Collection Development Policy
Purpose Statement
The goal of the LLC’s Library Services team is to support the College’s educational objectives by ensuring an easily accessible, comprehensive collection of library materials and resources. The LLC is an instructional area open to faculty, staff, and students currently enrolled in an FSCJ course for which academic support services are provided.
Responsibility for Collection Development & Management
Responsibility for site-based collection development resides with the LLC’s Library Services team at each campus and center with input from faculty and students. The Library and Information Studies Discipline Council, along with the Library Technical Services Coordinator and library administration, collaboratively review recommendations for collections of e-resources and college-wide acquisitions.
The LLC’s holdings are managed by each campus LLC’s Library Services team in collaboration with the Library Technical Services Coordinator. The physical collection is reviewed monthly for missing and lost items; and regular shelf-reading ensures items are in order. Inventory of our collection is conducted before program accreditation reviews and annually at each campus and center. This process is essential to collection management as it identifies items for replacement, retention, or deselection (weeding).
General Collection Development Guidelines
In following the “One College” vision of the institution, all LLC physical and online collections are intended to be shared across the institution regardless of location. All materials added to the collections should be appropriate for the academic needs and leisure reading of a college community that supports undergraduate and technical-level programs. Because all campuses offer general education courses, the physical library collections at each campus include materials that will support students in the completion of general education course requirements. Additionally, LLC physical collections aim to provide materials that are targeted to the unique programs that are housed at each site. Intercampus sharing of resources is highly recommended. The collection should be reviewed and inventoried on a regular basis to ensure appropriate currency, depth, and usage of the collection.
Subject-Specific Collection Development Guidelines
Subject-specific collections such as those that support Nursing, Allied Health, and Law should be developed and closely reviewed in collaboration with departmental faculty to ensure that these collections meet the specific accreditation standards for those programs. These programs often have stringent limitations on age of collection, and it is the intention of the LLC to meet all program accreditation standards. See the FSCJ Website for a detailed list of accredited programs.
General Guidelines for Selection
The selection of materials is a collaborative process and reflects a variety of viewpoints. Materials are also selected that represent the broad interest of our patrons. The library collects popular fiction and non-fiction items to encourage the curiosity and literacy skills of our patrons. Fostering reading creates lifelong interest. The National Endowment for the Arts (2007) concluded "reading for pleasure correlates strongly with academic achievement” (p.48). Any student, faculty, or staff member may recommend materials to be added to the collection by accessing and completing the online Suggest A Purchase form. The final selection of materials is based on reviews, recommendations, listings of notable books, and subject bibliographies. Librarians use both qualitative (faculty response) and quantitative (size, age, potential use, and cost) data in the selection of materials. Cooperative sharing of resources is considered in both selection and retention of materials. The LLC does not normally purchase textbooks or provide access to electronic textbooks for the library collection.
Criteria for Selection
Materials are selected based on the following criteria:
Being deemed appropriate and relevant to the college curriculum and to the strengthening of the collection
Meeting high standards of quality in content and format
Being current and having enduring value
Representing diverse viewpoints
Deselection
Weeding is essential to collection management. Outdated, inaccurate, lost, damaged, duplicate, and seldom used materials will be regularly considered for withdrawal. See Appendix 5 for Weeding Guidelines.
Shared Collection and Cooperative Agreements
In addition to managing robust circulating collections at all FSCJ LLC locations, the LLC participates in reciprocal borrowing activities with all academic libraries in Florida. These activities are outlined in the Florida Virtual Campus (FLVC) Resource Sharing Guidelines State University System Libraries / Florida College System Libraries Florida Virtual Campus Resource Sharing Standing Committee. The LLC is a member of the Florida Library Information Network (FLIN) for the purposes of reciprocal interlibrary loan privileges for member institutions.
Gifts to the LLC Library Collection
Holdings in the library collection may be supplemented by donation of materials from individuals or groups. Gifts to the library collection will be evaluated using the same criteria as the selection of new materials outlined in the Criteria for Selection Materials section of this document (see above). The LLC may accept instructor's editions of textbooks, review copies of textbooks, or proprietary materials for the Course Reserves collection (not the permanent collection) only if there are no publisher usage limitations attached to the item. These include materials labeled Instructor’s Edition, Annotated Instructor’s Edition, Teacher’s Manual, Review Copy, or Not for Sale. The LLC reserves the right to refuse any materials for any collection if it reasonably deems that the material may be in violation of any contract or law which limits usage rights. The LLC reserves the right to dispose of gifts that do not support or enrich the library collection. The donor will be informed of this practice when the materials are received. Materials become property of the College only after being cataloged and processed for integration into the permanent library collection.
The LLC cannot issue any statement regarding the value of materials donated. Donors may request an acknowledgement of the gift materials. The acknowledgement will include the number of items donated. The FSCJ Foundation is the only authorized unit that may accept cash gifts that support the library collection. For more information about Foundation policies, or to secure a copy of the Donation Form for Non-Cash gifts, please contact the FSCJ Foundation Office by phone (904) 632-3237 or email foundation@fscj.edu.
Materials Supporting Accredited Programs
Collections for accredited programs should be developed and closely reviewed in collaboration with departmental faculty and program leaders to ensure that these collections meet the specific accreditation standards for those programs. See the Program Leader Survey. It is recommended that review for accreditation is ongoing before the self-study. See the FSCJ Program Accreditation schedule for a complete list of programs and deadlines. There are seven main areas the Library and Learning Commons covers in library collection resources for a given program.
Depending on the program, there may be extra resources such as computer applications, LibGuides, models, charts, equipment or special collections.
Acquisitions
Library services staff and faculty members at each campus and center, with guidance and assistance from Library Technical Services staff, collaboratively manage acquisitions processes. LLC acquisition processes and procedures are overseen by Library Technical Services in cooperation with staff and faculty at each physical facility. Faculty, students, and staff are encouraged to submit requests for materials to support the College’s curriculum and community. The Suggest A Purchase form is available on the LLC website.
Course Reserves
A Course Reserves section is available in each LLC for faculty and staff to place items for in-library use by students, faculty, or staff. Faculty complete a Course Reserves Request Form. Library materials may be placed on Course Reserve for one term and will be returned to circulation at the end of term with few exceptions. Personal items may be placed on Course Reserve for one term and will be returned to the requestor at the end of the term unless the requestor indicates otherwise; the LLC is not responsible for loss or damage to personal items placed on Course Reserves. The LLC will add instructor editions to Course Reserves if the publisher has not restricted the material.
Archives
The Archives is a service unit within the LLC that seeks to preserve and archive important historical documents of Florida State College at Jacksonville. Additionally, the unit seeks to identify, collect, digitize and publish significant historical publications produced by FSCJ students, faculty and staff. The physical collections of the Archives unit are housed within the Deerwood Center LLC. These collections are treated as secure and are not open to the public. Authorized LLC personnel conduct research within the collection. Digital collections are open to the public. The digital publications published by the unit are housed on an open Islandora site that is administered in collaboration with the Florida Virtual Campus (FLVC) Digital Archives. Additionally, Archives LibGuides have been published to highlight and offer easy online access to significant collections.
Works Cited:
Dewan, P. (2010). Why your academic library needs a popular reading collection now more than ever. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 17, 44–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/10691310903584775