Collection Development Policy

Date Approved Febraury 21, 2024

Purpose

The Pacific University Libraries support the mission of Pacific University to create a diverse and sustainable community dedicated to discovery and excellence in teaching, scholarship, and practice. The Libraries support this mission, in part, by providing access to diverse information through local collections, licensed resources, on-demand access, and resource-sharing partnerships.

The purpose of this document is to guide the systematic development and management of the Libraries’ collections of information resources, whether owned and locally held or licensed for access by the Pacific University community. This policy establishes priorities for the scope, coverage, types of access, and management approaches that must characterize the Libraries’ collections to ensure that the information needs of the Pacific University community are appropriately met.

Background

Founded in 1849, Pacific University is the second oldest university in the West. It is organized into five Colleges: Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Health Professions, and Optometry. The University’s enrollment is equally divided between undergraduate and graduate students, and while Pacific is recognized primarily as a teaching institution, it also maintains a robust research agenda that crosses disciplines and colleges.

For the purpose of this document, the terms “department” or “academic department” denote all the departments in the College of Arts and Sciences, the Colleges of Business and Optometry, and the schools in the College of Education and College of Health Professions.

The Pacific University Libraries maintain collections in four locations. The Tim & Cathy Tran Library on the Forest Grove Campus houses the resources for the Colleges of Arts & Sciences, Business, Education, and Optometry, as well as government documents and the Archives & Special Collections. Resources for College of Health Professions are located in the Hillsboro Campus Library. Locally circulated resource libraries are also available at the Eugene and Woodburn sites.

For the purpose of this document, all campuses and sites are considered the Pacific University Libraries.

In addition to physical collections, the Libraries provide access to electronic resources for students, faculty, and staff in both on-campus and distance programs. The University’s distance programs include wholly online programs as well as hybrid and low-residency programs. Many on-campus health professions and education programs also include significant periods of experiential community learning in clinical and school settings which require students to leave campus for extended periods of time.

In addition to the University’s regional accreditation, many departments are accredited by professional organizations; for example, the National Association of Schools of Music or the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. These accrediting bodies impact collection development as many, in their standards for accreditation, specify a required level of library service and resources.

A key partnership for the Libraries is the Orbis Cascade Alliance, a network of university libraries in the Northwest that participate in cooperative electronic resource licensing, the lending of physical and electronic resources between participating member libraries, and shared systems for accessing and sharing resources.

For the sake of brevity, Pacific University Libraries will be referred to as PUL for the remainder of this document.

Assumptions

The PUL’s approach to collecting and providing access to information resources is informed by the following core assumptions about our ethics, our institution, our users, and our financial and physical resources:

• In supporting a diverse range of academic programs and areas of inquiry, and in encouraging intellectual discovery, we will provide access to a variety of content. We will not exclude from our collections content that is relevant to academic inquiry due to its origins or to the identity, background, or affiliations of the author(s). We endorse and adhere to the American Library Association Library Bill of Rights and Freedom to Read statements.
• Our collections will never be exhaustive in scope due to resource constraints; therefore, we must prioritize what we purchase/provide access to. While our community engages in research, our collections will primarily support curriculum and teaching activities; given this focus, our primary users are faculty and students.
• The PUL’s primary users are Pacific University students, faculty, and staff. Core collection development priorities include support for curriculum and teaching, and original research conducted by the Pacific University community.
• We strive to build collections that support our academic programs, by focusing on the acquisition of selected core resources in formats that meet their unique needs and preferences.
• As learning and personal growth extend beyond formal curricula, we also allocate funds to collections that support all members of the Pacific community as whole people, engaging deeply with knowledge and experiences relating to identity and culture; pursuing intellectual and personal interests; and accessing reliable information for health and wellness. Supporting these activities through library resources aligns with the vision, mission, and core values of the PUL, and the PUL’s commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
• As the university’s academic programs continue to evolve, we will serve growing numbers of distance and online programs. Therefore, we will continue to expand access to online resources and provide efficient, equitable methods of delivering physical resources to our users.
• Due to our limited collection ownership, resource sharing partnerships are vital. One consideration in our collection development strategies is maintaining resources that make us a valuable reciprocal partner to other libraries.
• Our limited space for physical collections requires regular management of these collections to ensure their currency and relevance to academic programs; this includes:
  • Managing core resources that will be retained long-term (e.g. historical collections, unique content areas within the Alliance)
  • Managing resources in dynamic collections that may change over time, based on usage and changes in academic programs
• The goals outlined above require regular use of data/information to make informed decisions. Strategies for acquiring and maintaining library resources should be informed by the review and analysis of relevant collections-related information.

