How to order a book or other materials
Collection Development Policy
Collection Development Policy
Learning Resources Centre (LRC)
1. Introduction
This collection development policy is a statement of principles and guidelines used by LRC in the selection, acquisition, evaluation, and maintenance of library materials. It is to ensure consistency of practice among those responsible for developing the collection, and to communicate the library's policies to faculty, students, staff, and other interested persons. The Collection Development Policy is subject to change as the programs and information needs of the College change.
The LRC of
3. Purposes and Goals of Collection Development
The development and maintenance of the LRC's collection is a primary goal of the LRC's mission. The Collection Development Department handles all aspects of the process, culminating in the acquisition of informational materials, including the formulation of policies and procedures that guide the selection process, the evaluation of the existing collection, and the allocation of funds for acquisition. In addition, the department plays a role in the care and preservation of materials in the collection, and oversees the process whereby materials are withdrawn from the collection.
The goal of LRC's collection development effort is to build a collection that supports the needs of the undergraduate and graduate programs and responds to the research needs of its faculty. At the same time, LRC strives to fulfill its goal in part through the provision of access services, including the availability of document delivery and interlibrary loan services that will efficiently bring needed materials to UIC patrons from other libraries whenever possible.
Subject Librarian (SL): An LRC staff member who serves as a communication link with academic programs and performs selection activities in assigned subject areas.
LRC Coordinator (LC): A member of an academic division or unit who is that division or unit's liaison with the LRC. The LC receives publication and review material from the SL assigned to a program and distributes those materials to faculty in the division or unit. The LC also collects book requests from faculty, sends them to the appropriate SL for review, then submits them to the Acquisitions Department for purchase.
5. Responsibility for LRC Collection Development
This collection development policy was written in consultation with the College Library Committee. Ultimate responsibility for the development and maintenance of the library's collection rests with the College Librarian, working through the Assistant College Librarian (ACL) for Collection Development, assisted by the SLs and LCs.
The selection of materials for acquisition is the joint responsibility of the SL and the division/unit LC. An LC is expected to solicit book requests from faculty within his/her division/unit and submit them to the appropriate SL.
Each subject area has an assigned list of journal and standing order subscriptions. The titles on the list represent the cumulative result of departmental selection and de-selection. For periodical and standing order requests (i.e. additions or cancellations to the subject-area's list), the LC is expected to convey the department's requests directly to the LRC's Serials Department. Proposed changes in the program lists are evaluated both by the appropriate SL and by the ACL for Collection Development. Moreover, those changes are submitted to the general faculty for review and comment.
All requests for materials -- books, journals, newspapers or standing orders -- are examined for their adherence to the selection guidelines and must be approved by the library SL. Student and university staff requests for the acquisition of materials are welcomed and encouraged, and will be reviewed under the same standards as are requests from other sources. A suggestion box is provided in the LRC.
6. Allocation of LRC Materials Funds
The materials budget is allocated both by format, i.e. periodicals, standing orders, electronic resources or books, and by the subject area or program for whom materials are to be acquired or academic subject areas (e.g. Applied Economics, Statistics, Environmental Science, TESL, etc.). These intersecting categories result in unit allocation packages that have format and subject area components, e.g. the Science and Technology Division receives a funding package consisting of separate allocations for books, journals and standing orders.
Subject area (program) allocations are determined through a division of available funding according to historically-evolved percentages. Adjustments to funding are made in response to the creation and alteration of programs, changes in faculty size or structure, and other factors affecting the need for LRC support.
Under normal conditions, the LRC provides annual funding sufficient to retain all current periodical and standing order subscriptions assigned to subject-area lists. In accordance with an annual schedule, any program may add or cancel titles on its list. If it adds a journal or standing order title, the funds required for the subscription will be shifted from its book budget to its periodical or standing order budget as long as the subscription is maintained. If a title is cancelled, the funds saved by the cancellation will be shifted to the book budget.
When funding is insufficient to maintain current levels of support for materials, the LRC will take measures to reduce expenditures. Reductions will ordinarily be achieved by across-the-board percentage cuts in allocations for books, periodicals and standing orders. In the case of books, the annual allocation is reduced by the necessary percentage. For periodical and standing orders, departments are expected to achieve the required savings through a choice of titles to be cancelled, selecting those the loss of which will cause the least harm to curricular and research support in their subject areas.
