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Collection Management Guidelines

VCUQatar Collection Management Guidelines

Approved by the Library Staff June 15, 2011

(Note: These guidelines are taken from and follow as closely as possible the Collection Development Guidelines for VCU Libraries. VCUQatar Librarians appreciate the excellent Collection Management planning model provided by VCU Libraries. Differences below primarily reflect the VCUQatar curriculum, collection focus at VCUQatar and distinct needs of the Qatari environment.)

The Faculty Librarians at Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar (VCUQatar) with input and support from the Collection Management Department in VCU Libraries, are primarily responsible for building and managing VCUQatar Libraries collections, in concert with the missions of Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar, The VCU School of the Arts and VCU Libraries. Central to the library's mission is the goal of carefully building and managing substantive information resource collections that serve the VCUQatar School of the Arts academic programs. Collections may include materials housed in the library or sources located elsewhere to which VCUQatar Libraries provides access.

Faculty Librarians and faculty and staff selectors from other VCUQatar departments select all library materials.

Because it is essential that library collections serve instructional and research programs, VCUQatar faculty librarians maintain a working liaison with university faculty in the selection and management of resources. The department encourages every academic unit to appoint a member of its faculty as its library representative. The appointee acts as official contact with the library to inform the department about curricular developments and library needs. VCUQatar Faculty Librarians also consult regularly with individual faculty in other departments to solicit their recommendations for additions to the collections and to learn of their teaching and research interests.

 

Function of Collection Management Guidelines

A collection guideline is an official statement of the library's goals in building and managing its collections in all subject areas. It is designed to:

• define the scope of existing collections
• serve as a collection development planning document by guiding selectors in choosing materials most appropriate to support academic programs in each discipline
• provide guidelines and criteria for deselection and preservation decisions
• promote consistency and continuity in collection management through establishing clear objectives for each librarian who assumes selection responsibilities
• enable the library to communicate its rationale for managing its collections to the university community
• equip the library to participate in cooperative collection building and resource sharing arrangements with other libraries by specifying areas of collecting emphasis and de-emphasis

 

Goals of the Collection Management Program

Consistent with the mission of VCUQatar Libraries, the guiding principle of collection management is to develop collections that support the university's academic programs in the arts. Selectors therefore choose materials that best serve two primary university functions:

Instruction - The collections should include materials that reinforce and enhance the quality of instruction in all courses offered at the university. University faculty should be able to depend on VCUQatar Libraries resources for preparing courses and student assignments; students should be able to rely on VCUQatar Libraries resources for course-related study and the completion of assigned projects. Materials shoudl engage the learner and encourage library use and the development of inforamtion literacy skills. This is particularly important in Qatar where many students have not grown up with well-developed school and public libraries.

Research and Creative Activities - Because research and creative activities are integral university activities, VCUQatar Libraries should provide resources and services to assist faculty and students in the intellectual inquiry and experimentation that form the creative, design and research process. Researchers, artists and designers should be able to utilize VCUQatar and VCU Libraries to obtain information and media essential to their investigations to support scholarship and creative activities. The VCUQatar library is a unique and important resource for art and design images and information for the art and design community in Qatar and the broader region.

The addition of the Education City Central Library may eventually reduce the need to purchase some materials not central to the curriculum.

 

The Materials Budget and its Allocation

The ability to attain the library’s collection management goals is chiefly dependent upon funding. VCUQatar Library’s major funding source is annual appropriations by the Qatar Foundation. Appropriate budgeting techniques are used that enable us to monitor all expenditures and manage our appropriation efficiently.

The materials budget is an important tool in apportioning financial resources, however limited, as equitably as possible. The Library endeavors to allocate funds to every academic and support program in the university at an amount consistent with both the program's curricular level and the cost of materials and extent of literature in the program's subject area. The Library attempts to establish strong instructional support collections for all disciplines offered with additional support for graduate programs.  The library works closely with campus administration in planning for new programs. It is expected that new programs will be funded appropriately and therefore new programs are supported as funding allows. Support levels will also address specific needs of the Qatar Foundation and the mission of VCUQatar.