Budget and Funding

The materials budget includes allocations for continuing resources and one-time purchases. These allocations are further broken into funds for the following:

• Databases
• Periodicals (print and electronic)
• One-time electronic resources (ebooks / videos)
• One-time physical resources (print books / physical media)
• Resources acquired with endowed funds

Allocation of Materials Budget

The Dean of University Libraries is responsible for advocating for the materials budget, and for allocating the materials budget across its individual funding lines. The continuing resources budget is primarily composed of recurring expenses and is based on projected inflationary increases of 5.5%-6.0%. The projected continuations budget for each fiscal year is determined by the Electronic Resources Librarian and the PUL’s budget manager. The continuing resources budget is a shared pool to support all disciplines and departments. Similarly, the one-time resource budget has no initial allocation by subject or department.

Review of Expenditures for One-Time Resources

Overall expenditures for one-time purchases are reviewed on at least a biennial basis to determine if spending is adequately and equitably meeting the foundational curricular needs of Pacific’s academic programs. If there is an inability to order necessary resources due to a general lack of funds, the Dean of University Libraries may, at their discretion, institute temporary allocations or other measures to ensure funding is available to support all disciplines.

Review of Expenditures for Continuing Resources

Expenditures for continuing resources are reviewed whenever a new continuation is considered, and at renewal time. If there is a lack of funds, the Dean of University Libraries generally does not reallocate funds from other areas for continuing resources. Usage is the primary metric for assessing the value of a continuing resource. Specific program and faculty needs, priorities, and requests are also reviewed in this process.

Funding for New Continuing Resources

Requests for new continuing resources require either (a) cancellation of an existing resource to make funding available or (b) allocation of new funding, either via a permanent re-allocation from the one-time budget or an expense request from the university.

Requests for new continuing resources that require allocation of new funding are considered quarterly. At its meetings, the Collections Committee considers all requests for new resources that would require an ongoing, and increasing, financial commitment. Prioritization of requests is primarily based on the strength of resources currently available to support the discipline/department, the relationship of the requested resource to accreditation requirements (as applicable) for the department/school, and the potential for the resource to support multiple disciplines/departments across the university.

If approved, new resource subscriptions will start within the current fiscal year or the subsequent fiscal year (July 1 or January 1) depending on the conditions of purchase.

Endowed Materials Funding

In addition to the materials budget, the PUL also relies on several endowed funds to make one-time material purchases. Due to annual variance in return on the underlying endowments, these funds usually are not used for continuing resources. These funds are disbursed at the discretion of the Dean of University Libraries. The two primary endowments which provide for the purchase of library materials are:

• Holce Library Endowment.
• Khiem “Tim” Tran ’74 and Thuy “Cathy” Tran ’74 Library Endowment.

These funds are available to supplement the primary materials budget as necessary and to fund special purchases. Holce funds are used on an annual basis to fulfill faculty requests for one-time purchases that are urgent and are placed after the ordering deadline for the fiscal year.

Additional endowment funds are available to purchase materials in specific subject areas:

• Stella O.H. Lee Library Endowment.
• Benjamin R. Whiteley Endowed Collection in History.

These funds are disbursed at the discretion of the Dean of University Libraries.

Responsibility for Collection Development

The PUL uses a centralized model for collection development in which the Dean of University Libraries leads collection development activities in collaboration with the Collection Services Department; the Dean also consults with the Libraries Collections Committee regarding strategies and priorities for library collections.