Selection of materials is a process affected by the changing curriculum as well as by the availability of new materials. The general guidelines for selection described below apply:
7.1 Criteria for Selection of All Materials (not prioritized)
1) Relevance to the curriculum and appropriateness to the user
2) Timeliness and long-term value of material
3) Reputation of the author, issuing body, and/or publisher
4) Presentation (style and clarity)
5) Aesthetic considerations:
a) literary, artistic, or social value;
b) appeal to the imagination, senses, or intellect
6) Special features:
a) detailed, logical, accurate index;
b) bibliography;
c) footnotes or endnotes;
d) pictorial representations
7) Physical and technical quality:
a) paper, typography, and design;
b) physical size;
c) binding;
d) durability;
e) interface with user (electronic titles)
8) Suitability of content to form
9) Strength of present holdings in the same or similar subject
10) Demand, frequency of interlibrary loan requests for material on the same or similar subject
11) Price or relative cost of material in relation to the budget and other available material
12) Language
7.2 Policies for Selection of Specific Types of Materials
7.2.1 Duplicates
Duplicates are not normally purchased, however duplicate materials will be added to the collection under certain circumstances, viz. if there is heavy usage of copies already held by the library or if a special request is made to do so; if it is necessary in order to acquire archival or special collection copies in addition to circulating copies.
7.2.2 Fiction
LRC does not buy fiction that has short-term interest among readers. Instead, it will select established literary works and new works of promise in the literary field, especially those works that would support literature course offerings. As part of the selection process librarians will evaluate works of fiction in terms of the author’s earlier writings and current reader interest.
7.2.3 Gifts
Gifts to the LRC are encouraged. However, gifts will be added to the collection only after the items have been evaluated to determine if they meet collection development guidelines. The LRC accepts books, journals, media items and cash as gifts. Donors should call the Collection Development Department if they have materials they wish to donate or if they have questions about the appropriateness of their gifts. Retiring professors are strongly encouraged to donate their personal libraries, on the understanding that the books will not be physically kept together as a distinct collection.
All gifts will be acknowledged with a letter from the LRC that indicates the number of volumes/issues/monetary amount given. The library cannot legally provide an appraisal or estimate of the value of the donated material. For appraisal sources, donors should consult the Collection Development Department.
It is customary for donors to bring their gifts to the LRC circulation desk, where they will be expected to fill out a gift donation form. The form explains the conditions under which the LRC receives gifts, and the options available to the donor regarding the disposition of materials not eventually chosen for addition to the collection. Pick-up of donated items is difficult to arrange and normally is not done unless the donated items have been evaluated by the Collection Development Department and been determined to be worth the cost of making such arrangements.
Most gift materials not added to the collection are sold at LRC book sales or donated to other libraries. Proceeds from book sales are used to purchase new library materials.
7.2.4 Non-paper Materials
Non-paper materials include online electronic products (databases, electronic books and journals as well as computer or media-device accessed materials [compact discs, laser disks, videotape, DVDs, audio cassettes and
The LRC acquires, or subscribes to many products which require computer access. Subscription access is largely to databases, indexes, reference sources and other e-books and e-journals, which may be accessed remotely or as CD-ROMs. The LRC also purchases multi-media CD-ROM products which serve its academic mission. There are no acquisition restrictions as to subject area.
The primary criteria for the selection of electronic products are: the extent of relevance to the curriculum, improvement of the overall LRC collection, and enhancement of the user's access to information.
Some electronic resources, such as electronic books and electronic journals, offer distinct advantages over their paper counterparts, among them: 1) enhanced content; 2) rapid publication and updating; 4) savings to the library in terms of storage and re-binding costs. Such materials are particularly useful in subject areas in which there is rapid obsolescence of information, such as computer science and business.
Both electronic journals and books are often sold in "packages". We purchase such aggregations of titles only if the overall cost or benefit ratio is satisfactory. Like all libraries, we would prefer to acquire only titles that we select individually, but the advantages of buying packages are often such that the acquisition of a few unwanted titles is worthwhile.
7.2.4.2 Videotapes/DVDs
The LRC acquires videotapes and DVDs both in conjunction with the purchase of print material purchases, and as stand-alone materials. There are no subject restrictions on purchases and the criteria for selection are the same as those stated in section A. Videotapes and DVDs are housed both in the main collection and a separate collection. Circulation restrictions may apply, to prevent illegal copying.
