Collection Development Policy

The University of Colorado Colorado Springs campus vision and the Kraemer Family Library mission and values ground the principles and strategies employed by Kraemer Family Library in the building and maintenance of the library's collection.

Mission

UCCS, a premier comprehensive undergraduate and specialized graduate research university, provides students with academically rigorous and life-enriching experiences, in a vibrant university community. We advance knowledge, broaden access, and integrate student learning with the spirit of discovery for the benefit of southern Colorado, the state, nation and world.

The Kraemer Family Library fosters the intellectual growth of UCCS students, faculty, staff, and our community by developing innovative services, technologies, collections, and spaces that facilitate their emerging information needs. To accomplish this mission, the library has the following goal and responsibility with regard to collection building:

Select, acquire, maintain, and preserve collections of print, non-print, and electronic library resources with a diversity of perspectives suitable to teaching and learning programs, and to a more limited extent, the research programs of the university.

Scope

This policy is intended to guide and direct the Kraemer Family Library collections. The policy is also designed to anticipate campus needs and respond to new initiatives on campus. Kraemer Family Library's primary clientele is the University of Colorado Colorado Springs students, faculty and staff. Secondarily, some of the library's resources are also used by members of the public and local colleges.

Collection Development for Persons with Disabilities

The Library supports ALA's Purchasing of Accessible Electronic Resources Resolution and electronic resources must comply when possible with Section 508 standards. Persons with disabilities are to have equal access to information and sources under the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, to the extent possible within the mission and guidelines of the Library. Materials in Braille are not acquired for the book collections. Library staff will make good faith efforts to accommodate reasonable requests for assistance in obtaining, accessing, and making use of library resources, materials, and services. For further assistance, individuals with disabilities are referred to Disability Services. The library purchases, in accordance with ADA guidelines, DVDs and eVideo content that includes closed captioning whenever possible. Materials about disabilities will be purchased within the appropriate existing subject funds.

Resources

• Americans with Disabilities Act
• Rehabilitation Act of 1973
• Section 508 Standards

Cooperative Development

Kraemer Family Library works closely with the other CU campuses to purchase resources.  The library has representatives to the CU Libraries Electronic Resources Team (CLERT) and the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (CARL) Shared Collection Development Committee (SCDC). These cooperative efforts allow the library to enhance the library's collections and maximize return on collection dollars by sharing resources with other libraries. The current focus of these cooperative agreements is on electronic resources, but there may be opportunities in the future to broaden the cooperation to other formats as reflected in the Alliance's Print Trust agreement signed by Kraemer Family Library in 2016.

Interlibrary Loan

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is a key component of collection development and access to information. The Library has a long-standing commitment to facilitate access to the collections of other libraries through fast, efficient interlibrary loan (ILL). Kraemer Family Library also utilizes the state-wide shared catalog, Prospector, to supplement the materials available at the library.

A primary element in improving the usefulness of our collections is the adoption of principles that guide the allocation of library materials resources.  These principles include the following:

• Support for undergraduate programs.  Building a basic collection of books, journals, non-print materials, and electronic resources that will address the primary needs of undergraduate students is a priority.
• The library will also provide basic support for all graduate programs with emphasis on support for graduate student curricular needs. 
• In areas with limited collections, priority will be given to access tools (i.e. electronic indexes and databases), and aggressive pursuit of electronic and document delivery options.  

Standards

The Kraemer Family Library supports the statements on collection development contained within the Standards for College Libraries adopted by the American Library Association's Association of College and Research Libraries which states: "Libraries provide access to collections sufficient in quality, depth, diversity, format, and currency to support the research and teaching missions of the institution."

• Standards for College Libraries

Intellectual Freedom and Censorship

The Kraemer Family Library, in support of the American Library Association's Library Bill of Rights recognizes the importance of the free access to ideas and the freedom of expression that is an integral part of the educational process. When possible, the library will purchase materials that represent a wide variety of viewpoints including differing viewpoints on religious, political, sexual, social, economic and scientific issues. Other principles that Kraemer Family Library adheres to are The Freedom to Read, Freedom to View, Access to Digital Information, Services and Networks, Challenged Resources, and Labeling Systems endorsed by the American Library Association.

Materials are not automatically removed from the library at the request of any individual or group. Any group or individual questioning items in the collection should consult the library's Reconsideration Policy. See Reconsideration Policy.

Resources:

• American Library Association's Library Bill of Rights
• Freedom to Read
• Freedom to View
• Access to Digital Information, Services and Networks
• Challenged Resources
• Labeling Systems

Kraemer Family Library uses a library liaison structure in order to meet the diversity of needs and evolving collection demands. This structure allows individual librarians to focus on the changing needs of an individual department. Liaisons assigned to a specific subject or college are responsible for all areas of selection for that area.

