Valle
Verde Library Collection Development Policy,
adopted May 14, 1999; last revised
October 13, 2006.
Valle Verde Collection Development Policy Committee:
Kerry Ann Gardner (Chair), Norma Ballenger, Sahyly Martinez
Structure
The El Paso Community College-Valle Verde Campus Library is one of five campus libraries in the El Paso Community College (E.P.C.C.) system. The Valle Verde Library employs three full-time and ten part-time public services librarians, including a Head Librarian who coordinates the library's activities. Clerical and student workstudy employees in the circulation and serials area report to the Public Services Supervisor. The Public Services Supervisor and the part-time librarians report to the Head Librarian. Full-time public services librarians report to the Division Dean for Education and Occupational Programs at Valle Verde.
The primary mission of the Valle Verde Library is to provide services, facilities, collections and an external resource network to support the mission of E.P.C.C. The E.P.C.C. mission is "to provide educational opportunities and support services that prepare individuals to improve their personal quality of life and to contribute to their economically and culturally diverse community". <http://www.epcc.edu/collegeinfo/mission/> The Valle Verde Library provides its diverse and multicultural population of students, faculty, staff and community users with access to information resources and responsive services. The Library also helps support the professional development needs of E.P.C.C. - V.V. faculty and staff. Operational goals of the Library's mission include facilitating access to relevant information:
1) through the development of library collections and access to external information sources,
2) through the library's organization and arrangement for access,
3) through appropriate reference services and user education programs,
4) through the acquisition and maintenance of appropriate equipment and software to provide access to library resources and services and to develop teaching aids,
5) through the development of facilities of adequate size and quality to house collections, resources and equipment and to provide adequate space for patrons and library personnel and
6) through the effective recruitment and professional development of library faculty and staff. The Library is committed to the goal of helping to prepare students for lifelong learning by providing them with opportunities to learn how to access information in different formats and to develop the critical thinking skills associated with information literacy.
Back to TopThe Library serves a diverse body of over 15,400 students and 1,000 faculty, staff, support personnel and administrators. The Valle Verde Campus offers over 1,800 credit course sections and non-credit sections per semester. El Paso Community College grants the degrees of the Associate of Arts (A.A.), the Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S.), Certificates of Completion, Enhanced Skills Certificates and Continuing Education Units. The Valle Verde Campus offers
1) transfer degree programs which lead to further study toward a baccalaureate degree,
2) vocational-technical career programs,
3) lifelong learning opportunities through adult education programs,
4) community service programs which promote the area's economic growth and individual personal development,
5) developmental programs for students who have experienced limited success in academic achievement or who have been away from formal education for some time
6) an Early College High School program, and
7) programs that address the issue of illiteracy and its associated problems.
Library usage is also available, on a limited and restricted basis, to members of the El Paso community who are not affiliated with E.P.C.C.
The collection consists of approximately 46,151 titles, including
The Library also subscribes to over 50 online full-text and abstract databases and almost 28,300 e-book titles.
The V.V. Library has web site which includes links to free Web-based resources including 1) local, state and federal government resources, 2) web sites that support the curriculum of the campus, and 3) web sites that offer self-paced study of information literacy skills.
Purpose of Collection Development Policy Statement
This Collection Development Policy statement has been developed as a guide to assist the Library in exercising its collection development responsibilities. This statement also provides a document in hand when a selection decision is challenged. The Collection Development Policy is open to revision as conditions change, and input from the College community is welcomed.
Back to Top1. Final authority for materials purchasing rests with the Head Librarian. Selection is the shared responsibility of the public services librarians and other faculty at the Valle Verde campus.
2. The Library will retain control of all resources purchased or placed in its inventory. All such resources will be housed in the library.
3. Final authority for the determination of policy in the selection and acquisition of all library materials is vested in the Board of Trustees of the El Paso Community College District.
1. The collection development policy will be guided by national library standards including the A.C.R.L. Standards for Libraries in Higher Education<http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/standardslibraries.htm> and seeks to keep pace with any changes made to these standards and with other relevant new standards adopted by the library profession.
2. The collection development policy is further guided by the standards established by our accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools <http://www.sacscoc.org/principles.asp> and by the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
1. The Library believes that the maintenance of a free society requires free access to different points of view, and a conscientious effort is made to include material concerning all sides of an issue. To this end, the Library affirms its acceptance of the principles enumerated in the “Library Bill of Rights" <http://www.ala.org/work/freedom/lbr.html#rights>as adopted by the American Library Association.