7.2.4.3 Out-of-Print Materials
The majority of titles selected for purchase by faculty and librarians are current publications, however we recognize the need for some retrospective purchases, as well as the need to acquire replacement copies of damaged and lost out-of-print books. The availability of extensive online databases of used and out-of-print titles has made it both practical and fiscally attractive to buy such titles. Good secondhand copies will be purchased when appropriate.
7.2.4.4 Paperbacks
The default acquisitions procedure of the LRC is to purchase paperback editions of selected titles whenever they are available. Selectors may, however, ask that hard-cover editions be purchased. When making a choice between paperback and hardback, the selectors must take into consideration the price differential between the editions, and the long-term value and expected use of the title.
7.2.4.5 Textbooks
Textbooks are purchased because of the particular situation in which teaching and learning take place at UIC. The number of copies of each textbook purchased for LRC collection is determined by the size of the student body who take the course. The presenrt ratio is 3 copies per hundred students.
7.2.4.6 Languages and Versions
The ratio of Chinese language collection and English language collection at the LRC is 3:7. Books in French, Japanese, Korean and other languages taught at UIC will be sought for the collection. To save funds, those who are responsible for book selection must follow the following principles when selecting books:
1) exhaust all resources in the Mainland before placing an order for a title published outside the Mainland;
2) go with the version published in the Mainland, such as a facsimile version of a title;
3) select the title published in the Mainland which is a good replacement of the title published outside the Mainland;
4) select the international version of a title published outside the Mainland;
5) select a used copy in good shape whenever it is possible.
7.3 Format Guidelines
Materials will be purchased as needed to support the curriculum in all formats for which the library has equipment and facilities. The LRC will normally not collect such items as:
1) article reprints, or preprints
2) costumes
3) educational games (other than those relevant to computer programming courses)
4) commercial appliance manuals
5) instruments (musical or electronic)
6) models
7) specimens
Levels are defined as follows.
8.1 Minimal Level (1)
A subject area in which few selections are made beyond very basic works.
8.2 Basic Information Level (2)
A selective collection of up-to-date materials that serves to introduce and define a subject or directs one to the varieties of information available elsewhere. It may include dictionaries, encyclopedias, access to appropriate bibliographic databases, selected editions of important works, historical surveys, bibliographies, handbooks and a few major periodicals. Supports beginning course work.
8.3 Instructional Level, Introductory (
Provides resources adequate for imparting and maintaining knowledge about the primary topics of a subject area. The collection includes a broad range of basic works in appropriate formats, "classic" retrospective materials, all key journals on primary topics, selected journals and seminal works on secondary topics and access to appropriate digital sources. The reference tools and fundamental bibliographic apparatus pertaining to the subject are included. This level of collection supports undergraduate courses.
8.4 Instructional Level, Advanced (3b)
Provides resources adequate for imparting and maintaining knowledge about the primary and secondary topics of a subject area. The collection includes a significant number of seminal works and journals on the primary and secondary topics of the field; a significant number of retrospective materials; a substantial collection of works by secondary figures; works that provide more in-depth discussions of research techniques and evaluation; access to appropriate machine readable data files; and reference tools and fundamental bibliographic apparatus pertaining to the subject. This level supports all courses of undergraduate study and master's degree programs.
9. Collection Maintenance and Evaluation
9.1 Location of Materials
Information resources purchased with LRC funds or gifts to the LRC become part of the LRC collection. The location of these resources is, for the most part, determined by the SLs who have made the requests or reviewed the gift items in question.
The conditions under which electronic databases will be accessible will be determined by licensing agreements. Whenever possible, the LRC will make access available to all students and staff.
9.2 De-selection
De-selection of LRC materials (the process of removing items from the collection) is essential for the maintenance of an active, academically useful collection. De-selection provides quality control by the elimination of outdated, inaccurate, and physically deteriorated materials. Librarians are responsible for conducting ongoing de-selection efforts in their areas of collection responsibility.
9.2.1 General Guidelines
1) Superseded editions are subject to de-selection. Reasons for retention of superseded editions include the continuing relevance of their content and the desirability of having circulating copies of certain titles the current editions of which are not circulated.
2) Materials which cannot be repaired or rebound or for which the cost of preservation exceeds the usefulness of the information contained are de-selected.
3) Because currency of information is extremely important in some fields (such as sciences, technology, and business), older materials are subject to de-selection so that outdated or inaccurate information may be removed. However, materials which, though outdated in content, have significant historical value may be retained.
4) Materials whose content is duplicated in other works held may be de-selected.
