This statement is designed to formalize and communicate the principles and guidelines that direct the nature and determine the extent of the materials collected by the Newbury College Library and to demonstrate the rationale that determines allocation of funds for Library materials.
LIBRARY MISSION STATEMENT
The role of the Newbury College Library is to provide its community, not only its immediate informational needs, but with life-long learning skills as well. To this end, the Library will actively participate in the educational mission of the College through the collection and dissemination of information resources and through educating users to locate, evaluate, and apply information to their educational, career, and individual objectives.
OBJECTIVE
The Library's collection policy is designed to provide the materials required to meet the curricular and general research needs of the students, faculty and staff of Newbury College, and to implement the goals defined in its mission statement.
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM
The Library will acquire material reflecting all viewpoints on social, economic,
political, artistic, scientific, ethical, and moral issues. It supports and
adheres to the American Library Association's Bill
of Rights and its Freedom
to Read Statement.
ALLOCATION OF FUNDS
The Library Director, in conjunction with the Collection Management Librarian, will establish departmental/subject allocations on an annual basis. Allocations will take the following factors into consideration:
Degree offered
Enrollment in program
Average cost of materials in a particular discipline
Extent to which existing collection meets student and faculty needs
RESPONSIBILITY
The Collection Management Librarian has primary responsibility for overseeing the content and quality of the library's collections. Input from other staff, faculty, and students is encouraged, especially in cases where an individual has specific subject expertise.
The Collection Management Librarian's responsibilities include:
maintaining planned and balanced collection development
keeping current with developments in print and electronic publishing
acting as informal liaison with faculty members to ensure the collection meets their needs
enlisting other staff members to contribute suggestions in their areas of interest or expertise
consulting with Reference staff members in order to assess curricular needs
LEVEL OF COLLECTING
The Library shall collect at three levels:
Level 1. Minimum development. The library will collect minimally, or not at all, in subject areas that are outside the scope of the College curricula and in which there is no expressed interest. Materials collected at this level will include basic reference works, general monographs, and videorecordings requested by faculty members.
Level 2. Basic Development. The Library will collect adequate resources to support specific curricula and provide a core collection of liberal arts materials. Materials collected at this level will include specialized reference works and monographs, core journals and trade publications, and general interest databases.
Level 3. Advanced development. The Library will collect materials suitable for advanced undergraduate study and research. Materials collected at this level will include a comprehensive reference collection, monographs that cover multiple aspects of a discipline, a broad representation of periodicals, and specialized databases.
GENERAL COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT CRITERIA
Criteria for evaluating potential acquisitions include:
quality, depth, and permanence of intellectual content
relevance to academic programs
authority of author
reputation of publisher
level of subject treatment
relative strength of existing collection in the same or related areas
FORMATS
Audiovisual materials
The library collects video and CD recordings only upon request of a faculty member and only in support of academic goals. CD recordings that are included with book purchases will be shelved separately.
Format of AV materials is dependent on availability of equipment.
Databases
The library will purchase databases according to general collection development criteria (see section 8).
Databases will be preferred over print sources when it is important that content be updated frequently, when the material therein is identical to that in a print source, or when budget constraints prohibit the development of an extensive print collection in a given discipline.
Full-text databases will be preferred over indexes or abstracts, and databases that offer remote access will be preferred over those that do not.
The Library welcomes faculty suggestions for purchase of databases. Because of the high costs involved, recommendations require the consent of the School's Dean. In making a final decision, the library will consider cost per unit of service.
E-Books
The library currently owns a collection of approximately 5000 e-books. It will not be adding to this collection until this medium demonstrates its usefulness and practicality.
Government Publications
The Library is not a federal, state, or local depository. Government publications are acquired according to general collection development criteria (see section 8) and are integrated into the general collection.
Internet Resources
The library staff will continually seek useful and reliable web sources, which will be entered into the library's catalogue for optimal accessibility. Criteria for inclusion in the catalogue include quality of information, reputation of the site's publisher, maintenance of links, and frequency of updates. Priority will be given to sites generated by government agencies, established non-profit agencies, and educational institutions.