2. Objections to material and requests for reevaluation must be presented in writing, following the procedures outlined in the Library Resources Operations Procedures Manual.
1. It is the policy of the Library to support the property and copyrights of the creators and their assigns to the materials contained in the collections, as encompassed in the Copyright Act of 1976, as Amended.
2. The Library further recognizes the need for the fair use of these materials in the pursuit of the mission of the College.
1. The Library will build and maintain collections that adequately support the curriculum taught at the Valle Verde Campus. These include associate degree and certificate programs, programs that have specialized accreditation, continuing and community education programs, community service programs and remedial programs for non-traditional or under-prepared learners.
2. The emphasis of the collection will be on supporting the curriculum of E.P.C.C. degree and certificate programs offered at the Valle Verde Campus. A broad spectrum of materials should be available to support research assignments, classroom reports and self-paced learning.
As the language of instruction at E.P.C.C. is English, materials written in English will generally be preferred, with the following exceptions:
1. Unless there is a constant and pervasive need for on-site use, the Library will avoid purchasing highly priced titles that are readily available from another E.P.C.C. library.
2. In order to provide the broadest possible range of materials for the support of the curriculum, duplication of titles within the library collection will be avoided unless there is a demonstrable need for multiple copies. Said need would be based on patron usage. Duplicate copies will otherwise be weeded from the collection.
1. The collection shall include materials and information in diversified formats including print and non-print media.
1. Due to their longer shelf life, hardbound editions will generally be preferred over paperbound editions when there is a choice between the two. Paperback editions may be preferred for titles that are not expected to contribute lasting value to the collection (such as fiction for leisure reading).
1. Library collections are designed to supplement and enhance information given in course textbooks. Students are expected to buy their own copies of textbooks for each course. The Library will not purchase textbooks unless they can be shown to fill a need not met by comparable materials in the collection. Such exceptions would be classic textbooks, especially those in scientific, technical and business fields, that have become recognized as standard references.
1. Children's materials will be acquired only as needed to support Literature, Child Development, Teacher Preparation and Children's College classes. It is not the Library's intent to offer a special collection of children's materials. Readers wishing to access a more extensive collection of children's materials are referred to El Paso Public Library.
1. The Library maintains a small special collection of federal and state law books to support the College's Criminal Justice and Paralegal programs.
1. The Library will provide works of fiction to support Reading and Literature course work.
2. The Library maintains a small browsing book collection, primarily paperback, for leisure reading. Selected titles include popular novels and selections from the mystery, western, adventure, romance and horror genres. Readers wishing to access a more extensive collection of leisure reading materials are referred to El Paso Public Library.
N. Highly Specialized, Rare or Highly Costly Materials
1. Requests from students or faculty members for the purchase of highly specialized, rare or very expensive material should be handled by providing access to the material through Interlibrary Loan ("Resource Sharing") services or via the Texshare program. Such purchase requests might be justified if the material was intended for repeated, annual use by an entire class.
1. Guidelines for the evaluation of gifts are the same as those for selecting purchased materials. Gift titles are accepted only when they impose no significant limitations on housing, handling or the disposition of duplicate or damaged items. If there is any question about adding a gift title to the collection, the final determination will rest with the Head Librarian. (See “Gifts & Donations Procedures” in the Library Resources Operations Procedures Manual.)
2. Library personnel are not permitted to issue appraisals of gift materials for tax or any other purposes.
P. Professional Review Literature
1. The Library will develop and maintain bibliographic review resources needed for collection development decisions. Selection tools may include but are not limited to professional bibliographies, notable booklists and professional library review journals such as Booklist and Library Journal, in print or electronic format, as well as leading subject-specific professional journals.
2. Professional review literature should be easily accessible on a timely basis to each librarian who has collection development responsibilities, with priority access given to the Discipline Liaison librarians.
1. The Library should be prepared to utilize new technologies for accessing information as they are developed. Convenient, effective access to electronic bibliographic and full-text databases, whether on-site or remote, must be provided when necessary to support the academic curriculum.
III. INTERLIBRARY LOAN AND COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT
A. Inter-Campus Loan
1. E.P.C.C. campus libraries make their materials available to each other through inter-campus loan, or, in the case of periodical articles, through fax. These services are provided to patrons at no charge.
B. Cooperative Agreements - General
1. As part of the E.P.C.C. Library system, the Valle Verde Library participates in cooperative agreements with other library systems including the Amigos interlibrary loan network and the Texshare reciprocal borrowing network.
