Collection Development

The LCC Library Collection Development guidelines are intended to guide the selection, evaluation, and de-selection of print, audiovisual, and electronic materials for the collection. It is meant to provide a written statement of the Library’s objectives in building its collection and to communicate library policy to students, faculty, staff, and administrators as well as guide librarians in their collection development decisions.

Mission and Vision | Guiding Principles | Library Mission and Vision | Scope and Focus | Intellectual Freedom | Copyright | Responsibility for Selection | General Selection Criteria | Gifts | Weeding/Deselection | Cooperative Collection Agreements | Liaison with User Groups | Recommendations | Reconsideration

Mission and Vision

The College’ vision is to serve the learning needs of a changing community. Our mission is to provide high-quality education ensuring that all students successfully complete their educational goals while developing life skills necessary for them to enrich and support themselves, their families, and their community as engaged global citizens.

LCC Guiding Principles

The College adheres to twelve guiding principles. LCC will be a “Comprehensive Community College” focused upon offering learning opportunities in four areas: career and workforce development, general education, developmental education, and personal enrichment.

Library Mission and Vision

The mission of the LCC Library is to empower the LCC community to learn, teach, and discover. The Library’s vision is to impact every student, every time.

Scope and Focus of the Collection

The LCC Library acquires resources that add value to the various collections, supplement the diverse curricula, and support program accreditation. A focus is placed on introductory resources aimed at lower division undergraduates.

The library collections reflect cultural diversity and multiple points of view to help foster LCC's cultural diversity and critical thinking.

The library collections are available in multiple formats to help maximize access to content and address the needs of different learning styles. Increased emphasis is placed on electronic resources for easier access by multiple users from on and off campus.

The library may also purchase textbooks and supplemental materials in both print and electronic formats.

The focus is placed on acquiring required supplemental textbooks that are:

• required for a general education course
• selected by the librarian liaison or library staff because they add value to a program and multiple subjects.

Departments and programs are encouraged to provide course-specific materials for the Library's course reserves service through donations from departments and instructors. Complete the course reserves form to start the process.

Although the focus of the collection is on supplementing current academic courses and curricula, the library is committed to working with faculty, staff, and administrators to help support their research by obtaining materials via interlibrary loan (ILL), Michigan eLibrary Catalog (MeLCat), and appropriate referrals to other area libraries.

Intellectual Freedom

Because access to a variety of viewpoints is essential to the development of critical thinking, the LCC Library supports the American Library Association's Bill of Rights and Freedom to Read Statement.

Copyright

The Library complies with the Copyright Act (Title 17 of the U.S. Code) and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act .

Responsibility for Selection

All librarians share the responsibility for the selection of materials (print or electronic). The Manager of Technical Services & Systems provides overall management and coordination of selection and acquisition activities, including deselection of outdated materials and collection assessment projects.

Types and Formats of Materials Collected

Books

• Books are acquired to support the curriculum needs of LCC students, faculty, and staff.
• The Library also selectively acquires popular materials of general interest (Leisure reading collection) and materials for ESL students (READ collection). Books may be collected in print and electronic/online formats.

Reference Materials

• The reference collection includes encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, directories, indexes, bibliographies, statistical compilations, and handbooks.
• The reference collection is regularly reviewed for currency, accuracy, and relevance.
• Reference materials may be collected in print and online formats.

Periodicals or Journals

• The print periodicals collection supports LCC curriculum as well as providing a core collection of general interest periodicals.
• New print subscriptions are only acquired after careful consideration by librarians.
• Electronic periodicals or journals are primarily acquired through online databases.

Audiovisual Materials

• The Library does not actively collect physical audiovisual materials such as DVDs or music CDs. The Library will purchase faculty request for AV materials if this will be used to support teaching and student learning. Faculty can fill out the Suggest Items for Purchase Form and will be contacted by the appropriate librarian regarding status of their request.

Streaming Videos

The Library provides streaming videos for use by faculty and students in teaching and learning. Inclusion of these materials in the Library's collection should meet the following guidelines in addition to general selection criteria:

• Item has demonstrated applicability in more than one course or discipline.
• Treatment and presentation of subject content are on an appropriate academic level.
• Format is cost effective, durable and accessible.

Electronic Resources

• Electronic resources include web-based resources, licensed resources and databases, electronic periodicals, and e-books.
• The Library may purchase or provide access to online electronic resources in lieu of other formats.

General Selection Criteria

The following criteria will be used in making selection decisions for materials in Library collection:

• Relevance of material to the LCC curriculum
• Critical review or quality of the material content
• Listing in standard bibliographies and guides
• Reputation or authoritativeness of the publisher
• Reputation or authoritativeness of the author
• Calculated or estimated price
• Potential for use or known need
• Strength or weakness of the collection in particular areas
• Usefulness with respect to other materials in the collection, including the   representation of all sides of controversial issues
• Currency of the material
• Ability to obtain the material through other means, such as electronic access, MeLCat, or inter-library loan (ILL)
• Preference will be given to electronic materials that can be accessed remotely whenever possible and practical

Gifts

Due to space limitations, the Library does not accept gifts in the form of book or media donations. Please contact your local public library to donate these items or learn about more book donation options. If you have a book you wrote that you would like us to add to the collection, submit the Suggest Materials for Purchase form.

Weeding/Deselection

Weeding or deselection is the process of removing materials from the library collection in a systematic and deliberate way in order to maintain a current, viable, and useful collection that serves the curricular needs of the College. Weeding is a dynamic and ongoing process and the following factors are used to determine when materials should be removed from the collection:

• Superseded editions
• Duplicate copies
• Age and physical condition of the book
• Frequency of circulation
• Obsolescence of content
• Presence of other books on the subject matter
• Removal of a program from the curriculum
• Inclusion of titles in recognized bibliographic sources

Librarians with assigned areas of collection development responsibilities are primarily responsible for weeding materials in their assigned area.

Cooperative Collection Agreements

The Library supplements the information resources that are available to its users by participating in various cooperative agreements. The Inter-Library Loan (ILL) program provides access to print monographs and journal articles available from libraries within Michigan and elsewhere. MeLCat provides access to both print and multimedia resources statewide. Both of these services are available for free to all students, faculty, and staff of LCC.   

Liaison with User Groups

Library staff endeavor to promote close working relationships with LCC departments and programs. Faculty librarian liaisons are assigned to specific course subject areas to work collaboratively with teaching faculty, serve as a department's first point of contact for information about library resources and services, and select materials to support curricula.

Recommendations

Recommendations for new or additional library materials from LCC students, faculty, and staff are accepted and encouraged. Requests can be made electronically by submitting a Suggest Materials for Purchase form.

Reconsideration

If a library user finds an item objectionable and wishes to have it removed from the collection, the user may ask that title be reconsidered. The following process has been developed for reconsideration of library materials:

1. The person making a request for reconsideration submits a completed Request for Reconsideration of Library Resources to the Library Director.
2. The Director assigns the request to the Library Reconsideration Committee for review.
3. The Library Reconsideration Committee reviews the request and submits a written recommendation to the Director.
4. The Director makes a decision and notifies the person making the request.

The Library will make every effort to resolve the matter within 60 days of receiving the request.

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