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SJSU Faculty Guide to Collection Management

The Library Collection Management Program's primary objective is to acquire materials that are essential to the University's academic programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The Library collects information resources in all formats (e.g., books, periodicals, microforms, software, recordings, electronic formats, etc.). Aware of the increasing diversity of the University's students, faculty, and programs, the Library acquires multicultural materials and works that present a variety of viewpoints.

The Library Collection Management Program's secondary objectives are to support 1) the research needs of San Jose State University faculty and 2) the informational needs of the University community and the citizens of California. The Library recognizes a responsibility to maintain a collection of materials unique to San Jose State University as the oldest public institution of higher education in California. The Library collection complements and is supplemented by other materials available within the CSU, through Link+ and from other libraries.

Library Liaisons are responsible for the development of the library's collection in their field of expertise. Faculty requests for materials should be directed to the Library Liaison in their subject. Please be sure to check the library catalog for current holdings before making requests. Priority shall be given to materials that are necessary for coursework. The Library also acquires materials written and/ or edited by faculty members. We welcome donations of materials published by faculty.

Books

Faculty can recommend titles using the Title Recommendation Form. Before making a recommendation faculty are asked to check the SJSU Catalog to ensure that the library does not already own suggested materials. If further assistance is needed, contact the Library Liaison for the specific subject.

Journals and Database Subscriptions

Faculty wishing to recommend Journal Titles for the collection should first check both the Catalog under Journal Title and the Library's Electronic Journals List. If the title is currently not available you may contact the appropriate Library Liaison to discuss the addition.

Faculty are asked to please take into consideration the increasing costs of journal subscriptions, both in paper and electronic format, before making recommendations for procurement. In the past decade journal subscriptions have inflated annually at an average of roughly 8 percent per year, seriously affecting the ability of the Library to maintain even minimal information resources in support of academic programs. Today, 70 percent of the Library collections budget is committed to printed and electronic subscriptions, leaving a very limited flexibility to meet priority academic needs in times of budget reductions.

As students and faculty increasingly prefer the ease and convenience of electronic access, the University Library Board, in 2001/2002, endorsed purchasing more information resources in electronic format.

The General Principles guiding Journal Selections by library liaisons are:

• Journals must be reviewed on a title by title basis: circumstances related to pricing, use, and available formats vary widely. For individual titles, the importance and quality of images in various formats must be considered. The review will be conducted by librarian liaisons in consultation with academic department liaisons (or department chairs). As part of this review access and ownership of new titles should be considered as well as subscriptions to current titles.
• Generally, ownership (i.e., journal subscriptions in electronic or printed format) is the preferred strategy for meeting curricular and research needs of faculty and students when: (1) the journal is a core title in a discipline this is used heavily by students; or (2) the journal is used moderately and the cost per use ratio favors ownership over access.
• Generally, "as needed" access (i.e. document delivery, interlibrary loan, electronic pay per use) is the preferred strategy for meeting curricular and research needs of faculty and students when: (1) the journal is used infrequently by students and faculty; (2) the journal is used moderately and the cost per use ratio favors access over ownership or (3) access methods meet the general time requirements of students and faculty.
• Convenience and ease of use for everyone must be considered. In evaluating the various formats, access for people with disabilities must be evaluated.
• The cost of librarian, staff, faculty and student time must be evaluated when calculating the cost per use ratios.

San Jose State University Library accepts gifts from SJSU faculty of books and other library materials that may be added to the collection supporting the University's programs. SJSU Library reserves the right to determine which gifts are appropriate to add to the collection.

Selection decisions for adding gift materials to the collection are made in accordance with the objectives of the Library's Collection Management Program. Materials are generally not accepted when restrictions are placed on their housing, handling or use, unless such restrictions are acceptable to the Library.

Considerations

• Faculty wishing to make donations should contact the appropriate Liaison, or Acquisitions.
• The Library reserves the right to dispose of materials not added to the collection.
• Faculty and staff must make arrangement for delivery of donated materials to the Acquisitions Department. In certain cases faculty and staff may be able to arrange for pick-up of materials from their office.
• The Library recognizes that certain types of donations will require special handling. These include gifts with use restrictions, donations with values of $5,000 or more, gifts requiring special equipment and collections from faculty members and SJSU alumni.
• Although the Library does not provide estimated values for tax purposes, liaisons may be able to provide sources for estimating values.
• There are potential tax liability issues if a gift valued at over $5000 (when an estimate of such is provided by independent appraisal provided by donor) is accepted and sold within two years.
• Donors can be provided with a receipt for their gift.

Criteria

Subject Content: The most important selection guideline is how the item's subject matter fits existing subject collection policies, or SJSU's instruction, research and service programs. In many disciplines knowledge moves so rapidly that the existence of outdated material on the shelves in the Library may be detrimental to the users as well as contributing to overcrowding of shelves.

Age of Publication: Disciplines differ in the need for dated or historic materials. Selection of older or dated items should balance the need for material with its potential problems: minimal use, poor physical condition and provision of inaccurate information. Older titles may require more cataloging time than newer ones, since even if Library of Congress copy exists it must be reviewed for currency by a cataloger. Volumes likely to be of unusual value should be reviewed by the head of Special Collections.

Physical Condition: Gift items that require repair, rebinding or restoring should not be selected unless they are of exceptional interest, have unique features (i.e., author's signature) which are of value in themselves, content is not available in another form, or funds accompany the gift for necessary restoration. Particular care should be exercised in the following situations:

• Brittle Paper: SJSU Library should not normally add items with brittle paper, this is paper that is discolored or disintegrating with just normal use.
• Deteriorated Bindings: Items with badly torn spines, separated textblocks, or disintegrating covering must be reviewed critically. Before such deteriorated volumes can be put on the shelves, most of these items need to be rebound or repaired; such expense may not be justified if the potential for use is small.
• Heavily Marked Items: Volumes with extensive pen, pencil, marker or highlighter marks in the text or margins should not normally be added to the Libraries' collections since such condition tends to encourage additional marking by other library users.
• Paperbacks: In general, paperbacks are not accepted, unless the paper is of good quality.

Gift Delivery

As noted above most gifts should be delivered by faculty and staff members to the library. Arrangements for delivery must be made in advance. Please call Catherine E. Perez in the Acquisitions Department at (408) 808-2453 or email her at Catherine.Perez@sjsu.edu.

In certain cases, such as when offices are being emptied or vacated, the Library may be able to pick up boxed materials. Arrangements for this should be made with the Acquisitions Department as well.