Responsibilities of the Dean of University Libraries

• Chair the Collections Committee.
• Guide and make final decisions about overall collections strategies and annual focus areas.
• Guide and make final decisions about funds requests and allocations.
• Receive reports from Collection Services, including IPEDS, and other routine acquisitions/collections reports pertaining to expenditures and usage of collections.
• Arbitrate and make decisions when there is a disagreement about the addition or deaccession of a resource in the PUL’s collection, and when there is a request for reconsideration of a resource.
• Guide the review of the Collection Development Policy on a biennial basis and make or approve revisions.
• Perform outreach to university stakeholders about library resources and collections policies and practices; coordinate receipt of stakeholder feedback about annual focus areas.

Responsibilities of the Collection Services Department

• Serve as members of the Collections Committee (required of all employees in Collection Services).
• Provide reports and analyses of observed trends in acquisitions, usage, and patron demands, and make suggestions about improvements based on these trends.
• Make recommendations to the Dean of University Libraries about continuing resources to cancel, renew, or add, based on the Collection Development Policy, current priorities, and established workflows and timelines; implement any cancellations or additions.
• Select and deselect one-time resources in print and electronic formats, based on the Collection Development Policy, annual priorities, and established workflows and timelines.
• Field, research, and respond to requests from University community members for continuing resources; selection decisions for continuations to be made by the Dean of University Libraries in consultation with Collection Services and the Collections Committee.
• Administer the Request-A-Purchase program for patron-driven one-time resources acquisitions.
• Administer the Fall and Spring editions of the Library Textbook Project, to proactively acquire unlimited-user access to required course texts, when available.
• Acquire resources in support of themed displays, from selections by members of Access Services.
• Participate in the biennial review and revision of the Collection Development Policy, providing the Dean of University Libraries with initial suggestions for improvement before bringing the revisions to the Collections Committee for review.

Responsibilities of the Libraries Collections Committee

This committee serves as an advisory group to the Dean of University Libraries on matters pertaining to the PUL’s collections. The complete charge and membership of this committee is provided in a separate document. Responsibilities of the Libraries Collections Committee are to:

• Provide consultation to the Dean of University Libraries regarding budget allocations pertaining to library collections.
• Nominate focus areas for collection development.
• Consult with the Dean of University Libraries and Collection Services regarding additions, renewals, and cancellations of continuing resources.
• Participate in the biennial review and revision of the Collection Development Policy.
• Review and discuss collections-related data and analyses provided by Collection Services, and potential applications of such information.
• Share and discuss observed trends in requests, usage, and needs among academic units and users whom members of the Collections Committee support in finding and using library resources.

Opportunities to Contribute to Collection Development

PUL employees and Pacific community members who are not in Collection Services or serving on the Collections Committee are invited (but not required) to contribute to collection development in the following ways.

PUL Employees

• Access Services may make selection decisions, within an established budget, in support of library display themes.
• All PUL employees can contribute to the Collections Wishlist for general and focused collection development.
• All PUL employees can use the Request-A-Purchase program.
• All PUL employees are encouraged to share information they gain through their work, pertaining to patron interactions with library collections.
• At times, focus groups for areas of priority may include interested PUL employees with subject-matter expertise.

Pacific Community Members

• All Pacific University students, staff, and faculty may use the Request-A-Purchase program to request print and electronic resources, including course texts, and to suggest areas of the collection for improvement.
• Stakeholders for annual focus areas will be invited to provide feedback through surveys, discussions, and wish lists.
• Stakeholders for different areas of the collection may be consulted when developing strategies and practices pertaining to their disciplines.

Ownership and Access

There are two basic models for building library collections: ownership, in which the library purchases permanent rights to physical or electronic content; and access, in which the library borrows content from other library partners or leases resources on an ongoing basis.

There are benefits and costs to both ownership and access, so an appropriate combination of traditional ownership/licensing and access to un-owned content must be pursued. Below are the ways in which the libraries provide access to resources that are not owned.

