formats.
Reference Materials
The reference collection includes print and online encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, directories, indexes, bibliographies, statistical compilations, and handbooks. The collection is regularly reviewed for currency, accuracy, usage and relevance.
Periodicals
The periodicals collection supports the LCC curriculum and a core collection of general interest periodicals. Periodicals are primarily acquired through online database collections. New print subscriptions are only acquired after review by the faculty librarians.
Audiovisual Materials
Audiovisual materials include DVDs, streaming audio and video. Specialized AV materials may be expensive and will be included in the collection if they meet the general selection guidelines, can be used in more than one course or discipline, are durable and easily accessible.
Electronic Resources
Electronic resources are materials in digital formats such as electronic periodicals, ebooks, databases and web-based resources. The Library may purchase or provide access to online electronic resources in lieu of other formats.
Selection criteria for electronic resources include:
Recreational Materials
Librarians may selectively acquire popular fiction, DVDs, biographies, and how-to books of general interest to augment the collection.
Books for Newly Literate and Low-Literate Adults
The Library may purchase books in support of the Adult Basic Education, High School completion, GED, Bridge, and ESL programs.
Children's Books
The Library may purchase children's books to support the Early Childhood programs and others.
Deselection
To assure an effective current collection that best serves the educational mission of the college, the faculty librarians systematically remove materials from the collection using the following criteria:
- Usage.
- Obsolescence.
- Faculty recommendation.
- Duplication.
- Discontinued degree programs.
- Accreditation requirements.
- Availability of newer editions or material.
- Collection analysis and evaluation.
Replacement of Materials
Decisions on the replacement of lost, damaged, missing, or worn-out items are made by the Librarians based on frequency of use, currency, and applicability to current curriculum or programs.
Reserves
The Library will buy a title and place it on reserve for a specific class if the book is otherwise suitable to the LCC Library collection. The Library will not buy books or textbooks solely to place on reserve or because they are used in a class.
Due to space constraints the Library does not put more than 3 copies of any title on reserve.
last revised 11.2020