Supplementary Funding
Interested donors may supplement Qatar Foundation funding through contributing monetary grants or endowments to underwrite purchases for the collection. If donors prefer to support particular subject collections, the Library works with them prior to acceptance to define the subject area or areas to which the grant or endowment will apply. Subject areas should be defined broadly enough that grant or endowment income does not exceed amounts adequate to purchase all pertinent materials likely to be available at present or in the future.

While the Library welcomes recommendations from donors or individuals designated by donating organizations, VCUQatar Libraries retains responsibility for the selection of materials purchased with grant or endowment funds. Librarians select these materials in accordance with VCUQatar Libraries collection policies to ensure that purchased items are of appropriate academic or scholarly quality.

 

Considerations in Selection and Deselection

Selection is the process of determining which materials to acquire for the library's collections. Deselection is the removal of materials from the collections because of their condition (see preservation statement below) or because they no longer serve instruction and research programs.

In making selection and deselection decisions, librarians attempt to insure that library collections as a whole are balanced in several important respects:

Current and retrospective coverage - Though the Library emphasizes the acquisition of current resources in arts related subject fields, it also endeavors to acquire retrospective works and backfiles as needed to strengthen and round out collections, particularly in disciplines where retrospective materials are of special importance. Backfiles are a collection of earlier issues of a serial publication.

Formats - Information resources are produced in an increasing variety of formats. Collections no longer consist exclusively of print monographs and serials, though these materials remain important. Significant instructional and research tools also include, among other formats, exhibition catalogs (collected as monographs), artists books, architectural, interior and fashion design and industrial design materials, archives, digital images, compact discs, DVDs, software, games, online databases and other new media appropriate to support the educational mission. VCUQatar Libraries strives to build collections that incorporate all forms of scholarly communication. In each subject field, however, there is an attempt to establish a collection consisting of every appropriate format in a quantity proportional to its value for practitioners of the discipline. See below for detailed information on formats collected in the Materials Library and Archives.

Geographical Coverage - Most acquisitions will focus on the United States, Europe and other Western cultures due to the location of publishing centers. There is also an emphasis on the Gulf region, the Middle East, North Africa and Islamic cultures when appropriate publications and media are found.

Language - All collecting will focus on English language materials as English is the language of instruction. In rare cases non English language materials may be purchased to support a unique curricular, research or creative need.

For any Arabic and non roman script materials added to the collection transliterated catalog records will be used.  

Ownership and access - While no library can afford to purchase all resource materials useful to students and scholars of every discipline, libraries can inform patrons of instructional and research materials that can be obtained elsewhere. Consequently library collections are composed of resources owned and housed locally supplemented by materials accessible from other institutions. VCUQatar Libraries endeavors to purchase materials basic and essential to each discipline in the university curriculum for its own holdings. Budgetary and geographic constraints may necessitate that the Library must depend upon resources in other locations to augment these holdings. The relative nature of other collections in Qatar, the lack of public library collections and the newness of museum collections in the region, are also important to consider. Therefore an integral part of the library’s collection management program is an attempt to select access tools and provide services, including formal resource-sharing arrangements, which enable library users to identify and obtain materials held at other sites.

Ideological balance - To help foster a university environment characterized by a spirit of open inquiry and discussion, VCUQatar Libraries selects materials so that collections as a whole reflect a variety of viewpoints and provide balanced coverage of issues. This library reflects the principles of open and free access to information as reflected in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19, which states:

 ―Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

VCUQatar respects and is sensitive to the traditions of the local Qatari culture as it provides access to academic ideas and principles to prepare graduates for life in a global society. The goal of the collection is to support the university curriculum by making available a wide range of ideas and images.   As the library balances considerations for respecting local culture with the need to introduce students to new ideas some materials within the VCUQATAR collection may not be appropriate for every library user. If any library user is concerned about using the collection in any way they may contact librarians for assistance in finding appropriate choices.  Just as people choose what to watch on TV, or what to access on the Internet, library users also choose what to access in the library according to their needs and values.