Resource Sharing

part of several local, state, regional, and international resource-sharing networks. The PUL fulfills requests for content from its collections and licensed resources (to the extent permitted by licenses) at no charge to other libraries; in exchange, the PUL is eligible to receive similar services at no or low cost through reciprocal agreements/networks. In cases when there is a fee associated with obtaining a resource, the fee is not passed on to users.

Usage of PUL resources by our resource-sharing partners is considered when making collection development decisions.

On-Demand Document Delivery and Non-Returnable Purchasing Services

When content is not available from resource sharing partners, the PUL may purchase access to/copies of content on demand to fulfill individual user requests. These materials are usually purchased directly from publishers or other vendors.

• Document delivery of journal articles – Individual journal articles may be purchased if the article is not available from a free resource-sharing partner, or if the cost of purchasing the article is less than paying resource-sharing/copyright fees.
• Non-returnables purchasing program – inexpensive physical or electronic resources may be purchased for Pacific students, staff, and faculty and shipped to them free of charge, with no expectation that the item will be returned to the library, in accordance with the guidelines specified by the Non-returnables Program documentation. This program is particularly useful for requested items that are not of value to the PUL collections (ie, consumables, self-published books, etc.), to provide more accessibility of needed resource formats, and to provide a copy to those who are working/learning remotely in a timely manner.

Subscribed and Leased Content

Subscribed content is defined as journals, databases, or services we pay subscription fees for and, in turn, receive perpetual access. Leased content is similar to subscribed content in that we pay a fee to be able to access the content, but only for a certain period of time as defined within the license agreement.

Open Resources and Open Access Content

Open Educational Resources (OER) are educational materials that are specifically designed by their creator/s to be openly available and are often licensed to be re-used, re-mixed, and re-distributed. This content is not owned but publicly available, and the PUL provides access to peer-reviewed OER via the online catalog and Library Guides.

Open Access (OA) refers to content published freely online, and usually with less restrictive copyright than traditional publishing. The PUL primarily provides access to works published Open Access in peer-reviewed scholarly journals through aggregator databases. When possible, dropped titles are added back to the online catalog by linking directly through the publishers.

Cooperative Collection Development

The PUL participates in library consortia and shared collections with other universities. Consortial agreements broaden our users’ access to a variety of electronic journals, databases, books, and media through both collective licensing and resource sharing. In particular, our membership in the Orbis Cascade Alliance provides our users with access to resources from member libraries’ collections. Our participation in the Alliance’s shared collections programs informs the PUL’s collection development and deaccessioning strategies. The Orbis Cascade Alliance’s Policies and Best Practices documents guide the cooperative collective development strategies of the consortium.

User-driven Acquisitions

User-driven acquisitions constitutes an important strategy for building collections that are relevant and useful to members of the Pacific community. While proactive selection and acquisition of core and specialized texts contribute to a balanced and current collection, user-driven acquisitions ensure that Pacific students, faculty, and staff have an opportunity to ask for what they need and value in library collections.

The PUL uses several different models for user-driven acquisitions; investment in an individual model is largely determined by its cost-effectiveness, its impact on library personnel, and its ability to deliver content that is useful to the Pacific community. The following are examples of models currently employed by the PUL; these may evolve over time.

Books/media

• Patron-driven acquisitions (Request-a-Purchase program) – Collection Services purchases physical and electronic books and media based on a single patron request, with the guidelines of price and quantity specified by the program’s documentation.
• Non-returnables purchasing program – Described previously in the section On-Demand Document Delivery and Non-Returnable Purchasing Services.
• Focus area projects – Opportunities for Pacific community members to participate in select collection development focus area projects: these opportunities may include surveys and focus groups that engage different stakeholder groups in the University.

Journal articles

• Individual article purchase – Centralized purchase of individual articles from a variety of publishers, mediated through Interlibrary Services.
• Traditional ILL – Articles requested via borrowing partners; lender and/or copyright fees may apply.
• Pay-per-view – Publisher programs with deposit accounts that allow direct purchase of individual articles; mediated or unmediated.