The library generally will avoid cataloguing any website that requires a fee.
Maps and Atlases
The library does not acquire maps. It occasionally purchases atlases for the Reference collection.
Microforms
The Library does not collect microforms, as much of the material therein is available online.
Monographs
Monographs are to be selected according to general collection development criteria (see section 8).
Hardcover books are preferred subject to budget and availability.
The library generally does not collect popular fiction, but will accept paperback donations for casual reading. These will be shelved separately from the main collection.
Serials
The Library will collect and maintain serials according to general collection development criteria (see section 8).
The library will collect trade publications for career-oriented courses, scholarly journals where appropriate, and some recreational reading.
Except in cases in which a journal is not useful without graphics, or in which the journal is intended for recreational reading, indexed online sources will be preferred to print.
Faculty requests for new subscriptions will be honored if and when the library's budget permits. Because of the long-term financial obligation that periodical subscriptions entail, and because of the impact periodical subscriptions have on academic programs, requests for new subscriptions or cancellation of existing subscriptions must have the support of the School's Dean.
Software
The Library will not collect software created for design, word processing, spreadsheets, database management, or recreational use.
The Library will add software that accompanies other material collected by the library. All such material will be treated according to existing copyright law.
DESELECTION
It is the responsibility of the Collection Management Librarian to withdraw from the collection materials that are of no current value or historical interest.
Criteria for consideration of items to be withdrawn are:
Relevance to current programs
Usefulness and accuracy of content
Better presentation of information in a different format
Circulation history of the item
Recognition of the title in standard bibliographies
Physical condition of the item
MULTIPLE COPIES
The Library generally will not purchase multiple copies of a work. However, faculty members may order duplicate materials for reserve use if class enrollment is more than 25.
Duplicate copies may be accepted as gifts.
OUT-OF-PRINT PUBLICATIONS
The Library generally will not seek out-of-print materials, but will consider resources from dealers who issue catalogues of their out-of-print stock, especially in subject areas where the collection would benefit from the addition of classic titles that have not been reissued. The Library may also seek out-of-print materials as replacements for lost books.
The library will try to honor faculty requests for out-of-print materials.
REPLACEMENTS
All items declared missing will be evaluated for replacement according to general collection development criteria (see section 8). If desired replacements are out of print, the library will either purchase them from a vendor of out-of-print materials, or seek substitutes that are similar in scope and content.
TEXTBOOKS
The Library normally will not acquire textbooks. The exceptions are those that are recognized as classics in their discipline, or which are the best or only sources of information readily available. Textbooks may be accepted as donations, provided they are unmarked and in good condition. (Faculty may place personal copies of textbooks on reserve.)
RESERVE MATERIALS
Faculty should retrieve reserve materials as soon as possible after the end of each semester. Any materials left over six months may be incorporated into the Library’s collection or otherwise disposed.
GIFTS
The Library will accept unconditional gifts only, and will so notify all donors. The library will send a written acknowledgement of gifts (or the administration will do so), but can not appraise gifts for tax purposes. If a formal appraisal is desired, the donor should seek the services of an impartial third party. Any costs associated with such an appraisal are to be borne by the donor.
LANGUAGE
With a few exceptions, the library will collect only materials in English. Exceptions include foreign-language newspapers appropriate to significant segments of Newbury students, materials in support of foreign language education, and bilingual dictionaries.
LOCATION
All materials purchased with the Library's material budget will be housed in the Library.
RESOURCE SHARING AND INTERLIBRARY LOAN
The Newbury College Library is a member of the Minuteman Library Network. As such, it allows the Newbury College community with access to the holdings of all member libraries. These materials, however, are supplemental to our collections; they are in no way to be considered a substitute for materials that the Library needs to serve its users.
Similarly, the Library offers Interlibrary loan services to obtain materials outside the Minuteman Network; it will not rely upon Interlibrary Loan as a substitute for core materials. If a faculty member feels that any item ordered through Interlibrary Loan should be part of the Library's collection, s/he should consult the Collection Management Librarian about possible purchase.
All journals from which five photocopies have been requested in a single year will be ordered for the Library, as required by copyright guidelines.
