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COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction
- Mission and Goals
- General Policies
- Selection Process
- Policies by Type of Material
- Books
- Periodicals and Newspapers
- Audiovisual and Computer Software
- Maps
- Musical Scores
- Theses
- Government Documents
- Policies by Format
- Separate Collections
- Reference Collection
- University Archives
- Area Research Center
- Special Collections
- Instructional Materials Collection
- Browsing Collection
- UW-Parkside Authors Collection
- Collection Evaluation.
- Interlibrary Cooperation and Collection Development
- Appendix: Library Bill of Rights
The Collection Development Policy of the Library of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside outlines selection criteria and standards used in the acquisition of all library resources. Within the context of this policy, the term "collection development" is understood to encompass the selection of both materials owned by and housed in the Library and those electronic resources to which the Library provides access.
The purpose of the policy is to communicate to all library users, including staff, faculty, students, administrators, and community members, standards used in the selection of materials for the collection as well as the criteria used for weeding materials in the collection. It is hoped that the existence of this statement will facilitate the cooperation of all concerned groups in the implementation of the University's and the Library's mission and goals.
In order to keep the Library's policies responsive to changes in library science, technology, institutional goals and objectives, the curriculum and the university population, this policy will be revised and updated as necessary.
Mission: To support the, curriculum, research and other information needs of the University by selecting, acquiring, organizing, preserving, and circulating or providing access to a collection of materials in a variety of formats (e.g., paper, electronic, optical) and to reevaluate and weed materials from the collection in order to maintain its high quality and usefulness. Following the UW System’s “One System, One Library” concept, the idea of “collection” goes beyond the materials located in the UW-Parkside Library and more broadly refers to the collections of all UW System libraries. The UW System libraries jointly endeavor to develop these collections, allowing them to serve as interdependent resources for research and teaching.
Goal C1.0 Ensure that the UW-Parkside Library’s collection, in conjunction with the other UW System library collections and resources, meets the information and research needs of faculty, staff and students.
Goal C2.0
Provide materials to meet the cultural and intellectual needs of the community.
Goal C3.0
Ensure a high-quality collection through ongoing evaluation.
Goal C4.0
Ensure effective funding for collection development.
Goal C5.0
Maintain a collection development budgeting system that makes it possible to allocate and monitor the expenditure of funds to meet library goals.
Goal C6.0
Develop appropriate collection development policies and procedures.
Goal C7.0
Facilitate the smooth coordination and implementation of collection development activities.
The UW-Parkside Library directly serves the university community, as defined in the Library Mission Statement: "The faculty, staff, and students of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside as well as the people, agencies, institutions, and businesses of the surrounding area." More generally, the Library serves UW System faculty, staff and students, and the residents of Southeastern Wisconsin and the State of Wisconsin.
The needs of the Library's users for materials and electronic resources will always exceed the capacity of the Library to meet those demands. The Library applies consistent practices and priorities in the expenditure of its finite resources. . During the selection process, the following priorities and criteria are used to evaluate potential acquisitions:
Priority 1:
Materials absolutely necessary to support the curriculum and items which should be part of any standard collection.
Priority 2:
Materials to support research and to enhance the teaching/learning process.
Priority 3:
Materials desirable for collection enrichment and collection balance.
Criteria:
- Timeliness or permanence of the material.
- Authoritativeness.
- Accuracy of information.
- The technical excellence, durability, and readability/accessibility of the format.
- The author's or producer's reputation and significance.
- Inclusion of the title in recognized bibliographies.
- Price.
- Availability of materials on the subject.
- Critical reviews of the material.
- Projected use.
- Strength of the current collection.
- Availability in other UW libraries.
The Library will forego purchase of specialized or infrequently used materials if they can be readily borrowed directly from another library, accessed electronically, or acquired through document delivery.
The Library normally acquires materials in languages other than English only in support of either the language curricula or reference needs (e.g., dictionaries or encyclopedias). In addition, a limited number of Spanish language books are purchased for the Browsing Collection.
Requests for duplicate copies are reviewed individually, but, in general, the Library eschews the purchase of duplicate copies of any given item except where clearly justified by heavy use. The Library's responsibility for ensuring availability of titles assigned for collateral reading, viewing, listening, etc. in specific courses is limited, except in unusual circumstances, to two copies that can be placed on reserve.