Other models

Models that are not currently used by the PUL, but may become important at a later time, include:

• Formal demand-driven acquisitions (DDA) – Publisher programs through which ebook records are loaded into the library catalog, to be purchased via mediated or unmediated processes when accessed by a library user.

Given the PUL’s limited staffing and funding for one-time purchases, the preferred approach to user-driven acquisition of books/media is through the request-a-purchase model, rather than through management of a formal DDA program. For article purchasing, the preference is for options that do not require management of tokens and that are not limited to single publishers.

Selection Guidelines and Criteria

In order to curate a core collection of resources that supports the University’s curriculum, the PUL actively acquires and licenses a variety of types of materials that align with the purpose and assumptions stated in this policy. In doing so, the PUL follows these general guidelines.

Guiding Principles

• Collections funds are spent for materials that are housed in PUL facilities or are administered/made available through the PUL’s systems and platforms. Materials acquired for addition to the PUL’s collections/licensed resources must be available to all users within the Pacific community. Materials which will only be available to a single department or group of users will not be acquired.
• The PUL prioritizes the selection of resources that are likely to be relevant to multiple users or departments.
• Multiple copies of any individual item in the same format are purchased only by justification of heavy and continued use. Multiple copies for classroom use or course reserve are not purchased as a matter of course.
• Duplication of an individual item in different formats (e.g. print book and e-book) is considered for titles which are in high demand on one campus, in demand by more than one campus, or in demand by distance students or faculty.

While a single standard cannot be applied to each resource considered for acquisition, the following criteria are considered by the PUL when selecting and adding materials to the collection or licensing materials for Pacific community access. Resources do not have to meet all criteria to be added to the collection. Note: These criteria are not applicable to user-driven purchases.

Exceptions to adherence to these criteria (as relevant) may only be granted by the Dean of University Libraries, with input from the Collections Committee at the discretion of the Dean.

General Selection Criteria

• Subject matter and scope – Selection preference will be given to resources that:
• Serve the curricular needs of an academic department.
• Contribute to the strength of a unique collection area.
• Provide information or a perspective that is not adequately reflected in the existing collection.
• Are a core work of a subject or discipline that is likely to remain of permanent interest
• Serve specific research needs of faculty.
• Support members of the Pacific community holistically, i.e., resources that serve their intellectual, cultural, and personal interests (including resources intended for recreational use), or that provide access to reliable health and wellness information.

• Authority and quality – Selection preference will be given to resources that:
• Contain information that is, to the best of the PUL’s knowledge, accurate, current (with the exception of materials purchased for historical value), and authoritative as indicated by the author’s/publisher’s credentials and/or scholarly reputation.
• Are published/made available through an established publisher or distributor; the PUL generally will not select or add materials that have been published by the author.

• Regional Availability – To the extent possible, selections of monographs and media will follow the Orbis Cascade Alliance guidelines for the three-copy threshold in order to make the best use of collection funds. However, it is understood that there are circumstances in which a local copy must be purchased even when three or more copies are available via the Alliance. For example, the three-copy guideline will not apply:
• To course reserve requests.
• To user requests.
• When a purchase is something that would contribute to the PUL’s “core” collections (“core” as defined by: professional accrediting bodies; “core curriculum” of the university, required courses/courses that are taught regularly).
• When a purchase would contribute to the overall balance of the Libraries’ collections.

Category or Format-Specific Guidelines

• Audiovisual Materials
• The PUL acquires DVD, Blu-ray, CD, and LP formats of audiovisual materials. Physical media are preferred for proactive purchasing; streaming video licenses are acquired on faculty request for courses.
• Used discs are generally not acquired.
• Video recordings are generally acquired in formats which the PUL has the capacity to play; obsolete media formats may be acquired if the content is only available in that standard/format. Foreign region media (non-Region 1 or PAL) will be added only if no US region formats are available.
• Public performance rights are not purchased for video recordings; any public performance license needed to screen PUL-held recordings must be purchased by campus entities independently.
• “Institutionally-licensed” independent films will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

• Children’s and Young Adult Materials
• The PUL acquires children’s and young adult fiction and nonfiction in support of the curriculum and services of the University.
• Notable, high-interest, and award-winning books are also selected for acquisition.

