Collection Development policy

Indiana University South Bend

Wiekamp Educational Resource Commons

Purposeand scope of the WERC Collection

Collection development refers to the process of building and maintainingThe Wiekamp Educational Resource Commons (WERC) Library collection. The collection development policy services as a guide for the acquisition, evaluation, and maintenance of materials in the WERC library’s collection.

The primary goal of the WERC collection development efforts is to build a collection that supports the needs of the undergraduate,graduate, and the professional program of the IU South Bend School of Education, related to teacher training and certification.

The WERC also supports the needs of the other campus programs and provides access to needed materials and collections through interlibrary loan, document delivery, and consortia services.

The WERC readily makes available for inspection, evaluation or circulation, educational materials that correlate with the State of Indiana Department of Education’s (IDOE) current standards for preschool through grade twelve, and basic adult education materials when appropriate.

The WERC current collection is primarily composed of materials (monographs, media, realia, games, and curriculum kits)for pre-service and practicing Pre-K through grade 12 teachers. The collection reflects cultural diversity and promotes respect and appreciation for specific cultures and the global community. In addition, the WERC is a part of the Indiana University library system with shared access to most print-based resources through the online catalog, IUCAT.

Location and Access

The WERC collection is housed in the Education and Arts Building, Room 2010, on the campus of IU South Bend. Cataloged collections are searchable through IUCAT.Electronic resources, including many serial subscriptions, are found on the Library’s website. Information resources purchased with library funds or acquired through donation become part of the WERC collection and the shelving location of these resources is determined by the WERC supervisor.

Most of the WERC collections are open collections.

Assistance retrieving or accessing materials is available for patrons with physical limitations upon requests.

Access to electronic information is in compliance with publisher or vendorlicensing agreements, and in most cases, use is restricted to affiliated users (faculty, students, and staff of IU South Bend). Alumni and community members may obtain an Indiana resident card to checkout materials and use designated computers in the WERC.

Borrowing

WERC collections designated as circulating may be checked out with a campus ID or IU-issued borrowing card. Circulation policies and requirements for the borrowing card are available on the library’s website.

Responsibility for WERC/Library collection development

The WERC supervisor, with input from the School of Education (SOE) faculty and SOE library liaison,selects materials for the collection. Requests for materials from students and staff are encouraged and are reviewed by the same standards as all other requests.

The Director of Collection Services supports the development and maintenance of the entire library’s collection in consultation with the subject librarians and library staff as well as consulting with the WERC supervisor in managing the WERC collection.

Institutional routing of contracts for electronic resources is the responsibility of the Electronic Resources Librarian in conjunction with the Director of Collection Services and the Dean of Library Services. Final authority for the collection rests with the Dean of Library Services.

Collection Budget

The WERC’s library collection budget is used to acquire, subscribe to, or license materials to support the curriculum. Library funds will not be used to acquire materials for the exclusive use of any individual, department, or group. The material budget is supplemented by funds from department transfers, gifts, and the library’s department endowment. Materials acquired through gift donations or grants will be treated as if purchased with library funds.

An allocation policy developed by the Dean of the Libraries, in consultation with the Academic Senate Library Affairs Committee, governs the distribution of resources to the academic departments. The WERC’s collection budget comes out of this allocation. Funds budgeted for the acquisition of materials must be expended each year.

Collecting Practices

The WERC collection policies and practices require flexibility to provide support for new andchanging curricula, for changes in education trends, and for changes in technology and formats. The WERC supervisor strives to stay informed of evolving curriculum needs through attendance at department meetings, and communication with faculty and students. The WERC will continue to update the collection development policy to meet the changing needs and demands ofthe School of Education at Indiana University South Bend. Financial support for library resources must be considered when implementing new courses and programs.

The WERC does not add or withdraw, at the request of any individual or group, material that has been chosen or excluded on the basis of state selection criteria. An individual or group questioning the appropriateness of material within the collection may articulate their concerns in writing to the library dean.