Library materials are not all housed and borrowed in the same way. Some materials, depending on their content and format may be located in special or separate collections and made available according to the type of need and the type of user.

 

Gifts

Materials donated to the library may be a useful component of the collection management program. VCUQatar Libraries accepts gifts in appropriate circumstances.

Whenever possible the Director of Libraries in consultation with appropriate staff will discuss gift collections with donors prior to accepting them. If the gifts appear to be highly duplicative (particularly in the case of serials) or unsuitable for an academic library, the Library may suggest alternative recipients. Gifts are accepted with the understanding that they become the property of the VCUQatar Libraries upon receipt and that the Libraries will make all necessary decisions regarding their retention, location, treatment, and other issues relating to their use and disposition. The Libraries intention in accepting gifts is that they be added to the collection, if needed. Therefore, every effort is made to accept only items appropriate for addition to the Libraries collection. Materials not added to the VCUQatar Libraries collection may be given away or disposed of through charitable organizations or other means.

VCUQatar Libraries does not provide lists or appraisals of donated materials.

Librarians and curators select gifts for addition to the collection in consideration of the gifts' physical condition and usefulness. In all cases the Library employs selection criteria stated in the collection guidelines. Ordinarily the Library designates added gifts for inclusion with other materials in established VCUQatar Libraries locations. Separate locations will be created only if the materials are of unique importance or in a format that cannot be readily housed in any existing collection. Instituting a separate location requires the approval of the VCUQatar Director of Libraries.

 

Subject Policies for Collections Supporting Academic Programs

To establish the framework for building appropriate collections, Faculty Librarians formulate specific collection management policies for all instructional programs. Each guideline contains the following information:

Purpose - A description of the academic program, including degrees offered and instructional and research emphases.

General collection guidelines - An explanation of the parameters of collection building, including: 

• Language
• Chronology
• Geography
• Publication date
• Treatment of subject
• Types of materials and formats

Area resources - Mention of pertinent subject collections at other locations in Education City and the Doha area. 

Related subject guideline statements (where necessary).

Subjects and collecting levels - An overview defining and separating each discipline into specific subject categories and corresponding Library of Congress classification ranges. For each category there are two codes. The first indicates the academic level or collecting intensity of the present VCUQATAR Libraries collection. The second describes the desired collecting intensity consistent with the curricular level of the program. These codes are defined in Appendix A.

Methodology - A list of major bibliographic sources consulted in determining the current collecting intensity.

 

Collection Evaluation

The ongoing evaluation of collections is an important component of a comprehensive collection management program. Collections must grow and change to reflect evolutions in both the scholarship of each discipline and the curricular needs of the institution. Systematic evaluation of the collections by means such as use and user studies, shelf list counts, citation analyses, list checking, and other methods is imperative to insure that available resources continue to be of maximum benefit to students and faculty. Likewise serial subscriptions must be regularly reviewed.

Collection assessment may result in the acquisition of additional materials for subject collections judged inadequate to support current academic programs. In the case of serials, titles of diminished scholarly significance or instructional relevance may be replaced by more useful subscriptions. Assessments may also identify materials to be moved to the Qatar Foundation Central Library, deselected (withdrawn), or preserved. The following criteria guide librarians in these decisions:

Curricular or program changes - Revision, expansion, or reduction of academic programs may necessitate that materials are no longer germane to the curriculum or of intrinsic scholarly significance and should therefore be withdrawn.

Physical condition - Materials in a state of physical decay should be moved to the preservation area for repair or withdrawn.

Usage - Materials in collections for a long period of time with no evidence of recent usage may be candidates for withdrawal. Items of scholarly, historical, or archival value should be retained, however.

Cost - High-cost materials and materials of unique value may be housed in the Special Collections area for their protection. Serials whose prices increase substantially may decrease in value to the library; they should be considered for cancellation.

Duplication - Duplicate copies of most items can be withdrawn, except for titles in high demand or at an established risk of loss. Where VCUQatar Libraries owns multiple editions of one title, retaining only the most recent edition may be sufficient. However, care should be taken to retain at least a representative selection of superseded editions of important scholarly texts. All works on or by artists and designers should be retained.