• Electronic Resources/Continuing Resources – For all electronic resources
• Resources must be licensed for access by all of the Pacific community’s authorized users (as defined by Pacific).
• Resources must support user authentication that integrates with the University’s authentication systems (native username/password resources will not be supported, except under exceptional circumstances).
• Resources must be usable with common operating systems and web browsers.
• Resources must meet all relevant standards for accessibility and provide a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) upon request
• To the extent possible, licensing terms should (a) permit use of the materials for resource sharing, (b) not remove fair use rights to content that users would otherwise be able to exercise under copyright law, (c) allow embedding linking in online course platforms, and (d) otherwise adhere to the PUL’s standard set of licensing terms for negotiated licenses.
• The PUL may provide access to products for which we have not directly negotiated license terms (e.g. consortial packages), but to the extent possible, we will attempt to only purchase access to resources that align with our preferred terms.
• Specifically for continuing resources
• The PUL will, to the extent possible, attempt to license the core journals/databases, as defined by professional associations/accrediting bodies, for all academic programs.
• New continuing resource subscriptions will only have subscription start dates of January 1 or July 1 to ensure sustainable subscription management practices.
• Print continuations will only be considered if there is no electronic/online alternative and the resource is considered core to an academic program/department.
• While direct publisher access is preferred for single journal subscriptions, aggregator access is also considered acceptable as a single access point for continuations.
• Freely available resources/databases will only be listed along with licensed content/provided an access point in the PUL’s systems if this mode of access will benefit library users.

• Government Documents
• • The PUL participates in the U.S. Government Printing Office’s Federal Depository Library Program as a selective depository; current acquisitions are limited to the FDLP Basic Collection in electronic format.
  • The PUL maintains historical collections of print government documents.
  • Only records for the FDLP Basic Collection are currently added to the PUL’s discovery systems.

• Microform
• • Microforms are not actively acquired by the PUL; in general, electronic formats are preferred for the additional functionality they provide for users.
  • When content is available only in microform format, or is difficult or expensive to acquire in print or electronic form, the PUL may consider microform acquisitions. These will generally only be considered in the case of historical content, such as back issues of journals or collections of archival/historical documents.

• Textbooks – A textbook is defined here as a work whose published form clearly indicates its intended use as a principal teaching aid.
• • Print or electronic textbooks will be purchased if they are requested by faculty for course reserve (with the exception of custom textbooks or those that require unique user log-ins); required textbooks for all academic courses at the University are not purchased as a matter of course, although individual academic departments may elect to place global requests on an annual (not standing) basis.
  • Textbooks may also be purchased if they are considered important for reference purposes, or when the textbook is considered a definitive or classic work in the subject.
  • Textbooks are proactively purchased when an unlimited-user ebook edition is available for a title that has been assigned for a currently-taught course.

• Theses and Dissertations
• • The PUL does not actively acquire print copies of theses and dissertations completed by students in the graduate programs of Pacific University, with the exception of the MFA in Writing.
  • The PUL actively acquires digital copies of theses and dissertations completed by students in all other graduate programs of Pacific University; these copies are stored and preserved through the University’s institutional repository, CommonKnowledge.
  • The parameters for management of these collections are governed by the CommonKnowledge Collection Management Policy.

Donations

The PUL does not accept donations of physical materials unless they are intended for its archival/special collections, with rare exceptions. The value of donated materials generally does not outweigh the resources required to appropriately evaluate, accession, or otherwise dispose of donated materials, and accepting donations of physical materials does not represent sound stewardship of the Libraries’ or University’s resources. Prospective donors will be directed to other options for their donations (e.g. public libraries, non-profits, etc).

Exceptions to this policy may be made at the discretion of the Dean of University Libraries when the proposed donation of physical materials is associated with financial support for the PUL or University or when acceptance of the donation will contribute to the development of a strategic relationship for the Libraries or University. In the case of such exceptions, donated materials are expected to meet the guidelines and criteria in this document for all newly acquired content.