C. Texshare
1. Direct borrowing privileges may be made available to current faculty, staff and students from libraries that participate in the Texshare program.
D. Interlibrary Loan
1. The E.P.C.C. Library Public Services departments at each campus and the district Library Technical Services Department provide Interlibrary Loan, renamed "Resource Sharing," services for students, faculty and staff so that they may access materials that are unavailable locally. Materials requested via this service are limited to those materials that the E.P.C.C. Library system and El Paso Public Library do not own. All such requests are made in consideration of the copyright law, the American Library Association's “Interlibrary Loan Code,” and the policies of the lending institution, network, or cooperative system. (See “Interlibrary Loans” in the Library Resources Operations Manual.)
A. Source and Allocation
1. The College budgets collection development monies to the Library as separate line items as follows:
2. Funds from the General Materials Budget will be divided evenly among the Divisions and will include support for Continuing Education. Replacement Material Funds will be allocated to General Reference (L.C. Classification "A") and miscellaneous special needs.
B. Extraordinary Needs
1. In addition, any extraordinary support needed for new courses and new curricula or due to a marked shift in student population needs must be taken into account. Priority will be given to materials that support new programs and strengthen weak areas of the collection.
Back to Top V.
RESPONSIBILITY FOR SELECTION AND ACQUISITIONS
A. Responsibility for Selection
1. Collection development in an academic setting should be a cooperative effort between the library faculty and the other teaching faculty, with each complementing the efforts of the other. The Library designates full-time public services librarians as liaisons to one or more Campus Divisions. Each Division Liaison librarian works with faculty members within the appropriate Division, Department or Program in developing the collection.
2. All Valle Verde Campus public services librarians will participate in the collection development process. The Division Liaison librarians will coordinate the selection of materials.
3. Division Liaison librarians are also responsible for the selection of general materials not specifically related to the curriculum and for maintaining a balance between the various subject areas and between standard and current works.
4. Suggestions from students, staff and community patrons for the purchase of library materials are welcomed. Recommended items will be given careful consideration and will be purchased if they meet the standards outlined in our selection policy.
5. Final judgment regarding the relevance of potential additions to the collection rests with the Division Liaison librarians and, ultimately, the Head Librarian. Final management decisions as to the order in which specific collection requests are to be prioritized and purchased and what gifts should be accepted and processed are also the responsibility of the Head Librarian.
B. Responsibility for Acquisitions
1. As cost-effective acquisition is a specialized function that requires a separate set of procedures, controls and expertise, the E.P.C.C. Library Technical Services Department processes all acquisitions requests.
2. To aid Division Liaison librarians with collection development and liaison duties, the Library Technical Services Department should provide the following monthly reports:
A. Definitions of Collection Levels
Collection levels employed by the Library are used both for policy development and for collection evaluation purposes. The collection levels are taken from the “W.L.N. Collection Codes” as shown in the American Library Association's Guide for Written Collection Policy Statements, 2nd edition, 1996. The Appendix more fully describes these collection levels.
B. Collection Levels at the Valle Verde Library
In general, collection levels will be as follows:
A. General Criteria
B. Additional Criteria - Children's Materials
1. Children's materials will include selections from lists of the well-known children's classics in literature and from lists of award-winning children's books, including the Newbery, Caldecott and Texas Bluebonnet award lists.
C. Additional Criteria - Periodicals
1. Periodicals selected for purchase should be indexed in one of the commercial indexes subscribed to by the Library. Exceptions may be made for periodicals judged important to curriculum support which are not indexed in common sources, such as local publications relating to the business, news or culture of the El Paso area.
2. Other additional criteria include the number of periodicals received in the subject area, availability of back issues in non-print format (exceptions will be made for journals in the visual arts subject areas and for indexes), frequency of updates and scarcity of materials in other formats.
3. Newspapers: The Library will maintain subscriptions to national, local and some foreign newspapers. The Library also maintains a number of subscriptions to various trade papers whose content relate to the curriculum of the college. Retention periods vary for newspapers depending on available space, importance of title, indexing in sources owned by the Library and access to the title elsewhere in the El Paso community.
D. Additional Criteria - Microforms
1. The Library may acquire microform materials for any of the below reasons:
E. Additional Criteria - Audiovisual Materials
1. Audiovisual materials such as videocassettes, audiocassettes, compact discs, and D.V.D.s will be selected to supplement and enhance lectures and course work, and for a small classic films browsing collection. Audiovisual materials for classroom use are generally provided by the E.P.C.C. Valle Verde Campus Instructional Media Services department which purchases, houses and maintains its own separate collection.