Because both shelf space and computer system capacity are limited, it is useful to review all collections periodically to identify materials that can be deselected to relieve overcrowding. The above criteria can also be employed in these reviews.

 

Preservation and Conservation

VCUQatar Library endeavors to extend the useful life of materials in its collection through preservation and conservation.

Preservation. Successful implementation requires tracking of means of control, object location, and agents of deterioration. The quality and physical state of all library materials are evaluated before accessioning to the VCUQatar collection. This applies equally to circulating material, reference materials, digital collections, special collections and archives. 

• Hardcover copy is preferred in acquisitions of general collections and reference materials
• Collection needs and value of materials dictate binding of selected print serials; binding schedules are created annually by the Director of Libraries in consultation with the Collection Management team.
• Digital assets are purchased with persistence and portability in mind
• Acquisitions to Archives and any special collection are quarantined and evaluated for potential threats to collection stability and for special housing needs by the Archives.

The primary goal of preservation is to maintain physical stability and prolong the existence of informational content. Providing an optimum environment is the only way to extend the life and use of an entire collection. Preservation is an active measure to slow or minimize potential deterioration due to relative humidity, temperature, light, and other organisms or conditions including technological obsolescence.

The Head, Digital Collections and Archives will develop and implement Guidelines and procedures in collaboration the other staff for preservation and maintaining a stable physical environment for the collection. This will include establishing stability of temperature and environment, cleaning and housekeeping, and proper handling of materials depending on their type and use.

Conservation of General Collections - Conserving aging but still useful materials is a collection management responsibility equal in importance to selecting new materials. Retrospective sources retain their value to the library and their utility to patrons only if maintained in serviceable condition.

The identification of deteriorating materials needing conservation treatment occurs at several points during routine processing or use (cataloging, marking, circulation, or shelving, for example). Periodic review of the collection by selectors is the most thorough means of discovering and correcting preservation problems.

The choice of a preferred conservation method is a decision made by the Head of Digital Collections and Archives in consultation with Director of Libraries and other staff. Minor repairs to library materials are handled internally. Replace items in exceptionally poor condition by purchasing a new copy or by acquiring data in microform or electronic formats. Collection Management addresses the disposition of materials requiring extraordinary conservation measures. Transfer non-replaceable materials to Special Collections.

Conservation of Archives and Special Collections -  Human intervention is one of the most damaging in terms of changing the material and intention of cultural objects. The mission of conservation should be markedly expressed throughout the institution through policy development, distribution and implementation. Only a qualified conservator should treat objects. The conservator’s role is to provide ethical treatment to prolong the life of an object without altering the meaning. All treatments should be 100% reversible. When determining which conservation option to choose, the artifactual value of an item, its importance to the collection, its past and potential use, and its availability in other libraries or alternative formats are considered. The comparative costs of repair or replacement must always enter into every conservation decision.

 

Appendix A: Definitions of Collecting Levels

A. Comprehensive Level - A collection in which the library endeavors, so far as it is reasonably possible, to include all significant works of recorded knowledge for a necessarily defined and limited field.

B. Research Level - A collection that broadly comprises major source materials useful for dissertation and independent research. It is intended to include important reference works and a wide selection of specialized monographs, as well as extensive holdings of journals and major indexing and abstracting services in the field. A collection at this level supports doctoral and other original research.

C1. Advanced Study Level - A collection adequate for imparting knowledge about the primary and secondary topics of a subject area. It includes a significant number of seminal works and journals on the primary and secondary topics in the field; works that provide in-depth discussions of research, techniques, and evaluation; and fundamental bibliographic and reference tools pertaining to the subject. This level supports all courses of undergraduate study and master's degree programs.

C2. Instructional Support Level - A collection that provides coverage of the primary topics of a subject area. It includes a broad collection of basic monographs, key journals on primary topics, selected journals and seminal works on secondary topics, and fundamental bibliographic and reference tools pertaining to the subject. This level supports undergraduate and advanced undergraduate courses.