When a donation of physical materials is accepted, the PUL will reserve the right to dispose of any materials that it considers not to meet the library collection needs and policy guidelines. The PUL may dispose of the unaccepted material in a variety of ways, including: sending them to Better World Books; giving them to other libraries; giving them to local nonprofit organizations; giving them to academic departments; giving them to individual faculty, staff, or students; and discarding/throwing them away. Unaccepted materials will not be offered back to the donor.

*** It is the responsibility of the donor to have a monetary appraisal of their gift done before it is given to the PUL, if it is assumed the gift has a large monetary value and if an appraisal is so desired by the donor. This is in compliance with the Tax Reform Act of 1984 and the American Research Libraries’ Statement on Appraisal of Gifts.

*** All gifts of money must first be discussed with the Dean of University Libraries.

*** Donations of physical materials to the Archives & Special Collections are evaluated by the University Archivist who will provide a recommendation regarding acceptance to the Dean of University Libraries.

Collection Maintenance

As stewards of our collections, employees of the PUL are committed to ensuring our physical and electronic resource collections are well-maintained and do not present undue barriers to use because of physical or digital degradation or disorder. For physical materials, this means making all reasonable attempts to ensure that they are clean and have minimal wear. For electronic resources, this means making all reasonable attempts to identify and address any access issues (e.g. access errors, system incompatibility, accessibility challenges) present in our resources. For both physical and electronic resources, ensuring discoverability through quality metadata in library systems is also a component of collection maintenance.

We will take all cost-effective measures to repair or replace physical items that no longer meet our condition standards. For electronic resources, if access issues cannot be fixed locally or through coordination with a vendor, we will pursue all reasonable options for replacing the resource with more accessible content; in some cases, we may determine that canceling access to a resource is preferable to maintaining a resource with persistent access issues.

While we will take all reasonable measures to preserve the condition of, and access to, our collections, we recognize that our collections exist to serve the current academic needs of our community. This means that, outside of our Archives & Special Collections, comprehensive physical (or digital) preservation strategies will not usually be employed to conserve library materials. In addition, outside of Archives & Special Collections, we tolerate the possibility of theft or loss in order to ensure that we provide the best possible access to our facilities and collections, in support of student learning and success. In general, maintenance and preservation decisions regarding the PUL’s collections will be made within the context of the overall collection development policy, and will balance the constraints of cost, curricular and scholarly value of materials, and user accessibility.

The PUL maintains an emergency plan for the preservation of collections, with guidelines for appropriate actions should an emergency or natural disaster damage physical collections or impair access to electronic resources.

General Principles

Physical Collections

• Library employees will be informed of the proper care and handling of library materials.
• Temperature and humidity controls are essential for maintenance of library materials.
• Book repair is provided for damaged materials that are deemed of permanent value.
• Format migration is used primarily for media in the archives & special collections; media in the Libraries’ circulating collections will generally be replaced or deaccessioned due to format obsolescence, unless the content is of unique and critical value.

Electronic Collections

• Access to electronic resources should be checked on a regular basis (e.g. URL checking).
• Packages/platforms should be reviewed regularly to ensure access is current/stable to content that is licensed.
• Access logs (e.g. proxy logs) should be reviewed regularly for off-campus users to identify potential access issues.
• For resources that regularly present access or accessibility issues for users, determinations should be made in a timely manner regarding cancellation or replacement.
• A regular review of license conditions and terms should occur in order to ensure that we are using the resources as stipulated.

Discoverability

• Maintenance of physical and electronic collections will involve creating, auditing, and improving metadata in order to maximize discoverability of relevant content for users.
• Members of Collection Services will coordinate with Systems and other stakeholders to ensure the best possible discoverability of resources in the Libraries’ discovery layer and other systems.

Deaccessioning

Decisions to discard specific items, like decisions to acquire new titles for the collection, are made within the context of the total collection policy. This ensures that the integrity of the total collection is not impaired but in fact may be enhanced when unneeded materials are removed from the collections.

