Introduction
The collection development guidelines of the University of Massachusetts Global Library outline the criteria and standards used in the selection, acquisition, and management of library materials. This, in turn, informs how the library allocates its available resources.
In line with the University's mission and the library's values, it is particularly important to consider material that thoughtfully represents a variety of viewpoints and reflects our commitment to intellectual freedom.
Librarians collaboratively make all collection development decisions based on input from faculty, administration, usage data, and their professional judgment.
Principles
- The primary subject areas collected are those that serve to support the curricular, instructional, research, and programmatic needs of UMass Global.
- All acquisitions will comply with applicable license agreements and copyright restrictions.
- Materials purchased by the library must be fully accessible for all members of the UMass Community, not limited to a subset of the community.
- The library is committed to facilitating discovery and access.
- The library will collect student and faculty work as appropriate.
Adding and Removing Material to the Collection
The general criteria used when considering whether to add a resource to the collection:
- Relevance and importance of the subject matter to the university’s curriculum and educational goals.
- Depth and breadth of the resource in comparison to materials already in the collection.
- Quality of the resource, including the level of scholarship and reputation of the author, publisher, and other producers of the material.
- The library does not purchase textbooks, although we may purchase general texts that could be used as textbooks.
- Discoverability, usability, and accessibility of the material.
- Availability of the resource.
- Total cost, including start-up fees and on-going maintenance fees.
- Evaluation of access vs. ownership models.
As an online-only library, the UMass Global Library acquires only resources available in electronic format. Faculty and staff are encouraged to participate in collection development through regular consultation with librarians. Any library approved, requested subscriptions that are not added during a current budget enhancement cycle are retained on a wish list for review in subsequent fiscal years.
As a natural part of collection maintenance, librarians may occasionally add and remove materials from the collection. These decisions are made after close examination of relevant factors that include:
- Relevance to curriculum and the research and teaching needs of the faculty.
- Costs and impact on the library’s budget.
- Usage.
- Interlibrary loan requests.
- Faculty purchase requests.
- Available offers proposed by vendors and consortia.
- Duplication of material and availability of open-access alternatives.
- Discoverability and accessibility of material.
Cost of Library Resources
There are significant costs associated with providing access to academic research material. Many library resources are provided only by for-profit companies, though regardless of provider, the cost of collecting, digitizing, hosting, and maintaining the integrity of online journals and databases continually increases. Librarians are constantly striking a balance between containing costs and providing access to needed research material. The most significant factor that librarians must continually contend with is annual, and often unpredictable, price increases. Annual increases in journal and database costs typically exceed general inflation. Librarians use a variety of strategies to contain costs while maintaining access to needed material. These include participation in the SCELC consortium which negotiates more favorable pricing on members' behalf, analyzing use data, utilize open access material where feasible, and balance the cost of interlibrary loan services with that of subscriptions.
To keep the library’s guidelines responsive to changes in library science, technology, institutional goals and objectives, the curriculum and the college population, this guideline will be revised and updated as necessary.