D. Basic Information Level - A selective collection of materials that serves to introduce and define a subject and to indicate the varieties of information available elsewhere. It may include dictionaries, encyclopedias, selected editions of important works, historical surveys, bibliographies, handbooks, and major periodicals.

E. Minimal Level - A subject area in which few selections are made beyond very basic works.

 

Appendix B: Selection Guidelines for Electronic Publishing

VCUQatar Libraries Digital Library

The Digital Library within VCUQatar Libraries embodies a variety of initiatives and software products. One component of the Digital Library consists of material from the VCU and VCUQatar Libraries collections or material that has been solicited by VCUQatar Libraries that is not in a computer format (eye-readable text, tape recordings, slide images, etc.) and is converted to a digital product through scanning, reformatting, etc. Because the process of converting material to digital form is very labor-intensive and expensive with implications for long-term maintenance, VCUQatar Libraries has developed guidelines for selecting projects to be digitized. The Director of VCUQatar Libraries in consultation with the Visual Resources staff exercises final approval over projects that are candidates for digitizing.

The guidelines for selection are broad and provide latitude for discretion. Not every project will meet all the criteria. The guidelines are designed to provide general assistance in making guideline decisions for what is appropriate for digitizing and the conditions required for implementation. The selection of projects must at all times be informed by the principles of good collection management and archival practices. As such, the criteria for digitizing supplement the VCUQatar Libraries Collection Management Guidelines as above.

Guidelines

1. VCUQatar Libraries has the legal right to digitize and distribute the material.
Comment: VCUQatar Libraries respects the copyright and ownership of material. If material is not in the public domain, VCUQatar Libraries must have explicit and proper permission from the copyright owners to undertake a project; moreover, distribution of material should respect individuals' right to privacy. In all cases, the permission of the legal owner must be secured before proceeding with digitizing. Examples of suspect material might be documents that have been previously published, letters written to the donor of a collection, images from unknown sources, etc. However, important or useful projects may be undertaken even though usage restrictions must be imposed if the collection is particularly important, it is in danger of deterioration, etc.

2. Digital Library projects directly support the curriculum and/or research of the students and faculty of Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar.
Comment: Projects must be central to primary curricular and research missions of VCUQatar. Administrative and staff projects are usually considered out of scope of the VCUQatar Digital Libraries projects.

3. A high level of demand exists for the material.
Comment: Particularly in the early stages of the Digital Library, it is important to support projects that will have a significant impact on the University community. Projects that affect a great many people will have a higher priority because of the significant costs associated with digitizing.

4. The project enhances access to the library's collection.
Comment: Projects will be considered that make it easier or faster to access the library's collection, thus adding value to the material. The ability to use collections from outside the library, including by users not in the VCUQatar community, will be considered an asset to a project.

5. Digitizing protects and preserves endangered material.
Comment: Projects will be considered when the material is fragile or rare and is subject to deterioration through frequent or careless handling.

6. The material represents a unique contribution.
Comment: Material that has not been previously converted to digital form by another institution or publisher are good candidates for consideration.

7. The material has enduring value.
Comment: Material with an expected long and useful life are good candidates for digitizing because of the time and expense required to convert them. However, material with a current topical interest may be considered if it is anticipated that it will be of utility to future scholarship.

8. VCUQatar Libraries has the staff and resources to implement and maintain the project.
Comment: All costs must be projected when proposing a project. These might include:

• The number and level of staff that are required, including technical staff for advice, planning, and ongoing maintenance
• The hardware required to digitize and store the material
• The software that is needed to digitize and make the material accessible
• The physical space required to process the material
• Plans for future updates or maintenance of the information
• Plans for securing, backing up, and refreshing the storage medium

Projects that reduce staff effort, even if such savings are projected into the future, will be considered when evaluating the cost of a project.

9. The project enhances the ability of VCUQatar Libraries to attract gifts, grants, or endowments.

Comment:The potential for a project to generate revenue or to support itself will be considered during the evaluation.

