511 Selection of Library Materials - Procedures outline ( 69 )

Procedures

Criteria for the Selection of Materials

The following selection criteria are used in making the decision to acquire materials:
1. Relevance: supports courses and programs, core academic resources, accreditation processes, scholarly activity, teaching and learning, and employee professional development.
2. Quality: authorial credentials; publisher reputation; accuracy; currency; inclusion in standard guides.
3. Value: intellectual, literary, artistic or social value of the content.
4. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: representative of a wide diversity of views, expressions, lived experiences, and knowledge systems.
5. Level: suitable to the curricula and learning outcomes and inclusive of materials at precollege, vocational, technical, and lower to upper undergraduate levels. More specialized and complex materials may be acquired for instructors to be used in preparation of courses or for scholarly activity.
6. Language: primarily English language. The Library has a selection of Indigenous language materials to support language acquisition and retention.
7. Format: appropriate for use; content integrity; added value; convenience of use; compatibility with the college network, durability and stability. If usage and access warrant, items may be acquired in more than one format.
8. Cost: price relative to average costs for materials in the subject area, as well as costs for acquiring, processing and housing or providing access. Open educational resources are preferred for textbook titles.
9. Existing Holdings: augments or updates the existing collection. The availability of material through interlibrary loan may be a consideration.
10. Demand: as indicated by use of similar material; requests by instructors and students.
11. Duplication: one copy of each item is purchased except when demand is sufficient to justify the purchase of additional copies or when more than one campus Library will benefit from owning the material. Multiple copies of core resources may also be purchased where warranted by high demand at one location; supplementary resources are made available through intercampus delivery rather than duplicating them.

Formats

The Library collects materials in formats best suited to the user and the content.

Materials in electronic formats are preferred when they meet several of the following criteria:
1. Ease of accessibility (via College network and on various devices)
2. Ease of use
3. Current, broad coverage
4. Full text content
5. Content suitable to format
6. Reliable vendor
7. Reasonable cost
8. Availability of usage statistics
9. Fair licensing terms

Cooperative Agreements with Library Consortium

VCC Library is a member of resource-sharing cooperatives among post-secondary institutions in British Columbia. These cooperatives negotiate with vendors to secure discounted subscriptions to electronic resources, including e-books and journal databases. They constitute one of the mechanisms for expanding the Library's collection. In consultation with the Dean, the librarian team acquires resources through these cooperatives in accordance with the selection criteria outlined in this document.

Library collections are enhanced through reciprocal borrowing agreements between BC post-secondary institutions and through provincial and national interlibrary borrowing and lending services.

Collection Evaluation

Librarians evaluate the VCC collection in the following ways:
1. Consultation with instructors;
2. Assessing the relevance of the collection to VCC curriculum;
3. Assessing if areas of the collection are sufficient to support programs;
4. Analyzing usage statistics;
5. Cost/benefit analyses; and/or
6. Consideration of the College's and Library's strategic plans.

Ongoing subscriptions to print or e-resources (such as a print journal or an online database) are reviewed on a regular basis.

Deselection

Deselection (withdrawal) criteria include outdated content; no longer relevant to the collection; superseded edition; duplicated content; electronic version availability; low usage; and poor physical condition

Other Types of Materials

Textbooks:
1. Students are expected to purchase assigned course textbooks.
2. The Library usually acquires one copy of the textbook. When there is demand and budget permits, the Library will acquire a maximum of two copies of a textbook.
3. Where funding permits, and where Open Access textbooks are not available, the Library will purchase replacement and additional copies of textbooks to support students enrolled in academic upgrading programs. Decisions regarding allocations will be made by the Dean and Collections Coordinator in consultation with department leaders.
4. If there is insufficient funding to purchase textbooks, a librarian will approach the department to determine if additional copies are available which can be added to the Library collection.

Gifts and Donations:
1. VCC Library welcomes donations to enhance the existing Library collections.
2. In addition to the selection criteria listed above, the following selection and retention criteria will be applied to gifts:
  1. Donations fall within the scope of the Library's collections and enhance the learning and teaching at the college
  2. Space constraints dictate that the acceptance of items is based on the uniqueness of the material in the context of the existing collection
  3. The physical condition of the materials is acceptable
  4. The donor places no conditions on the disposition and use of the material offered
  5. The Library has the equipment to provide access to the format offered
  6. The licensing (if any) allows circulations and borrowing of the material
3. VCC Library will not issue tax receipts for gifts and donations.

Selection of Library Materials Procedures

Procedures