Director of Collections Management Responsibilities:

• Work with the library dean, associate dean, library liaisons, faculty and students to develop and coordinate the implementation of the Collection Development Policy.
• Monitor expenditures of each fund to verify that all funds are being spent and that requests meet the selection criteria articulated in the Collection Development Policy.
• Evaluate the collection on an ongoing basis and work with library liaisons to ensure that the collection is current, diverse and meets the curriculum and research needs of faculty and students.

Library Liaisons Responsibilities:

• Select materials in assigned subject areas.
• Work with departmental faculty on identifying and purchasing materials that directly support that department's curriculum and research.
• Select materials for their library specialty areas in all formats: print, eBook, DVD, Streaming Video, audio, etc...
• Identify and analyze electronic resources for assigned disciplines
• Evaluate and remove materials from assigned subjects.

Patrons:

• Students, faculty and other users are welcome to submit requests. Requests are reviewed by the appropriate library liaison and it is at his/her discretion whether or not a title is added to the collection.

Selection decisions are made by library liaisons using a variety of tools including the use of departmental faculty suggestions, reviews, specialized catalogs, and individual liaison's knowledge.

General criteria for selection of library materials

First consideration will be given to materials that meet the level of study in each department. Most titles will be purchased at the undergraduate level with higher level materials (masters & PhD) in subject areas that support master's and doctoral programs. Materials needed for a faculty member's specific research project will not be purchased unless it goes beyond an individual research area to support the curriculum and research of others. Materials that go beyond academic curricula but meet the cultural, career, recreational and information needs of the campus community are also given consideration. General criteria include:

• Material supports the existing collection by adding to the collection or filling in an identified gap.
• Material is high quality in content, format, and/or literary merit; authoritativeness of the author or reputation of publisher/producer is recognized.
• Currency and timeliness of the material.
• Expected usage; for occasional needs, interlibrary loan may be used as a viable alternative to ownership. Materials not available through interlibrary loan may be considered for purchase by individual library liaisons.
• Material is presented in the appropriate format (printed, digital, audio, visual) for the subject matter.
• Price/relative cost of material meets the needs of the area in relation to budget constraints.

Levels of Coverage

Different subject collections may be built to meet one of the levels below. It is the responsibility of the library liaison for each area to understand the level of collection for each discipline that they represent.

Minimal/Basic Level:

Subject areas that fall outside the scope of the library, but may be of interest to faculty and students, will only be collected at a basic or minimal level. It includes information that gives a general overview, background and general information and materials that are considered core to the subject area. Materials in this subject area are intended to answer basic or fundamental inquiries. At the basic level important works and historical overviews of a topic may also be added.

Study or Instructional Support Level:

The instructional support level is collected at a level that will maintain information and knowledge about a subject and is adequate to support independent study and curriculum needs of undergraduates. It includes important primary materials and secondary literature that enhances the depth and understanding of the topic. Materials are reviewed for currency and historically significant information is retained.

Intermediate Study:

Intermediate study level includes a broad range of basic works in appropriate formats, classics, retrospective materials, selected key journals on primary topics, and seminal works on secondary topics. These materials are adequate to support advanced undergraduate course work.

Advanced Study:

Subjects identified for advanced level collection include primary and secondary topics of a subject area. The collection includes a significant number of seminal works and journals on the primary and secondary topics in a field, retrospective materials are retained, works by secondary authors/researchers are included; materials that discuss research, evaluation and specialized techniques are included. This level is used to support master's degree programs and specialized inquiries used by professionals in the field.

Research Level:

Research level is used to support the needs of most graduate students in a given subject. Works containing research, new findings, scientific results and other information useful to researchers will be purchased. Older materials are retained for historical research. The collection is intended to support in-depth study and research.

Each year the Director of Collections Management determines the expected cost for serials and electronic resources for the following year. These costs, and any additional ongoing expenses (binding, document delivery fees, etc...) are taken from the materials budget before allocating funds for the one-time monographic purchases. Money is distributed using an allocation formula. This formula may include the following elements: FTE by department, degree level, number of faculty in a department and average cost of materials in that subject area.

Kraemer Family Endowment Funds

Each year the Director of Collections Management allocates the Kraemer Family Endowment funds to support intergenerational topics. According to the current agreement, materials can be purchased in any format and topics may include, but are not limited to communications, visual and performing arts, technology, economics, politics, health, aging and transfer of values and assets. A limited number of electronic resources are also purchased with the Kraemer Family Endowment.