This policy provides guidelines for Kutztown University faculty librarians when making decisions on content to acquire in support of the University’s mission.
This policy covers the following collections: Main, Media, Serials, Electronic Resources (databases, ebooks and serials), and Reference. Special collections have their own separate policies.
Librarians, in collaboration with teaching faculty, use this policy to acquire content in a consistent and systematic manner. This policy is intended to assist with the prioritization of acquisitions to support a majority of library users to the extent that funds permit.
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania (KU) is a public, liberal arts institution of higher education located in southeastern Pennsylvania adjacent to the borough of Kutztown. The University is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and also undergoes specialized accreditations for some of its programs such as business, chemistry, education, music and social work.
The University prides itself on being a student-centered teaching institution with an emphasis on professional preparation. A significant number of the faculty actively contribute to the scholarship and pedagogy in their respective disciplines. Many of the faculty as well as administrators and staff are engaged in the local community. While current KU faculty, staff, and students are the Library’s primary constituents, we secondarily serve KU alumni and Kutztown area residents.
The primary responsibility for selection rests with the librarians and teaching faculty. However, anyone may recommend materials for selection. Collection development is dependent upon a liaison system in which the librarians work closely with representatives of the academic departments to determine how the library can best support the curriculum and research needs of the departments. Faculty members are encouraged to recommend materials that serve to support the courses they teach and supplement the general library collections appropriate to their disciplines and specialties.
The Collections Librarian has responsibility for ensuring that requests meet the Collection Development Policy guidelines as well as overseeing the collections as a balanced whole. This librarian coordinates the compilation of information needed to make decisions on subscriptions in all formats and guides each decision to completion. All librarians collaborate to make decisions on costly items. The Library Director has ultimate authority over the Library’s budget.
The main priority for Library resources is supporting the curricular and teaching needs of the University. The Library endeavors to meet the needs of individual faculty research within budgetary means. Secondarily, the Library strives to provide recreational and cultural resources to the extent feasible.
The following criteria are considered for all content regardless of format:
The Library acquires primarily English language content. The exception is foreign language resources to support KU’s foreign language curricula.
Scholarly communication has been transforming how academic content is created, disseminated, and used. The Library is committed to providing access to scholarly content as formats and methods of access evolve.
The Library considers adding the following content types to its collections:
The Library does not in general add the following types to its collections:
Databases incur annual budgetary expenditures plus inflationary increases; therefore, selection decisions must be made more carefully than for resources requiring a one-time expenditure of funds.
In addition to the criteria in the General Selection Guidelines, the following criteria for will be considered:
Additionally, the Collections Librarian reviews the license to ascertain inclusion of acceptable terms, such as:
Lastly, priority is given to resources that can be subscribed to via library consortia.
Periodical subscriptions incur annual budgetary expenditures plus inflationary increases; therefore, selection decisions must be made more carefully than for resources requiring a one-time expenditure of funds.
In addition to the criteria in the General Selection Guidelines, the following criteria for will be considered:
The main priority for Library resources is to support the curricular needs of the University. Acquisition priorities, therefore, closely follow the degree level of each program, whether a program offers a major or minor, and the newness of a program. For most majors and disciplines, the Library acquires and maintains resources at the undergraduate level, with major programs receiving more support than minor programs. Graduate programs usually require both more advanced and more extensive resources. New programs require greater support than those with no new courses, emphases, or degrees. Faculty developing a new course or program should consult with the Library Director to ascertain whether the Library has sufficient resources prior to receiving program approval.
The Library actively participates in cooperative and consortial arrangements with other library organizations to widen and enhance access to information resources and reduce costs. The Library belongs to the following consortia:
The Collections Librarian in consultation with the appropriate librarian and Library Director evaluates potential gifts using the same criteria as for purchased content. Once a gift is accepted, the donor permanently relinquishes all rights to ownership and dispensation, and the full title to the property transfers to the University. The Library reserves the right to determine disposition, retention, housing, and all other policies regarding the use of the items. Under no circumstances do we accept gifts that are mildewed, moldy, musty, or are otherwise in poor condition.
As the recipient of a gift, Library staff are not allowed to appraise gifts for tax purposes according to IRS Publication 561: Determining the Value of Donated Property. Appraisals and attendant costs are the responsibility of the donor; however, the Library will supply a receipt for accepted gifts upon donor request stating the number and type of items donated.
Reviewing the Library’s collection on a regular basis is essential to ensuring its continued currency, relevancy, and usefulness. Resources that no longer meet the Library’s General Selection Criteria may become candidates for deselection. Individual book or media items may be deselected by any librarian. Deselections involving larger areas of the collection or subscription cancellations are done in consultation with faculty in the affected programs.
In addition to the General Selection Criteria, librarians also consider the following factors when determining whether to remove an item or cancel a subscription:
A University is the home of critical thinking and the unfettered exchange of ideas. In selecting content, librarians strive to represent the diversity of opinions that have shaped the debates of the past and that frame the debates of the present and future. To that end, the Library acquires content without partisanship regarding matters of race, sex, religion, or political philosophy.
The Library endorses and adheres to the following American Library Association documents:
We adhere to Article II of the Code of Ethics of the American Library Association: "We uphold the principles of intellectual freedom and resist all efforts to censor library resources."
In keeping with Kutztown University’s commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion and professional guidelines from the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights and the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Diversity Standards: Cultural Competency for Academic Libraries, the Kutztown University Rohrbach Library pledges to collect and make available library materials reflecting the interests, concerns, and achievements of individuals and groups from marginalized and historically underrepresented populations.
The Library complies with all provisions of the United States Copyright Law (17 U.S.C.). Copyright provisions on fair use are found in Section 107 and reproduction by libraries and archives in Section 108. The Library uses such copyright guidelines as the Conference on Fair Use (CONFU), the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries, and other relevant documents to interpret fair use.
In some cases, license agreement restrictions define how the Library may use content and may pre-empt copyright fair use.
The Collections Librarian in consultation with the librarians and Library Director will review and update this policy periodically to ensure it reflects current acquisition priorities and practices.
Approved by Library Director 10/20/2021, Revised 3/28/2022
