Collection Development Strategies For Academic Programs

 

Collection Development Strategies For Academic Programs

 

Introduction

 

The University of Connecticut Library The University of Connecticut library creates, preserves, and makes accessible rich and distinctive collections that meet the requirements of the UConn community and others for research and education. All undergraduate and graduate programs at the main campus, the four regional campuses, and the UConn Health campus are served by the university library. Although the University Library and the Law Library at UConn are officially independent, they continue to have a close relationship, especially in terms of collection creation and access. The University of Connecticut Libraries comprise the most extensive public research collection in the state, with 3.9 million print volumes and well over 110,000 electronic and print periodicals.Nine physical locations are kept up by the University Library: four on the Storrs campus, one at each of the four regional campuses, and one at the UConn Health campus. In the heart of the campus in Storrs, the University Library’s Homer Babbidge Library serves both undergraduate and graduate programs. The University Archives & Special Collections in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, the Pharmacy Library in the Pharmacy/Biology building, and the School of Fine Arts Resource Center are also located on the Storrs campus. Avery Point, Hartford, Stamford, and Waterbury are the University’s four regional campuses, and each of them maintains a library that is specifically intended to support the programs offered there. Regional campus libraries, including those for Marine Biology at Avery Point, Business, Public Policy, Education, and Social Work at Hartford, Business at Stamford, and Education, Nursing, and Engineering at Waterbury, all house core collections geared toward undergraduates as well as specialized research collections designed to meet the requirements of graduate programs. The University Library’s Storrs and regional campus locations share a common catalog, and each of these libraries acts as a portal to the entire collection. The University Library’s UConn Health Sciences Library keeps a separate catalog that reflects the unique requirements of the UConn Health community.This document covers the ideas and procedures used to build the collections at the Storrs and regional branches of the University Library (hence referred to as “the Library”).

 

The collection’s range By offering resources that support and promote research and scholarship, undergraduate and graduate education, and developing areas of interdisciplinary interest at the University of Connecticut, the Library creates and maintains collections that encourage discovery and the creation of new knowledge. The priorities of the University’s academic programs in terms of study and teaching influence the depth of collection development, which differs by field.The Library is aware that in a democratic society, free thought and expression are essential to research and teaching. The Library is dedicated to offering a well-balanced collection that represents a variety of viewpoints. The collection will not omit any content based on the race, color, ethnicity, religious affiliation, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, or cognitive or physical ability of its authors and/or publishers.

 

Ownership versus Access Permanent research collections must be acquired, carefully curated, and preserved for use in current and future scholarly endeavors. The choice of which resources to acquire for long-term storage must be weighed against the requirement to offer users access to a wide range of information sources with immediate intellectual and research value. Decisions on when to gather for permanent retention, when to lease or borrow items, and when to rely on publicly accessible repositories are influenced by research strengths, academic priorities, and the information demands of students.

 

Sharing and Stewardship of Collective Collections The Library’s collection satisfies the needs of the UConn community and serves as a node in networks of collective collections that have been created by libraries working together at the local, state, national, and international levels. The Library is aware of the critical role these collective collections play in preserving the intellectual record across time and maintaining researchers’ access to it. In order to accomplish this, the Library is dedicated to taking part in collaborations with other libraries that promote collection sharing and stewardship. The Eastern Academic Scholars Trust (EAST), a print retention partnership of more than 50 college and university libraries, is one of the collaborations in which the Library takes part. The goal of EAST is to ensure that the collective scholarly record of print monographs, journals, and serials in the participating libraries is accessible to faculty and students in the northeastern United States and that this record be conserved.

 

Online Licensing Resources The University of Connecticut’s library negotiates licensing under the name “One UConn,” which includes the libraries on the Storrs campus, regional campuses, the Health Sciences library, and the Law library. The Library avoids buying materials where restrictions might inhibit research or intellectual freedom or be impossible to enforce when negotiating license agreements for online resources. The UConn Board of Trustees’ permission, signing power, and contract criteria must all be satisfied in order for access to be allowed to the utmost extent feasible, the library aims to ensure. To that end, the licenses that the libraries negotiate typically refer to and include the terms and conditions found in the LIBLICENSE Model and in other norms that research institutions have extensively adopted.The library also bargains licenses to meet the conditions of the State of Connecticut’s contract. The State of Connecticut’s mandatory contract clauses must be included in licensed resources.

 

Budget for collections The University’s scholarly output is stewarded by the Library’s collection allocations, which also support interlibrary borrowing and lending, enable the discovery of print and online materials worldwide, secure participation in collaborative repositories that safeguard the long-term preservation of both print and digital resources, and support relevant professional memberships. In order to co-finance and co-sponsor specialist resources that assist our research community, the Library also works with schools and departments.

 

Charged with Collection Development The collections are administratively supervised by the Library’s Collections Steering Committee. It establishes broad budgetary allocations for the collection, specifies collection development policies, and periodically examines these budgetary decisions to make tactical adjustments. The Collections Steering Committee is also responsible for making choices about the selection and retention of expensive resources.While individual subject librarians are responsible for assessing and developing collections and information sources relating to their assigned academic disciplines, the Research Services unit of the library coordinates the assessment and development of collections and discovery tools of a cross-disciplinary nature. According to the size of the program, department, school, or area, the type of materials required, the track record of spending relative to prior years, and the presence or absence of new projects and/or professors, funding is distributed among academic fields.

 

Criteria for Collection Development in General The Library uses the following broad criteria when selecting resources to be added to the general collections and consults with the UConn community and consortia to decide which should be acquired or retained:

 

Adaptability to faculty and graduate students’ research interests, current curricular requirements, and research trends in academic fields are all examples of relevance to education and research programs.

 

The breadth and longevity of the Library’s holdings in the field are reflected in the collection’s depth and scope.

 

Quality: The degree of scholarly rigor and originality; the format’s long-term suitability; the author’s, publisher’s, contributors’, and editorial board’s standing; the availability and significance of illustrations and bibliographies.

 

Timeliness and currency: How quickly fresh material significantly advances or replaces older scholarship in a field.

 

Discoverability, usability, and accessibility are terms used to describe how easy it is for users to find information using free search engines and academic databases, how user-friendly the interface is, and how accessible online content is for those with impairments.

 

Cost: The price of obtaining, handling, categorizing, shelving, and maintaining both paid-for and unpaid materials.

 

Renewal rates: Subscribed resources with a four percent or higher renewal rate will be examined. The assessment, which could lead to cancellation, will examine the reasons behind the large cost increase.

 

Language and nation of origin: Ideal tongue and viewpoint for particular programmatic research and educational requirements.

 

Open access to research and scholarship is positively impacted by the resource; the material is currently or soon will be easily accessible to the global community.