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III. Policies

A. University Libraries Collection Development Policy | B. Gifts Policy | C. Collecting Journals in Electronic Format | D. Subject Collection Development Policies | E. Procedures for Terms of Use Violations

A. University Libraries Collection Development Policy

The University Libraries will seek to collect, preserve, and provide access to materials in print and other physical and electronic formats to support the research, teaching, and service mission of the University. The Libraries will seek to select appropriate consortial involvements that will maximize the Libraries’ ability to acquire and access scholarly resources.

The Collection Development Policy of the University Libraries of the University of Colorado, Boulder, seeks to complement the Libraries’ Mission by providing to the University community materials and resources to support instruction, research and scholarship, and public service. A secondary objective will be to provide for Colorado residents resources to support individual, business, cultural, educational, governmental and other information needs. In addition, we hope to create a collection that will, through sharing, benefit the national and international higher education community.

This policy will be administered by means of collection development policies formulated for specific subject areas in order to guide bibliographers in their decisions. These comprehensive documents, established in partnership with the faculty and user communities, will provide a foundation for a coordinated collection development program throughout the Libraries. These collections will be developed based on a continuing analysis of the evolving academic programs, research interests, user needs, and the strengths and weaknesses of the collections already in place. The University Libraries reserve the right to make the final decision on those materials and resources that will be acquired for or deselected from its collections.

In selecting materials, the Libraries fully subscribes to the Library Bill of Rights, issued by the American Library Association. Among other rights, this statement affirms that no materials shall be excluded because of the origin, background, or view on current and historical issues, and that censorship should be challenged.

B. Gifts Policy

The University of Colorado at Boulder welcomes financial support and gifts of books and other materials (gift-in-kind). These gifts are greatly appreciated and contribute to providing information resources for students and faculty.

I. Gifts of money: Monetary gifts/checks are to be referred to the Faculty Director for Gifts. The Libraries has numerous gift and endowment accounts. It is important that the donations are routed to the appropriate account based on the donor’s wishes.

II. Gift-in-kind: These are non-monetary gifts including books, manuscripts, media, maps, etc.

The Libraries seeks to add materials that meet the teaching and research mission of the university. Gift-in-Kind donations should meet the same selection criteria as purchases and be approved by the appropriate bibliographer or library official. While gifts are free, the process of cataloging and adding materials is costly and storage space is limited. Generally, the following materials will not be accepted:

Duplicates

Commonly held titles, i.e. best sellers

Textbooks

Back issues of serials

Serials subscriptions

Donors may also wish to consider alternatives for disposal.

The Libraries requests that donors provide lists of materials in a potential donation. Some exceptions may occur depending on size of the potential donation .

Potential donors should be referred to the Faculty Director for Gifts unless they have already made contact with a specific bibliographer. The bibliographer should notify the Faculty Director for Gifts, the Faculty Director for Collection Development, and the Faculty Director for Acquisitions when a gift of significant size is accepted for the collection.

By law, assessment of the value of gifts is the responsibility of the donors who must arrange for their own appraisals. The Libraries may assist by supplying names of qualified appraisers.

The University Gift-in-Kind policy should be followed under the following circumstances:

a large gift-in-kind defined as $5,000 or greater

any donation on which the donor has placed a monetary value

any donation that is attached to a written contract or agreement

The bibliographer or library faculty member accepting gifts that fall under these circumstances must fill out the Gift-in-Kind Acceptance form and get appropriate signatures and university approval of the gift. (N.B. the fiscal principle is the Dean of the Libraries or his designee and administrative services can get the signature of the campus controller).

If accepted, gifts become the property of the University Libraries. The Libraries reserves the right to dispose of gifts within state guidelines. Disposition may include retention and cataloging, sale, exchange, or discard.

Generally it is not possible to promise special treatment for gifts, such as designated shelving or keeping the gift collection together. Exceptions may be discussed with Collection Development or the Associate Director for Public Services. The Special Collections Department, Archives Department, and Music Department (including American Music Research Center) may have additional departmental guidelines for their treatment of gifts.

The Libraries will not accept as a part of its permanent collection those materials to which it cannot provide physical and intellectual access. Unique materials which are at immediate risk may be accepted on deposit for a term not to exceed five years, if the Dean approves the deposit in writing. Such materials will be transferred as soon as possible to the appropriate repositories.

Generally a gift-in-kind donation is delivered to the Libraries by the donor. If shipped, it is usually at donor's expense. Depending on factors such as the content, size, scope, or location of the donation, requests can be made to Collection Development for funding for shipping costs. The Acquisitions department should be contacted in advance to arrange for shipping paid by the Libraries.

The Libraries maintains appropriate records of gifts for tax purposes in the Acquisitions Department.

In order to process gifts in an efficient manner, the Acquisitions Department may discard duplicate items. It is noted that some duplicate items may be valuable to other departments such as Special Collections and Archives, so items of potential value may be flagged and passed to those bibliographers, Collection Development or to the head of Acquisitions for evaluation.

Generally, gifts will be recognized via a thank you letter from the Dean of the Libraries to the donor.

C. Collecting Journals in Electronic Format

I. Purpose

As publishers continue to develop electronic publishing capabilities, an increasing number of journals are available in electronic format, either as an alternative or a counterpart to the print version. Some journals are now only available electronically. According to results of CU Libraries user surveys, including the LibQUAL+ survey, faculty and students indicate that research needs for journal literature are changing. Users have a strong preference for the accessibility and convenience provided by electronic journals. As a result of these factors, the Libraries collection of electronic journals has grown dramatically in recent years.