Support documents

As part of its collection development mission the WERC supports the following statements from the American Library Association and National Council of Teachers of English:

  • Library Bill of Rights
  • Intellectual Freedom statement
  • Librarian Code of Ethics
  • Freedom to Read Statement
  • Copyright laws (17 U.S.C.)
  • The Students Right to Read
  • ALA policy: Privacy and Confidentiality

Acquisitions

Deadlines to submit orders are set each year by the Director of Collection Services. Requests for purchases should be sent to the WERC Supervisor. Materials ordered are cataloged and added to the WERC collection. Requests for items needed quickly for instruction purposes should be sent with justification and date needed.

Collection Guidelines

Selection Criteria

The WERC collects PreK-12 media and teacher resources in all subject areas. Selection of materials is a continuous process affected by the changing curriculum as well as the availability of new materials. The goal of collection efforts is to develop a well-rounded, authoritative collection to support the subject areas taught by the academic units on campus. The general policy for selection applies equally to all types of materials being considered for the WERC collection. Justification for any recommended purchase may be requested.

Selection Criteria

  • Relevance to the curriculum
  • Cost
  • Accreditation requirements
  • Suitable for academic audience, k-12 educators and students. (accuracy, level, scope, format)
  • Reputation of the author, issuing body, and or publisher
  • Literary style/merit: This criterion should apply to nonfiction as well as fiction.
  • Strength or weakness of present holdings on the same or similar subjects
  • Contribution to balance of viewpoints in the collection
  • Frequency of document delivery requests for materials on the same or similar subjects
  • Timeliness and value of the content
  • Favorable review or inclusion in basic collection guides
  • Holdings of other libraries in appropriate resource-sharing networks.

Formats collected: Print, media, and electronic/web-based formats are collected. The WERC does not unnecessarily duplicate information in more than one format.

Formats excluded: The WERC does not collect materials such as article reprints or preprints, equipment manuals, costumes, medical instruments, models, specimens, laboratory equipment, or materials meant for consumption. Obsolete formats are not collected; the library is no longer collecting materials in VHS format.

Textbooks: Required college course textbooks or manuals are not ordered for the WERC collection unless they are considered a core resource in their field or represent the best source of information on a particular topic. The WERC does periodically obtain textbooks used in K-12 curriculum.

Multiple Copies:Multiple copies are not purchased. Gift copies of heavily used materials may be added to the collection.

Language: Materials are primarily collected in English with the exception of materials needed to support the curriculum. The language of materials typically collected to support existing courses include: French, Spanish, German, Chinese, and Japanese.

Geographic coverage: All geographic areas are covered. For titles with a geographic focus, preference is given to materials relating to the region (Michiana, northern Indiana, and Midwest) and to area studies (East Asian and Latin America).

Chronological periods collected: Priority is given to current publications. Older imprints are acquired selectively, usually as replacements for classic works, or upon request.

Gifts

Donated books and media are added to the collection using the same criteria used for purchase decisions.

Serials

The format preference for serial subscriptions has migrated to electronic. As serials require a continuing financial and maintenance commitment, the library has established a serial review procedure for cancellations and additions.

Criteria for Serial Selection/Cancellation

  • Relevance to the curriculum
  • Cost of ownership compared to cost of access and availability through document delivery services; includes consideration of price, maintenance cost, and demand
  • Strength of present holdings
  • Availability through aggregated databases including consideration of embargo periods
  • Reputation of publication
  • Access to indexing and abstracting sources

Collection Review and Maintenance

Collection Review

The WERC supervisor, in consultation with faculty and the Director of Collection Services, is responsible for conducting ongoing collection reviews to maintain the quality of this collection. Routine review of the WERC collection removes materials that are outdated, inaccurate, or worn out.

Deselection

Deselection is the process of removing materials from the collection. All formats are subject to deselection.

Criteria for deselection include:

  • Missing or lost status
  • Badly worn or mutilated materials that cannot be repaired
  • Duplicate copies
  • Items not relevant to the current or anticipated curriculum
  • Low usage
  • Obsolete materials (especially important for science and medicine)
  • Superseded editions
  • Replacement by other format

Selection criteria for Auxiliary Library Facility (ALF)
Items deselected from the collection that are in good condition may be sent to the ALF on the Indiana University Bloomington campus. See criteria for sending materials to ALF.