1) Incomplete and short runs of a title may be withdrawn, particularly when the title is not currently received.
2) Titles that contain information that do not have long-term value, such as newsletters and trade magazines, usually have automatic discard schedules, such as "latest two years only retained."
3) Annuals, biennials, and regularly updated editions of guidebooks, handbooks, almanacs, and directories have a de-selection pattern established depending on the value of the information contained in earlier editions. Often one or two older editions are retained in the reference and/or circulating collections.
4) Due to lack of space, issues which are replaced by microfilm or electronic sources are routinely discarded.
5) Duplicate issues of periodicals and journals are discarded when a volume has been bound.
1) Except for materials identified as superseded by later editions (including many reference collection titles), and those deemed physically unfit for repair/rebinding and retention, all items chosen for de-selection must be submitted for review to the entire LRC staff and relevant teaching faculty before they are removed from the collection.
2) Books that are candidates for de-selection will be recorded in LRC Web site lists. Faculty and LRC staff will be notified of the availability of the lists and ask to comment within a set period, upon the items proposed for de-selection. Collection Development staff will compile responses and make final decisions on the disposition of such items.
3) Periodicals that either academic or LRC departments wish to discontinue will be recorded in web site lists. Reactions from the LRC and teaching faculty will be compiled (as in the case of the book review process), and decisions about disputed cancellation requests will be made by the LRC, in consultation with involved faculty.
9.3 Preservation and Restoration
LRC materials are expensive to purchase, process, and house. The LRC acknowledges the necessity of preserving all holdings, both traditional and nontraditional.
The Circulation Department is responsible for bringing physically damaged materials to the attention of the Head of Collection Development.
Materials to be rebound are handled by the Bindery Supervisor, a member of the Serials staff.
9.3.1 Repair
Book, document, and journal repair is under the supervision of the Binding Supervisor. Damaged materials judged to be beyond the ability of in-house staff to repair, but worth retaining in the collection, will be rebound commercially. The Head of Collection Development, in consultation with appropriate SLs, will determine whether or not a given volume is to be retained by the LRC and sent to the Binding Department for repair or binding.
9.3.2 Binding
Periodicals and journals：In general, all periodicals and journals are bound on a regular basis. Titles may not be bound if replaced by microfilm or if only the current two to three years are retained. The number of issues bound together is determined on a title-by-title basis depending on the size and number of issues per volume or year. Incomplete volumes or years are bound only after being reviewed.
Books: Damaged books already in the collection will be re-bound when in-house repair is not possible and retention is desirable. For new paperbound publications, rebinding will be done upon receipt of a volume only if heavy use is anticipated.
9.4 Replacement of LRC Materials
9.4.1 Monographs
SLs are responsible for making decisions regarding the replacement of books that are lost, missing, or damaged beyond repair or rebinding. The Circulation and Collection Development Departments are responsible for bringing such materials to the attention of the SLs. Criteria for making replacement decisions are these:
1) Does the material being replaced meet the general LRC collection policy?
2) Does the frequency of anticipated use justify replacement?
3) Is the item used for class reserve reading or is it on a faculty recommended reading list?
9.4.2 Serials
Serials staff will identify lost, damaged, missing, or worn-out serials and will take steps to replace these materials. Decisions to replace annual, biennial, and irregular serials will be handled according to the policy for monographs described above, with the SLs having responsibility to order replacements.
The following serial items will not be replaced:
1) newspapers and newsletters
2) titles that are not permanently held
3) titles routinely replaced by microfilm or DVD
Since back issues may be expensive, the decision to replace will be guided by these considerations:
1) Does the material being replaced meet the general LRC collection policy?
2) Should microfilm be purchased rather than replacing paper issues?
3) Is the periodical readily available elsewhere?
4) Does the information in the particular title have lasting value?
9.5 Evaluation of the Collection
The continual review of LRC materials is necessary for maintaining an active LRC collection of current interest to users. Evaluations will be made to determine whether the collection is meeting its objectives, how well it is serving its users, in which ways it is deficient, and what remains to be done to develop the collection. This process requires the same attention to quality and authority as the original selection of materials.
LRC staff will evaluate portions of the collection on a regular basis, especially in conjunction with college-wide program evaluations, using a combination of standard qualitative and quantitative methods.
Among the measures used to evaluate the collection are: 1) Computer-assisted comparisons of the UIC collection with collections of peer institutions; 2) Various "brief test" techniques for individual subject-area collection; 3) Comparison of the collection with standard bibliographies; 4) User surveys.
