SUNY Potsdam

College Libraries

Collection Development Policy

Approved by Library Council, July 14, 2004

Introduction

This policy shall serve as a guide for the SUNY Potsdam community. It shall provide a framework for planned collection building in the College Libraries and for information access facilitated by the College Libraries in support of the College Libraries Mission Statement.

Responsibility for Collection Development

While responsibility for the selection of library materials rests with the library faculty, collaboration with teaching faculty is essential to build collections that support the academic programs of the college.

• Purchase recommendations from every teaching faculty member are strongly encouraged. College Libraries will facilitate informed and appropriate materials recommendations by teaching faculty.
• Library faculty are responsible for coordinating recommendations and developing a balanced and integrated collection. A departmental liaison from each academic department will work with a Libraries liaison to ensure communication and coordination with regard to library acquisitions.
• Library faculty are responsible for ensuring cooperation with other agencies to improve access to information resources. This includes participation in projects such as SUNYConnect and consortial initiatives provided by diverse library agencies.

Collection Development Priorities

As emphasized in the College Libraries Mission Statement, College Libraries will acquire materials that:

• Are intellectually appropriate for and related to undergraduate and graduate programs at SUNY Potsdam;
• Contribute to the scholarly and intellectual diversity of the collection, including materials not specifically related to the current curriculum;
• Contribute to richer, more diverse library collections among SUNY Colleges of Arts & Sciences.

College Libraries will support faculty scholarly activity primarily through interlibrary lending and delivery service (ILL/IDS) and when appropriate through direct acquisition.

Selection Criteria

General criteria to consider for selection of library materials include:

• Personal knowledge of the work, evidence of a positive scholarly reviewing process, high scholarly regard, and/or positive author reputation are essential.
• Clear pedagogical purpose, timeliness of subject matter, and/or treatment of contemporary issues are essential.
• The College Libraries assign a higher priority to recently published materials in order to maintain the currency of the collection.
• Older works of recognized value will be acquired to support new programs, remedy collection gaps, enhance existing collections, and support disciplines in which currency is a lower priority than topical relevance.
• The College Libraries will acquire multiple copies of a work if clear evidence of ongoing demand is presented.
• Variant editions may be acquired when a new edition contains significant new information.
• The College Libraries generally will not duplicate content solely to provide a variant form of access to library materials.
• Unusually high-priced items or rare materials may require special purchase or use considerations.
• Although the libraries may hold materials required as texts for particular courses, materials will not be acquired solely to serve this purpose.
• Faculty publications will be acquired as the College Libraries become aware of them.
• Publications in non-English languages generally will not be collected, except in support of the Modern Languages curriculum.
• Access to resources external to the libraries may be provided as an alternative to acquiring physical material.
• Copyright provisions, licensing agreements and other legal restrictions will be upheld.

Additional Specific Criteria for Selection of Library Materials:

• Printed Monographs
• While hardcover books may be purchased in order to ensure timely acquisition of new publications, well-made paperbacks are generally preferred.
• The College Libraries generally will not purchase “consumable” publications such as lab manuals, workbooks, and study guides.

• Audio-Visual Materials
• While spoken recordings will be purchased to support study of dramatic and poetic works, the College Libraries generally will not purchase spoken books.
• The College Libraries generally acquire audio-visual materials in the most widely-adopted and/or durable format, but will consider acquisition of older and newer formats if the College is able to support playback and use of the material.
• The same title will generally not be acquired in multiple formats.
• Selection criteria for audio-visual material housed in the Crane Library are addressed in Appendix 1.

• Standing Orders
• Contingent upon vendor ability to provide a standing order service, the College Libraries will consider initiating a standing order if there is evidence of need for automatic purchase based on the value of the entire series or the collected works, or the need to update information on a periodic basis.
• All standing orders will be reviewed by librarians for relevance, content, cost, and acquisition frequency at least every 3 years, as necessary.

• Electronic Resources

This section addresses the unique criteria involved in selecting library materials that have electronically delivered content. That content may include what would traditionally be considered encyclopedias, periodicals, monographic works, databases, indices, collections, and many other formats.

• When entering into agreements with vendors for electronic resources, the College Libraries will comply with the College Libraries Licensing Policy.
• The College Libraries require, whenever possible, that electronic resources be accessible on an IP-recognition model and support off-site proxy server access.
• The College Libraries generally prefer that electronic resources use commonly available hardware and software components.
• Due to the multi-platform nature of SUNY Potsdam campus computing, electronic resources should have cross-platform capability whenever possible.
• When considering electronic resources, the College Libraries will generally select the most widely-adopted electronic format, e.g., web-based, .pdf files, as well as the format which provides the greatest access to the most users.
• The College Libraries will support new electronic resources whenever possible in order to advance accessible scholarly communication initiatives.
• The College Libraries will consider vendor-side speed of access, presentation of resources (e.g., color photos, .pdf or .html file format), and usability of interface when selecting electronic resources.
• When different vendor interfaces are available for the same content, price and usability will both be primary considerations for selection.
• The College Libraries will seek to use electronic resources to help fulfill the needs of disciplines for which currency of publication is paramount.
• In disciplinary areas in which long-term access to material is vital, the College Libraries will consider issues of archiving, backfile access, and permanence of access when selecting electronic resources.
• When feasible, the College Libraries seek to fulfill the needs of distance learning and offsite services through the use of electronic resources.
• Electronic resource selection decisions are sometimes controlled by external sources (such as statewide SUNY initiatives, consortial agreements, etc.). The College Libraries will seek to complement and balance electronic resource access across collections and disciplines.