10. The project is to be accomplished within existing VCUQatar Libraries or national/international standards and practices.
Comment: Projects will be evaluated on how well they integrate with the current VCUQatar Libraries environment or with accepted external standards. Projects using open hardware standards and off-the-shelf software that promise a long life and greater functionality are more likely to be approved.

Proposal Presentation

In developing projects for review, it is most useful if the points in the guideline are addressed in a narrative to the VCUQatar Director of Libraries. A typical process for presenting a proposal might be:

• Develop an idea for a project
• Validate the idea with colleagues who have an interest or responsibility in this area so as to gather support and identify resources for the project
• Secure the support of the supervisor and seek assistance in developing the proposal
• Prepare the proposal for the Director, basing the document on the guidelines with specific reference to the size of the collection and scope of the project, the resources required, the amount of time the project is expected to take, and how tasks are going to be assigned

The nature of the project will determine the length and detail required for the proposal. Major projects with a large commitment of staff and resources will require very specific and developed proposals. Small scale projects may be able to be described in a simple memo.

Not all digitizing projects need go through a formal approval process. Reformatting activities that are limited in scope, documents digitized as decorative or design features in home pages, "sampler" images that are intended to describe a collection, and similar projects that are easily accomplished with delegated resources need not be presented to the VCUQatar Director of Libraries for approval.

 

Appendix C: Selection Guidelines for
VCUQATAR Materials Collection Library

Purpose

The purpose of the Materials Library is to provide samples of materials used in Interior Design, Fashion, Graphic Design, and Product Design. The samples are collected and organized to support the educational use of materials, student and faculty research and creative activities.  A specific focus will be placed in two specific areas: innovation and locally available materials.

Collection Guidelines

The VCU Qatar Materials Library will collect, preserve and make available the following: 

• materials samples
• selected product samples
• selected printed books relating to materials
• product catalogues
• trend books

 Examples will include (but are not limited to):

 Building finish materials such as stone, woods, metals, and polymers

• Textiles for fashion, interiors, and furnishings
• Paper samples for books, magazines, and posters
• Catalogues from the leading furniture and fixture companies

  

Appendix D: 
Section Guidelines for VCUQatar University Archives

Purpose

The VCUQatar University Archives collects, appraises, organizes, describes and makes available materials related to the history of Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar.  The university archives provide an “institutional memory” for the university—its spirit of growth and development, its active campus life and its unique position as a branch campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia.  

Collection Guidelines

VCUQatar University Archives collect the following: 

• Selected programs, posters, exhibition catalogs and other ephemera from university events including sponsored conferences, symposiums, exhibitions, lectures, workshops and other events.
• Selected media related to the history of VCUQatar including digital images, moving images (video and film), sound recordings, photographs (prints, negatives and slides).
• Selected administrative materials related to the departments and programs of the university including annual reports, organizational charts and materials related to the founding, organization, and accreditation process.
• Selected significant correspondence/papers of faculty and staff as deemed appropriate by VCUQatar Libraries.
• Selected publications by VCUQatar faculty and staff during their work at VCUQatar and as deemed appropriate by VCUQatar Libraries.
• Selected significant representations of student work with written permissions.
• Selected newspaper and magazine articles by and about Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar—its programs, departments, faculty, students and staff.

 VCUQatar University Archives will not collect the following: 

• University-wide records in general
• Emails, Web pages or other transient university correspondence and publications
• Transactions records such as leave requests and purchase orders
• Routine correspondence
• Financial records
• Personnel records
• Regular work of students, faculty or staff
• Student records
• Original artwork will not be collected due to space constraints

 VCUQatar Archives will selectively digitize materials according to US and Qatari copyright laws and VCUQatar Collection Management Guidelines (see above).

 

Appendix E: Collection Guidelines for Academic Programs

[to be completed by liaisons over the 2011-2012 academic year]

• Graphic Design
• Fashion Design
• Interior Design 
• Painting & Printmaking
• Design Studies
• Islamic Art History (pending approval)