2. Additional criteria for selection include technical and/or artistic quality, compatibility with Library-owned equipment and contribution of uniqueness or significance by the presentation or content.
F. Additional Criteria - Electronic Databases and Online Services
1. It is preferable to review a demo of the proposed database or online service before making an acquisition decision.
2. Additional criteria for selection include:
G. Additional Criteria - Software
1. Microcomputer software programs that are compatible with existing and future (where potential is known) Library-owned hardware/software may be acquired as needed to support electronic curricular resources such as C.D.s, D.V.D.s, the Internet, the online card catalog and other online databases.
2. Additional criteria for selection include ease of use, licensing considerations, technical support, technical quality, upgradability, stability of producer/distributor, depth and quality of documentation, and level of expertise necessary for installation, maintenance, troubleshooting, etc.
H. Additional Criteria - World Wide Web Links from the V.V. Library Web Site
1. Additional criteria for selection include
VIII.
COLLECTION EVALUATION AND MAINTENANCE
The Division Liaison librarians, with assistance from other public services librarians and with the involvement of relevant Division faculty, will give systematic attention to collection evaluation and maintenance. This will include acquiring knowledge of existing holdings, identifying weaknesses relative to the curriculum and making the necessary acquisition and de-selection decisions.
A. Collection Evaluation
1. The library collection will be maintained by continuously evaluating the contents both qualitatively and quantitatively. The purpose of evaluation is to identify "gaps" in specific subject areas and to maintain a well-balanced collection in terms of the philosophy and purpose of the Library, and therefore the College.
2. The collection should be evaluated systematically and on a regular basis by a combination of methods. Possible evaluation techniques include:
B. Weeding
1. Responsibility
Primary responsibility for weeding the collection is held by the Division Liaison librarians with the involvement of relevant Division faculty in the specific subject areas.
2. Criteria
a. The following general criteria are considered when discarding materials:
b. Additional Criteria for canceling a subscription to or weeding Periodical titles includes:
c. Additional guidelines for weeding within certain subject areas and by format are contained in the Library Resources Operations Manual under “Withdrawal of Materials from Collection.”
3. Schedule
a. The Reference collection will be weeded annually.
b. The Circulating collection will be weeded every three years in a piecemeal process. The Library will follow a written weeding schedule, arranged by subject area, for the Circulating collection.
c. The Periodicals collection will be weeded annually. Decisions regarding subscriptions to be canceled are made no later than August of each year. No title will be dropped without consultation with the relevant Discipline Coordinator, except when the same title is currently available in a different format (for example, electronic format). If questions or problems arise, the Division Dean will be consulted.
C. Identification and Replacement of Damaged, Lost or Stolen Materials
1. The entire collection will be inventoried every three years to identify damaged or missing material. The Valle Verde Library Circulation Department will perform the inventory.
2. The same general and specific criteria for selection will apply when determining if the material is to be replaced in the library collection. For more specific criteria, see “Withdrawal of Materials from Collection,” “Identification and Repair of Damaged Books,” and “Disposal of Discarded Materials” in the Library Resources Operations Manual.
D. Preservation
1. Problems with environmental controls such as temperature, humidity and water leakage will be reported immediately to the Head Librarian who will arrange for the appropriate Campus maintenance unit to address the problem. The same procedure will apply for the presence of insects such as cockroaches, silverfish and termites so that an exterminator can be contacted. The presence of mold may require fungicide fogging.
2. Depending on their importance to the collection and level of use, materials in bad physical condition beyond normal repair may be
Restoration is almost always more costly than replacement. The Library does not own or plan to own rare or semi-rare materials so restoration is not considered an option.
The Valle Verde Library Library circulation staff perform all repair functions; the V.V. Discipline Liaison librarians make the determination as to whether an item should be repaired or discarded.
IX.
REVIEW OF COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY STATEMENT
The Valle Verde Library Collection Development Committee will review the Collection Development Policy statement annually and make proposals for revisions as needed.
Back to Top_____________________________________________________________________
The collection levels are taken from the “W.L.N. Collection Codes” as shown in the American Library Association's Guide for Written Collection Policy Statements, 2nd edition, 1996.
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Last Updated: March 6, 2008
Created and maintained by Kerry Ann Gardner, Librarian
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