Lost or Damaged materials

In the event of a lost or damaged item, the responsible patron must pay replacement charges. A replacement copy with the same ISBN and in good condition will be considered in place of replacement fees pending review and approval by the Director of Collection Services.

Books that have been lost or stolen will not automatically be replaced. Titles will be evaluated for replacement based upon such factors as the material’s currency, relevancy, usage and the existence of similar publications in the collection.

Preservation and Replacement

The IU South Bend Libraries acknowledge the necessity of preserving library materials and supports the American Library Association’s Preservation Policy. Decisions on the preservation of materials are based on use, condition, and availability of the information in other resources. Materials in poor condition with heavy usage may be sent to the bindery or a used copy, if available, may be purchased as a replacement copy. The library maintains a disaster plan to follow in the unlikely event of large scale damage to the collection. Additional information on preservation is found in the Library’s preservation procedures.

WERC Collections

Curriculum Instructional and supplemental materials: The PreK-12 collection has been developed to support the professional curriculum of the IU South Bend School of Education. These materials are collected in all major curricular subjects and designed to be used by students as they learn to identify, select, evaluate, and use a multiplicity of resources in developing the curriculum for elementary and secondary students. This collection reflects the materials used in the public, private and parochial schools in print format. The WERC collection includes student and teacher editions of current textbooks use by or under consideration of local area school corporations. The collections are periodically evaluated for their currency; the WERC library provides materials for a current, not historical, perspective. Emphasis in the textbook collection is on materials published within the last ten years and in current or anticipated use in area classrooms.

Mailbox year book and magazines: The WERC library collection houses the Mailbox magazine & Mailbox yearbook. The material serves as a cross curriculum teaching resource for pre-service teachers and Michiana teachers offering unique teaching ideas and reproducible masters from PreK-6th grade.

Children’s and Young Adult Literature: The WERC acquires fiction andnonfiction appropriate for preschool through grade twelve readers. Award winners, honor books and notable books are actively collected.Due to space and budget concerns the WERC holds more current materials than historical editions of literature. The Schurz Library holds older editions of this collection.

Teaching activity materials: The WERC acquires a representative collection of creative activities and seatwork books to use with PreK-12 children in classroom settings and to support lesson planning, e.g., black line master pages for games, individual worksheets, creative thinking pages and cross-curricular thematic books. All major curriculum areas and grade levels will be represented in accordance with the needs of the School of Education programs.

Non-Print /Media Materials: This collection is represented by a variety of formats, in both traditional and emerging technologies. A range of curriculum concepts skills, topics and trends in PreK-12 curricula are acquired in striving to meet the needs of the IU South Bend School of Education. Materials collected may include instructional games, posters, kits, puppets, sound recordings, realia, DVDs, CDS, study prints, charts, pictorial works.

Tests: Educational tests and measures supporting the IU South Bend School of Education and counseling programs may be collected. Due to circulation and review restrictions, the test collection is not shelved in open stacks and is kept in a locked cabinet. The purpose of the test collection is to serve the classroom, teaching and research needs of the IU South Bend School of Education Department. Access to the test collection is limited to licensed faculty or graduate students under direct faculty supervision due to ethical and legal requirements stated by test publishers. It is essential that the use of the test collection be limited to SOE faculty and the IU South Bend Counseling Center in order that the validity of the tests is not compromised.

Web Resources: Links to online resources available to teaching professionals for lesson planning and curricular development are offered on the Schurz Library and WERC websites, including databases, subject guides, and resources. These resources will reflect both current and emerging technologies.

Electronic materials/Educational software: A representative collection of exemplary computer software that is compatible with hardware generally being used in PreK-12 educational environments will be developed over time.Examples include computer-assisted instruction such as drill and practice programs, tutorials and simulations and mini authoring programs such as those which enable teachers to create their own drill and practice programs.

Referencematerials: Both print and electronic formats of bibliographies, children’s literature indexes, Facts on File publications, etc. may be acquired to support other resources in the WERC.

Updated 2016