Purpose and Objectives
Lane's mission is to be a learning-centered community college that provides affordable, quality, lifelong educational opportunities that include:
The Library collection supports the college’s mission in accordance with the Library's principles, mission and philosophy.
The primary goal of the Library's Collection Development Policy is to provide guidance for the selection and maintenance of collections that support and enhance the curriculum and instructional programs of Lane Community College, as well as the general information needs of students, faculty, and staff who comprise the College’s community of lifelong learners.
This community possesses a broad range of interests and prior educational experiences. Therefore, the Library's collection also includes a variety of general information resources in subject areas not covered by classroom instruction, but supportive of a learning environment. Within the constraints of available funds, facilities, and staffing, the Library will acquire and make available materials and media in a wide variety of formats.
All members of the College community are in encouraged to use this document to participate in Library collection development.
This policy is designed to guide the systematic development and management of LCC Library's collections of print, audiovisual, online, and electronic materials. It has the following objectives:
Responsibility for Collection Development
Each librarian, as well as the Library Director, has collection development responsibilities. Specific responsibilities are to:
Although the Library Director and faculty librarians are ultimately responsible for the Library's collection, the entire College community is encouraged to recommend additions at any time.
Each area of the curriculum has its own materials budget allocation. Allocations are made by the faculty librarians and the Library Director, and are 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 and new programs are encouraged to contact the Liaison Librarian for their discipline. The Library book budget may be periodically adjusted depending on the overall Library budget, and the needs of the College and individual programs.
The following guidelines assist Library faculty in selecting quality materials for inclusion in the collection:
Limitations and Basic Standards
The following guidelines set basic standards and limitations for materials in the collection:
In general, the Library does not collect:
Criteria for Selection of Materials
Types and Formats of Materials Collected
Books
Books are acquired to support the needs of LCC students, faculty, and staff.
Books may be collected in print and electronic/online formats.
The reference collection includes encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, directories, indexes, bibliographies, statistical compilations, and handbooks.
The reference collection is regularly reviewed for currency, accuracy, and relevance.
Reference materials may be collected in print and online formats.
The periodicals collection supports the LCC curriculum as well as providing a core collection of general interest periodicals.
Periodicals are primarily acquired through online databases. New print subscriptions are only acquired after careful consideration by the faculty librarians.
Cooperative acquisition of electronic periodicals databases is actively pursued.
Audiovisual materials include DVDs, CDs, streaming audio and video, and a variety of other formats.
Audiovisual materials may be collected in physical, electronic, and online formats.
Specialized Audiovisual Materials
Some audiovisual materials (such as specialized course-specific DVDs or interactive tutorials) may be expensive. Inclusion of these materials in the Library's collection should meet the following guidelines in addition to general selection criteria:
Electronic resources include web-based resources, licensed resources and databases, electronic periodicals, and e-books.
The Library may purchase or provide access to online electronic resources in lieu of other formats.
Selection criteria for electronic resources include:
In addition to purchasing materials directly related to the College's curriculum, the Library may selectively acquire popular materials of general interest. These materials may include:
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.
The Library may purchase children's books to support the Early Childhood programs.
Maps are a very small part of the collection. Atlases are included in the reference collection.
To assure an effective current collection that best serves the educational mission of the college, the Library systematically removes obsolete, damaged and little-used materials from the collection. Deselection is the responsibility of the faculty librarians.
The following criteria are considered when discarding materials:
Guidelines for Deselecting Electronic Resources
Evaluation and deselection of electronic resources is an ongoing process using the following criteria:
Decisions on the replacement of lost, damaged, missing, or worn-out items, are based on the following criteria:
The Library welcomes gifts of materials that are consistent with the collection development policy provided there are no restrictions attached as to their disposition. Because all items added to the collection generate processing and storage costs, materials received as gifts will be evaluated by the same criteria as materials purchased. Gifts are accepted with the understanding that materials may not be added to the collection and may be sold or offered to another library, College department, or other non-profit agency.
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 solely to be placed on reserve, nor will it buy copies of textbooks solely because they are used in a class.