• Microforms
• General periodical literature such as weekly news magazines and popular reading material will primarily be archived through binding of paper issues. Microfilm is the preferred secondary preservation method.
• Newspapers collected by the College Libraries will be archived on microfilm.
• If new programs are introduced to the curriculum, retrospective purchases of microform collections may be considered to provide resources in previously underrepresented areas.
• Microfilm subscriptions may be considered for expensive periodicals if cost advantages outweigh format disadvantages.

• Other Non-Book Formats
• The College Libraries will consider collecting other non-book formats (including but not limited to slides, software, mixed media, or kits) that meet the Libraries’ general selection criteria if the College can support the storage and use of the material.
• Selection criteria for maps collected by the College Libraries are addressed in Appendix 4.

• Periodical Subscriptions
• The College Libraries journal collections are primarily designed to provide access to online and print content relevant to and actively used in teaching and learning in graduate and undergraduate programs.
• When considering periodicals for addition, renewal, or discontinuation, the College Libraries will choose between available options (including cancellation, print-only subscription, print and online subscription, or online-only access) based upon the following criteria:
• Content, coverage, curricular relevance, and scholarly reputation.
• Title availability and currency in currently subscribed aggregated collections.
• Direct and indirect costs of various access options.
• Availability and quality of indexing for content.
• Importance of remote online access to our users.
• Demand for and/or use of online and print versions currently available.
• Ease of linkage to online content.
• Quality of online interface and access.
• Need to retain hard-copy archival content, and cost of long-term archiving
• Value of the content in the context of a diverse SUNY-wide collection
• The College Libraries are committed to supporting a print periodicals collection that can be browsed in order to further students’ understanding of scholarly and professional communication within disciplines.
• The College Libraries are committed to supporting a general interest periodicals collection that assists library users in being educated and aware citizens of the world. In addition to fostering an understanding of current events and world issues, this collection also serves to document current times and events, and represent a spectrum of perspectives and views.
• Whenever possible, the College Libraries will support new publishing models in an attempt to maintain access to high-quality, peer-reviewed research at a manageable cost.

Gift Policy

Donations of books and other types of materials are considered to be "gifts in kind." Gifts in kind are welcomed by the College Libraries. Either the Director of Libraries or the Collection Development Coordinator will accept gifts on behalf of the College Libraries. Gifts are acknowledged in writing whenever the donor and his/her address are known. Generally, letters of acknowledgement do not include an itemized list of items donated.

Gifts in kind are reviewed by the Libraries' collection development liaisons using the same selection criteria used for purchased materials. Gifts not needed for the College Libraries collection may be sold, discarded or disposed of in accordance with New York State guidelines.

The Libraries do not generally accept gifts in kind with restrictions on their use or disposal. Only the Director of Libraries may accept gifts with special conditions, including those concerning their shelving, use, or access.

It is the responsibility of the donor to assess the value of a gift for tax purposes. IRS regulations prohibit the Libraries, as the recipient of the gift, from appraising it. However the Libraries can assist the donor with the appraisal process by providing names of local used book dealers.

Donations of gifts in kind will be delivered to the Libraries by the donor or shipped to the Libraries at the donor’s expense. Exceptions to this policy may be made by the Director of Libraries.

Collection Management

• Fund Allocation
• The College Libraries allocate materials funds into three main areas: periodical subscriptions, electronic resources, and monographs. All non-serial publications, complete in one volume or finite set, are considered to be monographs, including but not limited to books, music scores, audiovisual materials, microfilm sets, and software.
• The disciplinary allocation for monographs, which includes standing orders, is based on a formula applied across disciplines. For more information on this formula, see Appendix 8.
• To create and maintain a diverse and balanced collection, the Director of Libraries and Collection Development Coordinator use professional judgment to balance allocations, taking into consideration a broad range of factors including the amount of material received without cost from the Government Publishing Office, disciplinary reliance on periodical materials or monographic materials, resources provided by consortia and State initiatives.

• Preservation and Replacement
• The College Libraries are committed to the appropriate preservation of aging or damaged materials.
• Preservation may include repair, rebinding, or replacement. The method of preservation is influenced by the availability of replacement options, electronic duplication of content, cost of replacement or repair, physical condition of the material, importance of the item to the College Libraries’ collection, and other factors unique to each item.
• The College Libraries will preserve periodicals primarily through binding of loose issues into shelf-ready volumes, as well as through reliable electronic archiving initiatives.
• Librarians will replace lost materials as necessary. Lost items may be directly replaced, or librarians may select like material or variant editions to replace the lost content.

• Deselection
• Deselection of library materials (withdrawal of items from the Libraries’ collections) is essential to maintaining a dynamic library collection; both information obsolescence and poor physical condition decrease the utility and value of library collections.
• Library materials are deselected on an ongoing basis, and when specific deselection needs are identified.
• Deselection criteria may include aging of information, poor physical condition, changes in curriculum which reduce the relevance of subject areas, need for physical space, replacement of information in another format or area.

Appendices

1. Crane Library

2. Archives and Special Collections

3. Government Documents

4. Map Collection

5. Reference Collection

6. Curriculum Collection

7. Juvenile Literature Collection

8. Allocation Formula

9. Glossary