10. Access/Ownership Statement
With the library's diminishing ability to possess even a small percentage of the world's information, the economics of access, as opposed to ownership, has become a crucial issue. Integrating access into the collection development policy is not only necessary, but provides some decided advantages to the library as an information provider. First, the developments in electronic information systems have made it possible for library users to easily identify information sources. Second, though the library cannot keep all of the material relevant to its users in its collection, it can provide efficient access to those sources that reside in other collections through the maintenance of rapid and affordable interlibrary loan and document delivery services. The trend toward availability of information resources in electronic format improves retrieval time and cost.
Therefore, when the LRC determines that access "on demand" is more economically feasible in terms of storage, projected use, and cost, this option will be taken as a way of enhancing the LRC's ability to expand the information base available to its primary users.
In sum, the UIC LRC's goal is to move toward a logical combination of traditional collections and effective access to materials that are not owned.
How to order a book or other materials
Book Order Procedure (endorsed by Library Committee on October 24th, 2007)
It is normal that it takes 3 - 6 months for LRC to get an item published or produced outside China on the shelve for circulation. To speed up the ordering process and make it more systematic, LRC places a large-quantity order with the vendor every three months. The times for the four placements in a year are:
l November 10
l February 10
l May 10
l August 10
In order for the right item to be purchased in a timely and systematic way, the following procedure should be followed by everyone involved in the ordering process at UIC.
1. Staff members send their book requests to the Library Coordinator (LC) of their own Division/Unit;
2. The LC is responsible within the Division/Unit for compiling the order list with key information included;
3. Three weeks before LRC places the order, the LC sends the list of book requests, both in print format and in electronic format, to the Subject Librarian (SL) of LRC. The list won’t be official unless it has the Dean’s or Unit Head’s signature;
4. LRC sends the order to the vendor for quotes within three days the SL receives the list of book requests from the LC;
5. The vendor sends the quotes within 10 days upon receiving the order;
6. Two days after LRC gets the quotes, the SL sends the quotes to the LC for final confirmation from the Division/Unit;
7. The Dean or Unit Head, together with concerned programme coordinator(s), checks the order with quotes against the balance of their allocation of collection budget and makes the final decision for what to purchase within three days upon receiving it.
8. The LC sends the list of wanted items with the Dean’s or Unit Head’s signature to the SL.
9. LRC sends the order with College Librarian’s signature to the vendor as a confirmed order within three days upon receiving it from the LC.
Regulations Regarding Book Purchase by Staff Members (endorsed by Library Committee on October 24th, 2007)
1. For the LRC collection, all purchases must be through the proper acquisition process as described in the LRC’s Book Order Procedure. The LRC shall not reimburse any expense incurred otherwise.
2. A fund within the Division/Unit’s own budget is made available for staff members to purchase books or other materials for their own use.
a) These books are UIC’s property, and they are to become part of LRC’s collection eventually when they are collected by LRC after use at individual Divisions/Units.
b) The Dean or Unit’s Head is the budget holder for such a purchase.
c) Expenses on such purchases are deducted from the Division/Unit’s own budget.
d) These books are to be stamped with the LRC Collection Stamp as soon as they arrive on campus.
e) The LC of the Division/Unit is responsible for relevant clerical work involved in the process of purchasing and handling such books.
Finding the right book or other materials to order
For the right book or material to be ordered, the right bibliographic information is very IMPORTANT, which includes title, edition, author or creator, ISBN (or other standard number for different format, e.g. ASIN for DVD), publisher and publication date. If you are too busy to get all the information, you need to provide three of them at least: TITLE, AUTHOR and ISBN. To help you get the information, the best way is to go to major online bookstores whose URLs are listed below.
Links to academic publishers
McGraw Hill Education: http://catalogs.mhhe.com/mhhe/home.do
Wiley: http://as.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/index.html
Routledge: http://www.routledge.com/catalogues.asp
Pearson Education: http://www.pearsoned.com/higher-ed/index.htm
Springer: http://www.springer.com/east/home?SGWID=5-102-0-0-0
Online Bookstores:
For English titles
Amazon.com: http://amazon.com/
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/
For Chinese titles
当当网：http://www.dangdang.com/book.shtml
中国科技金书网：http://www.golden-book.com/
Click here to downloadBook Order Form(Excel)Book Order Form(Word)