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ECC - Library LibGuide: Collection Development Policy

Collection Development and Management Policy

The Library supports the total educational program of the College.  This program requires a diverse set of materials unique to a community college library.  Librarians will make library resources available in the format most appropriate to the subject matter, whether in print, non-print, or electronic. 

The Library Director is responsible for the selection of library resources, and will acquire materials and establish services based upon the needs of the users.  The Library will ensure that all students and faculty members have convenient, effective access to a broad range of learning resources and services which will be available wherever the programs or courses are located and however they are delivered.
 

The following criteria will be used for the selection of resources:

  • Instructional needs
  • Overall purpose
  • Timeliness or permanence
  • Importance of the subject matter
  • Quality of the writing/production
  • Readability and popular appeal
  • Authoritativeness
  • Reputation and significance of the author/artist/composer/publisher/producer, etc.
  • Format
  • Price


The Library does not purchase:

  • Multiple copies of a title
  • Textbooks for a course offered at the college
  • Titles that will lose their value after a brief time
  • Titles that contain subject matter or treatment that is not recognized by reputable authority or which is misrepresented as accurate

Procedures following the generally accepted practices of academic libraries have been approved by ECC’s administration concerning general principles of how the Library staff will handle the acquisition and deselection of materials, intellectual freedom, complaints, censorship, confidentiality of records, acceptance of gifts, and replacement of patron computers.