The Library encourages the donation of books and other materials to the Friends of the UW-Parkside Library. The Library cannot appraise the materials or pay for them. Applying the same criteria to gift materials as it uses in purchasing new materials, the Library selectively transfers gifts received by the Friends of the UW-Parkside Library to the Library’s collection. Gift materials not added are disposed of by sale or other means.
The use of all materials will conform to U.S. Copyright law.
Librarians and faculty cooperate to develop the Library's collection. The selection process is coordinated by the Collection Development Team and the Electronic Resources Management Team; both are library teams which meet regularly.
The Collection Development Team consists of the Director of the Library, all librarians who serve as liaisons to academic disciplines and campus units, and other appropriate staff. The Director of the Library chairs the team and is responsible for overseeing the physical materials budget. Recommendations for the purchase of physical materials are accepted from faculty, staff, and students. Final responsibility for the selection of physical library resources lies with librarians.
The Electronic Resources Management Team consists of all librarians who serve on the reference desk and who perform library instruction. The Coordinator of Electronic Search Services chairs the ERM Team, is responsible for managing the electronic resources budget, and coordinates UWP’s licenses/purchases with those of the UW System’s Collection Development Committee. Recommendations for the licensing/purchase of electronic resources are accepted from faculty, staff, and students. Final responsible for the selection of the library’s electronic resources lies with the librarians.
V. Policies by Type of MaterialDecisions regarding acquisition of all resources are based on the priorities and criteria stated in III.B-D.
1. Softcovers
Most books are purchased in a softcover edition, if available. The decision to purchase a hardback edition is based on price, lack of availability of a softcover edition, anticipated use, long-term value of the title and other criteria.
2. Out-of-Print
The Library will attempt to find used or out-of-print books if they are not available new. The Acquisitions Department will contact out-of-print dealers that are on the World Wide Web. The search is stopped if these sources are unable to obtain the book.
3. Textbooks
In general, books used as textbooks for UWP courses are not acquired for the collection. The library acquires for its IMC collection examples of textbooks used in elementary and secondary schools.
1. Journals
Curriculum needs are met primarily through onsite availability of print subscriptions and full text electronic databases, supplemented by interlibrary loan. . Faculty research needs are met primarily through interlibrary loan and document delivery services.
Decisions to add new journal subscriptions are made on an individual basis. Justification for new requests is required; such requests are considered based upon criteria enumerated in III.B-D. and upon the following factors:
- Purpose:
- Support of the curriculum.
- Support of general library use.
- Support of faculty research interests.
- Support of current awareness for faculty members.
- Support of the collection development process.
- Cross disciplinary usefulness.
- Availability of indexing.
- Availability of alternative access methods (e.g., other Wisconsin libraries, full text, document delivery services).
- Budget considerations.
Backfiles of journals are considered on a title by title basis and are generally acquired in digital format or on microform.
2. Newspapers
The Library acquires a limited number of newspapers in print format, covering local, state and national news. The Library makes available electronic access to a wide number of regional, national, and international newspapers.
C. Audiovisual and Computer Software
Materials are acquired only in formats for which equipment is available in the Library. The Library does not pay preview charges. Audiovisual materials produced by faculty, staff and students are reviewed in consultation with faculty and are added to the collection when they meet the needs of the collection and are of high technical quality.
Maps of Wisconsin, topographic maps of contiguous states, maps of large U.S. cities, and other selected maps are collected.
Musical scores needed to support the music curricula are acquired.
Theses and dissertations are purchased based on anticipated use, the long-term value of the title, and price.
The Library is not a U.S. government documents depository library (). Federal documents are individually selected as they meet the criteria applied to books and serials. online. The Library is a partial depository for Wisconsin documents. Only those documents fitting the needs of the campus community are retained. U.N. documents and documents of other counties are also added on an individual basis using the general selection criteria.
VI. Format of MaterialsMaterials may be available in more than one format (e.g., print, microform, electronic, audio). Factors taken into consideration in deciding which format will be purchased are cost, amount of use, ease of use, storage space required/available, preservation, potential theft, illustrative and color content of original, availability to remote/simultaneous users, and frequency of updating.
Although duplication in general is avoided in the collection, duplication of items in multiple formats (e.g., print/electronic, print/audio, print/microform) is sometimes desirable. Decisions are made on an individual basis, based on the factors above.
The UW-Parkside Library currently prefers electronic format for most scholarly journals and indexing and abstracting services, and for many reference resources.
