The Miller Information Common’s Collection Development Policy provides an overall plan for the development of the collections of the library. This document outlines the principles, policies, and guidelines used in building the library’s collections. It defines the scope of the existing collection, provides a plan for the future, provides direction to those responsible for developing the collections, and communicates the library’s policies to the Champlain Community. Because of the changing nature of libraries, library materials and resources, the Collection Development Policy is considered a living document subject to review and revision.
The goal of the collection at the Champlain College Library is to provide support for the college’s dynamic curriculum and to aid in Champlain’s mission to provide a “radically pragmatic career-focused education.”
The Champlain College Library collects materials to support the academic and research needs of Champlain students, faculty, and staff. The primary criterion for acquiring materials is their relevance to Champlain's teaching and learning mission. Champlain College is a dynamic, educational institution with programs that evolve over time. The collection itself must be dynamic and responsive to the changing needs of the College’s curriculum. Generally, Champlain collects at the Instructional Support Level (as defined by the Research Libraries Group) to support coursework primarily at the undergraduate level and at the graduate level in some fields. Professional and research materials are included as needed by faculty and staff.
With the opening of the Miller Information Commons in 1998, the Library invested heavily in online resources, including databases, full-text journals, and subscription eBook collections. Indeed, the very structure of the MIC building shapes the collection itself, since shelf space for print books is limited by design. The building’s unique architecture and its mission as an information commons accommodates fewer physical resources in order to maximize collaborative and classroom space. Thus, the importance of assessing and maintaining the print collection is heightened, since every volume must earn its space.
A strong library collection is influenced by many constituents. Key stakeholders are listed below.
The primary responsibility for building the collection falls to the Head of Collection Development. In fulfilling this role, the Librarians consult professional literature and sources for reviews of relevant academic materials. To ensure the collection meets the curricular focus, the Librarians stay abreast of the College’s curriculum. Ongoing dialogue with the Champlain faculty is particularly important to build a collection that reflects the needs of the curriculum and new course development.
The Library has maintained a strong bond with the Champlain faculty and has leveraged that relationship into building a responsive and relevant collection. The Head of Collection Development works closely with faculty members from all divisions to acquire materials that will enhance student learning and support curricular needs.
Faculty input can take many forms. Faculty are invited to make suggestions formally and informally. Faculty can be alerted to new publications in book reviews such as CHOICE, or the Head of Collection Development will seek out their opinions on a title by title basis. In addition, the Head of Collection Development works with the faculty to review current holdings that support the curriculum and to generate lists of relevant resources for acquisition. Faculty members are encouraged to share their class assignments, ideas for new courses, and research needs and interests with the Head of Collection Development.
Because the Champlain curriculum is aimed at offering a “radically pragmatic career-focused education,” the role and input of practitioners is immensely valuable. Therefore, we seek out suggestions from staff in areas appropriate to the curriculum.
When possible we will also seek to build the collection to help the staff from various departments accomplish their roles more effectively. This can take the form of academic or professional literature.
Students are invited to make suggestions for the collection. Suggested resources will be acquired following the approval of the Head of Collection Development. Furthermore, the Library has activated trigger purchases in its eBook collection. When a student directly accesses an eBook, a purchase is triggered, guaranteeing that only those titles with usage are purchased.
Materials for the collection can be acquired in four ways: through purchase, subscription, leasing, and rental.
Materials purchased for the collection will be the permanent property of the Library and will be accessible to all in the Champlain Community. These include books, DVDs, digital site licenses (DSL) and some eBooks.
Our primary means of providing access to electronic resources is through annual subscriptions. This means that we do not actively add to or remove from collections such as O’Reilly and Skillport. For these collections, access to content, how content can be used, and how content can be shared are governed by licensing agreements that are signed when we begin a subscription. The terms of these licenses differ greatly from one product to the next.
A small portion of our print book collection is leased. These include our Popular Books, which are leased for a flat fee on a yearly basis. Through an agreement with a book distributor, we receive new titles of popular fiction and nonfiction. Older titles in the collection may be exchanged for newer publications as part of this program. The library may elect to keep up to 20% of these popular titles to be added to the permanent collection for no additional fee. Any suggestions for additions to this collection are approved by the Head of Collection Development.
A portion of our streaming media content is rented from vendors such as Kanopy and Swank. The rentals are initiated by faculty and provide short term access to videos in support of teaching and learning. Students may request a new rental if videos are needed for research.