This policy is intended to guide the evaluation and acquisition of the electronic version of journals. This collection policy applies to selecting new subscriptions and provides criteria for the potential cancellation of the print format in favor of the electronic version. This policy focuses primarily on format, access and archival issues. The Libraries objective is to collect the full equivalent of an electronic journal title that is obtained as a paid subscription and to ensure that access to the purchased content is available in perpetuity.

A substantial portion of the Libraries materials budget is allocated to electronic resources. Additionally, there are costs related to the maintenance of print journalsshelving, binding, retrieval and delivery of articles from storage. As budgets change from year to year and inflationary increases spiral it is important that the Libraries seek cost effective strategies for funding annual subscription costs.

The policy of the Libraries is to subscribe to journal subscriptions in one format and to avoid duplicating content and subscription costs. This does not apply to content that may be duplicated in databases where journal titles are aggregated through a single search interface, as those databases change frequently. Electronic journals must meet the criteria outlined below. Print journals should be evaluated according to the criteria for print, also outlined below. Bibliographers are expected to communicate and work closely with academic departments and user needs when evaluating journal formats and new acquisitions. Any exceptions to the policy will be made on a case by case basis by Collection Development.

II. Electronic Journal Criteria

The print version of the journal (or collection of journals) could be discontinued if the electronic equivalent meets all of the following criteria. Some of these criteria can be evaluated by examining the electronic version of the journal, and by visiting the vendors website. Other information will reside in the license, which should be reviewed by Collection Development before a final decision is made.

Content: The online journal should contain at least the full scholarly content of the print equivalent. For instance, not only should it include all research articles, but it should also include content such as supplements (if included with the print journal subscription), letters, calls for papers and other professional announcements, editorials, job openings, and book reviews.

Timeliness: The full content of each issue should be available online no later than publication of the print.

Format: The electronic journal should be provided as PDF files or an equivalent full-image format identical to the print edition.

Image and Graphics Quality: The quality of illustrative materials (photographs, tables, figures, artistic renderings, etc.) should be of a standard sufficient to meet intended use and should be at least the quality of such images in the print edition. Bibliographers will consult with appropriate departments and will not cancel print if departmental faculty members have concerns about images.

Vendor Reliability: The speed of loading/accessing content must meet Libraries users expectations. Server downtime should be minimal, and vendors should notify the Libraries in advance of scheduled changes and anticipated downtime.

IP Access: Access to the electronic version should be provided via campus-wide IP authentication. Resources that require users to login with a username and password will be carefully evaluated on a case by case basis.

Printing and Downloading Capability: All content must be printable and downloadable.

Stability: There must be a reasonable guarantee of the stability of the electronic journal. Since stability in aggregated databases cannot be guaranteed, such databases will not be considered a substitute for print journals as part of this process. Electronic journals must be subscribed to from the publisher or equivalent.

Pricing: Migration to electronic journal should be cost effective.

Perpetual access: The Libraries must have a guarantee of perpetual access to paid-for content if we subsequently cancel the electronic journal. Such access must be in the same manner (or equivalent) as provided when we subscribed. It is very important that access continue to be provided in this manner. Leasing of an electronic journal is not sufficient to allow for the cancellation of the print equivalent.

Archiving: The vendor should pledge to provide archiving of the electronic content, either in its own archive, via a third-party initiative such as Portico or CLOCKSS, or through other mechanisms outlined in the license.

Licensing Terms of Use:

The license must not be overly restrictive regarding local use;

must allow off-campus use by authorized users and walk-in use by visitors

must not be overly restrictive regarding simultaneous users

must allow interlibrary loan and fair use of content

should allow cancellation of the print.

III. Print Journal Criteria

In addition to the criteria above, the following specific criteria may be considered to warrant retention of a print journal.

Function:

If the title is especially high profile or is heavily used in print format

If research practices or methodologies in a particular discipline dictate the ongoing importance of the use of the print format

If the print journal functions better as a browsing journal or current awareness source (perhaps due to poor interface design in the electronic version)

If the quality of images or graphics is demonstrably poorer in the electronic journal

If the print has significant artifact or aesthetic value

Ongoing Access and Archiving:

If there is no guarantee that the publisher will continue to provide access to the electronic version beyond the subscription period, in the case of future cancellation or failure of the vendor/publisher

If there is no evidence of an institutional commitment to the journals long-term preservation

Resource Sharing:

If the Libraries has either a consortial responsibility to retain a paper copy or another strong responsibility to retain a print archive of this journal title or the subject area to which it belongs

If the license does not allow us to provide interlibrary loan or document delivery services using the electronic format

Timeliness and Reliability:

If there is significant delay between publication of print and availability of online content

If the provider of the electronic journal is technically unreliable

Content:

If the content of the print differs from that of the electronic (e.g., the print version contains significantly more material than the electronic version). Not only should the electronic version include all research articles, but it should also include content such as supplements (if included with the print journal subscription), letters, calls for papers and other professional announcements, editorials, job openings, and book reviews.

IV. References

University of Maryland University Libraries, Policy on Collecting Only Electronic Versions of Journals,

Cornell University Library, E-Only Review Nets Savings for CUL,

University of Minnesota University Libraries Staff, Review of Big Three Journal Titles Received in Both Print and Electronic Format,

Written and Revised by Yem Fong and Heather Wicht; Reviewed by Bibliographers, September 2007

D. Subject Collection Development Policies

E. Procedures for Terms of Use Violations