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Selecting library materials involves both the Faculty Liaisons from academic departments and Librarian Liaisons (collectively these two individuals are referred to as “selectors” throughout this document). Their individual functions are described below. See the Collection Liaisons page for a full listing of Faculty and Librarian Liaisons.
Departments are asked to assign Faculty Liaisons to collaborate with the Librarian Liaisons in ordering materials for their subject areas. Changes to this assignment should be communicated to the Resource Acquisitions Manager and the Librarian Liaison for the department. Faculty Liaison duties are as follows:
Librarians serve as liaisons to two or more academic disciplines as assigned. Librarian Liaison duties are as follows:
Faculty Liaisons and their Librarian Liaisons should coordinate their purchases by regular meetings, phone calls, and/or email as appropriate to the parties involved. Both liaisons draw from their different perspectives and contribute information about what students, faculty, and staff will find most useful in the Library’s collections. Selectors can refer to Resources for Selectors to find information about the materials selection process.
Selectors are responsible for ensuring that materials fulfill the requirements of the collection development policy suite. Within these criteria, selectors may request whatever materials they deem appropriate for their discipline. The Acquisitions Department is responsible for ordering and receiving physical and electronic materials, and may contact the selector for further information if the item is not available via the usual routes. The Department also has the following considerations:
The Library must maintain the subscription after the original purchase, so adding a new periodical title requires careful consideration. The Guidelines for Materials Selection apply to periodicals acquisitions. Faculty Liaisons and Librarian Liaisons should discuss possible changes in periodical subscriptions before submitting requests. The Library will use the following procedures for changes to a periodical subscription:
Faculty Liaisons should submit requests for new titles to the Librarian Liaison for their department. The Librarian Liaison will evaluate the title, check to see if there is overlap provided by an aggregator and compare it to other holdings in the subject area to see if it represents a useful addition to the Library’s holdings.
The addition of new journal subscriptions is contingent on available funding. If, after evaluation the Librarian Liaison recommends that the periodical subscription be added, the liaison will send the periodical title, faculty who requested the title if applicable, and any other pertinent information to the Resource Acquisitions Manager.
The Resource Acquisitions Manager will evaluate the recommendation per e-resource selection guidelines and, budget permitting, add the title and initiate the acquisition and payment process.
Periodical subscriptions will be considered for cancellation if they have a high cost per use, overlapping coverage in an aggregator, or unsustainable renewal increases. Those that serve subject areas no longer taught on campus and/or are not classics considered indispensable by reputable sources will also be considered for cancellation.
Either the Librarian Liaison or the Resource Acquisitions Manager may initiate cancellation recommendations of currently received titles for specific departments. The Resource Acquisitions Manager will provide information on statistics and pricing as part of this evaluation.
The Librarian Liaison may confer with the Faculty Liaison or make the decision regarding cancellation independently, considering the value of the title and considering its subject matter and reputation within the discipline, as well as its usage and any duplication through aggregators.
After confirmation with Librarian Liaison, the Resource Acquisitions Manager will cancel the journal subscription.
The Library requires systematic deselection of materials to ensure the collection is dynamic and current. This process involves evaluating materials to ascertain that they continue to be useful to the Central community. The following are general guidelines for deselection. Specific exceptions for an individual collection’s deselection are described in the policy for that collection.
Subject areas with Faculty Liaisons are deselected during assigned months from July-October and January-April. Refer to the most current listing of departments’ deselection months.
During the assigned month, deselection of an area starts when the Librarian Liaison submits the Intent to Weed form that notifies Stacks Management and Metadata & Cataloging of upcoming removal of items from the collection. If the Intent to Weed notification is not submitted by the Librarian Liaison, it is assumed that deselection of that area will not be completed that academic year.
Librarian Liaisons will identify and pull items from the collection to be considered for deselection.
Once complete, the Librarian Liaison will route deselected items through Metadata & Cataloging, which will process the deselections, post a list of deselected items for that subject area on the library website and shelve the deselected materials in a designated area for review.
The Librarian Liaison will notify their faculty that deselected materials are available for review. Faculty may review the posted list or may review the items in person in the designated area for deselection review. Faculty review starts the month following the subject area's deselection month where faculty or other interested parties have until the last calendar day of the month to submit retention requests.
If a retention request is submitted, the Librarian Liaison will pull the item(s) from deselection review and determine whether it should be retained in the collection. If the title is to be retained, the Librarian Liaison will route it to Metadata & Cataloging. The item/s will be marked for retention in the catalog and sent back to the collection. Notes in the catalog will indicate when and why the retention request was made, and by whom (faculty member or department).
After review, materials will be routed to Metadata & Cataloging upon review period expiration for withdrawal processing.
Detailed workflows of deselection, retention, and withdrawal processes are available to library staff. (Refer to Resources for Selectors)
Collections without Faculty Liaisons may be deselected without a review period. The Librarian responsible for the collection may determine if a review period is appropriate in some circumstances. The Children’s Collection, Multimedia Collection, Reference Collection, and any collection outside the scope of subject area deselection are deselected from May-June. Additionally, the Library may choose to deselect entire collections with no plans for additional selection should it be determined that the collection no longer meets the needs of the Central community.
Print and microformat periodicals are deselected only in the following cases:
Deselection due to space considerations may be necessary as the collection grows due to current and future subscriptions, however every effort will be made to adhere to the above first. Further deselection decisions, if necessary, will be made between the Resource Acquisitions Manager and the applicable Librarian Liaison/s.
Canceling a journal subscription does not automatically result in deselection of the title’s backfile. Subscription cancellations are a separate process. (See: Procedures for Periodicals)
The Library maintains a Reconsideration form on the website. Items challenged either through that method or brought directly to a Librarian will be considered for deselection by the appropriate Librarian Liaison or Liaisons and the Resource Acquisitions Manager using the following criteria:
Challenged materials will only be brought to the Collection Development Committee as a whole if the above Librarians cannot come to a consensus or if the challenge is to larger portions of the collection.
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