Physical materials identified for discard will be sent to Better World Books if they meet the company’s acceptance criteria. Materials that do not meet these criteria may be used for exchange with other institutions, sold to students or dealers, given to other libraries, or disposed of in some other way applied to the University’s benefit. In some instances, materials may be so deteriorated or otherwise useless that disposal through any of the above channels is not possible; such materials may simply be discarded (with the exception of federal government publications).

Electronic resources are deaccessioned by deleting access from the PUL’s catalog and other systems.

Deaccessioning of all collections, physical and electronic, is done on a regular and ongoing basis, on a schedule determined by Collection Services.

Deaccessioning

Physical Materials – Physical materials are routinely deselected from the collection if they:

• Are superseded editions.
• Are duplicates, except in cases of continued high demand or where the PUL holds rare copies.
• Are materials which cannot be repaired or for which the cost of repair exceeds usefulness.
• Are older materials, particularly in the fields where currency of information is extremely important (e.g. health sciences, social sciences, technology, and business), so that outdated or inaccurate information is eliminated.
• Have not been used, based on circulation, in-house use, or resource sharing statistics, in the previous twenty years (at the time of evaluation); however, materials will be retained even with twenty years of inactivity if any of the following criteria are met:
• • It belonged to the original university library collection, or has a connection to figures important to Pacific’s history.
  • It represents, or belongs to, a unique collection that is related to a specific strength/academic program of the university.
  • It contributes to a larger, unique collection the PUL holds (as opposed to one or two items that are unique but not part of a larger collection).
  • It is a core resource in a field that is taught at Pacific.
  • It is the last copy of a title held by a member of the Orbis Cascade Alliance and is not outdated or superseded.
  • There are few (generally less than 20) other holdings in WorldCat, across all records describing the same resource.

Print Serials – Print serials are routinely deselected from the collection if they are:

• Incomplete or short runs of any title, particularly when the title is not received currently.
• Print runs for which there is stable electronic access.
• Journal titles that are no longer needed due to shifts in the curriculum, with exceptions made only due to heavy resource sharing use.
• Titles which contain information that is not useful long-term, such as newsletters and trade magazines; these will have retention schedules established such as “latest two years only retained.” Retention schedules are established by Collection Services in consultation with the Collections Committee. Annuals, biennials, and regularly updated editions of guidebooks, handbooks, almanacs, and directories have a retention schedule established depending on the value of the information contained in earlier editions. No more than one or two older editions are retained in the reference and/or circulating collections.

Electronic Resources – Electronic resources, specifically continuing resources, are considered for cancellation/removal from the PUL’s collections at the time of renewal and as needed due to budgetary considerations. Electronic resources which incur only a small annual maintenance fee or incur no annual costs (e.g. perpetual access collections of digitized materials) will generally not be deaccessioned. Electronic resources needed to accredit one or many programs within the university, will generally not be deaccessioned. Electronic resources are routinely deselected from the collection if they:

• No longer align with the PUL’s budgetary limits or collections priorities.
• Are no longer needed due to shifts in the curriculum.
• JExhibit low use.

Collection Evaluation

The continual review of PUL collections and licensed content is necessary as a means of ensuring access to resources that are of value to current users. Evaluations will be made to determine whether the collection is meeting its objectives, how well it is serving its users, and what remains to be done to develop collections and improve access to library resources.

Collection Services, in consultation with the Dean of University Libraries, will evaluate the collection and licensed resources on a regular basis, using standard qualitative and quantitative methods. These may include: usage statistics (circulation or in-house use for physical items and vendor-supplied usage data for electronic resources), interlibrary services statistics, user satisfaction surveys, collection analysis/comparison to core resource lists from professional bodies/accreditors, and holdings comparisons with regional peers or consortium partners.

Policy Adherence and Revision

The Dean of University Libraries and Collection Services will ensure that this policy is operationalized as outlined in this document. Exceptions to the policy may be granted at the discretion of the Dean, in consultation with Collection Services and the Collections Committee. Review of the policy will occur biennially, led by the Dean and Collection Services.

Link to: Request for Review of Library or Archives Resources Form

Download: Pacific University Library Collection Development Policy