VII. Separate CollectionsThe Library maintains an authoritative, timely and balanced collection of non-circulating reference materials and provides access to a variety of electronic resources. The purposes of this collection are threefold:
- To aid the Library, as a teaching library, in instructing students in the use of specialized tools relevant to their majors and to expose them to the full variety of resources available to students.
- To serve the research needs of the Library's users.
- To serve the university as well as its larger community as a reference and referral center for a broad spectrum of factual reference inquiries, not necessarily related to the university curricula.
The University Archives acquires all non-current University records, in any format, deemed of long-term administrative, legal, financial, or historical value by the University Archivist in consultation with the office where the records were created. Since no records of the University may be destroyed without approval of the State’s Public Records Board, the University Archives serves as a clearinghouse for records disposal. Materials collected may include, but are not limited to, the files of campus units, publications, iconography, ephemera, audiovisual and electronic media. Some University records may be retained long-term in the office where they were created.
C. Area Research Center (ARC)
By agreement between the University and the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (SHSW), the Area Research Center collects historical manuscripts and archives of individuals and organizations in Racine and Kenosha counties. It also acquires non-current local public records of municipalities, towns, and counties for Racine and Kenosha counties. Because all ARC records are the legal property of SHSW, but remain in the physical custody of UW-Parkside, such acquisition decisions are shared by the University Archivist and the Coordinator for Area Research Centers of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. The ARC complements its archival holdings with relevant print and microform material on local history and genealogy as well as manuscript collections that belong to UW-Parkside (e.g., Irving Wallace Collection).
The ARC collects historical manuscripts and archives of individuals, organizations and businesses in Racine and Kenosha counties. It also acquires non-current municipal, town and county public records for the two counties through the Wisconsin Historical Society. All ARC records belonging to the Wisconsin Historical Society are the legal property of the WHS, though they are physically held in the UW-Parkside Archives, and collection decisions regarding these materials are shared by the University Archivist and the WHS. Other holdings of the UW-Parkside Archives are approved by the University Archivist. The ARC complements its archival holdings with relevant print, microform, and other materials on local history and development. Monetary appraisals of new accessions will not be provided by the Archives, nor will the Archives purchase collections.
E. Instructional Materials Collections
The Library collects materials related to elementary and secondary education curricula. The IMC collection consists of textbooks aimed at the elementary and secondary levels. The IMC/C collection consists of children's and young adult's fiction and nonfiction literature in printed form.
The Browsing Collection consists of materials of current interest that are desirable for curriculum development, collection enrichment and collection balance (typically Collection Development Priority 3). Both fiction and non-fiction items are considered. A revolving collection of popular titles is obtained through a rental service.
G. UW-Parkside Authors Collection.
The UW-Parkside Authors Collection is composed of monographs written, edited, compiled, translated or illustrated by faculty and staff during the time they were employed at UWP. Articles, scholarly papers, and similar publications are not included in the collection and the UWP Library reserves the right to include and exclude publications at its discretion. Due to the fact that some materials may be better served in other areas of the library, the collection is not a comprehensive holding of all UW-Parkside authors’ works.
VII. Collection Evaluation
In order to maintain a viable and useful collection and to assure adequate space for its housing, the Library systematically weeds the collection. Materials which have become obsolete or are no longer relevant are withdrawn from the collection and placed in the annual booksale, red. Materials in poor physical condition are reviewed for repair or discard and replacement.
The weeding process is the responsibility of the Collection Development Team in consultation with the appropriate discipline faculty and is an ongoing component of collection development.
VIII. Interlibrary Cooperation and Collection Development
"The UW System libraries, fostering the 'one system, one library' concept by working together as a coordinated university library system, provide students, faculty, and staff and Wisconsin citizens with access to a great combined library collection and to a global network of electronic information resources." The UW System libraries strive to cooperate in the development their collections, which serve as interdependent resources for research and teaching. Books and A/V materials that are available for regular checkout at any University of Wisconsin library can be identified and borrowed directly by UWP students, faculty and staff using special features of the Library’s electronic catalog. In addition, the Library has reciprocal borrowing privileges with Carthage College. Specialized research materials are supplied primarily through membership in WiLS, the Wisconsin InterLibrary Service. Participation in direct interlibrary loan arrangements with libraries in Kenosha and Racine counties enables the Library to fill many interlibrary loan requests quickly.
Library Bill of Rights
The American Library Association affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas, and that the following basic policies should guide their services.
- Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.
- Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.
- Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.
- Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.
- A person's right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.
- Libraries which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.
(Revised Sept. 2006)