NetLibrary Collection Development Policy

INTRODUCTION

NetLibrary’s goal is to provide service that will contribute to a library’s mission(s) of informational, instructional and research needs as well as aid in lifelong learning and recreational reading of the general public. We provide access to information in support of the broad community of NetLibrary users currently defined as ARL and four year universities, junior and community colleges, vocational schools, public libraries, school resource centers (defined as K-12 libraries), government and special/corporate libraries. This collection development policy describes the scope and organization of all eContent offered by NetLibrary and explains the plans for our collections’ future growth.

INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM

NetLibrary asserts that censorship should not occur under the guise of collection selection and/or de-selection. The accessibility of information through NetLibrary does not constitute an endorsement of said point of view but is an expression of NetLibrary’s commitment to intellectual freedom.

NetLibrary supports Intellectual Freedom by adhering to the tenets outlined by the American Library Association and the Association of American Publishers. For detailed information please see: 

Freedom to Read:
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/statementspols/ftrstatement/freedomreadstatement.htm

Library Bill of Rights:
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/statementspols/statementsif/librarybillrights.htm

GUIDELINES FOR SELECTION OF LIBRARY MATERIALS

Acquisition of materials for the NetLibrary collection is decided on the basis of:

1. publication date,
2. authority,
3. research value,
4. enduring value,
5. relevance to library type,
6. demand and/or interest,
7. technical quality of production and/or compliance with industry specifications, and
8. contribution to breadth and depth of an existing collection.

The community of NetLibrary users guides the collection development process. Materials are selected using the same standards of excellence, comprehensiveness and authority expected from printed sources. Additional criteria may be used, when appropriate, for specific types of electronic materials.

Responsibility for selecting and assessing materials

In order to ensure growth of our collections and maintain NetLibrary’s high standards of quality, staff members from the following departments: library and collection management, publishing relations and business development work in concert to acquire new types/formats of content. In addition, NetLibrary continues to work with new and existing publishers to acquire quality content in eBook, eJournal and eAudiobook format.

Unsolicited items

NetLibrary partners with established publishers to acquire published, edited works which fall within the collection areas of NetLibrary and its library customers. NetLibrary does not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

DE-SELECTION POLICY

As an electronic library physical space or deterioration of materials is not of concern for NetLibrary; therefore, whenever possible, we are committed to retaining materials which provide appreciable anticipated future use and/or fill research needs. As a digital repository, NetLibrary is committed to retaining and preserving the intellectual content of its collection in the digital format most useful for retrieval through time.

NetLibrary may cease offering materials by publisher’s proxy or if they are superseded by a new edition. To ensure ongoing viability within our collection NetLibrary assesses subject materials for relevancy and currency on a regular basis. NetLibrary reserves the right to discontinue hosting content which is no longer technically viable.

Librarians or library users who find any content to be objectionable should look to their individual library’s collection and access policies. All suggestions for selection and deselection by library users will be gratefully received and reviewed against the current collection development policy.

COLLECTION AREAS

Collection areas are developed with the specific needs and content/format priorities of our constituent user groups namely research, academic- 4 year, community colleges, public, K-12, corporate, government and special libraries. Materials are chosen because of their quality and relevancy to currently collected subjects as well as future outlined priorities.

Academic Library Collections

Collection development for academic and research libraries is designed to support the instructional and scholarly research needs of academic communities at large. Value of these materials is assessed in terms of authority, relevance and application to specific disciplines used by scholars and/or researchers.

NetLibrary currently collects eBooks, eAudiobooks, eJournals and databases for ARL, 4-year and community colleges related to their informational, instructional and research needs within the following subject areas:

Public Library Collections

Collection development for public libraries is designed to support the information, literacy, educational, lifelong learning, and recreational reading needs of the general public. Content is evaluated based on the need to offer a range of materials suited to the diverse backgrounds and tastes of public library users.

Corporate and Special Library Collections

Collection development for corporate and special libraries involves selecting content that serves the needs of industry, business, or other institutions with a distinct focus, including government library requirements. Content is selected for these libraries by targeting corporate classifications and identifying characteristic needs of special libraries.

NetLibrary currently assesses its collection strengths for corporate and special libraries to be in the following areas: medical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology, information technology: -- including computer science, networking, telecommunications, and information technology trends; engineering; and general business, human resources and professional development.

School (K-12) Library Collections

NetLibrary’s school library content is strongest in social sciences; science and mathematics; literature, study guides, test preparatory materials, project and school fair activities, fiction; and career, college preparation topics. Some content targeted for public and academic libraries, such as literacy and teacher education, may also be of interest.

Subjects collected include: curriculum standards, school leadership, K-12 teacher education, curriculum support materials for teachers, instructional materials, and recreational reading for students. Selection decisions are guided by awareness of current awareness topics related to public and private education.

LANGUAGE MATERIALS

To best serve the increasing number of NetLibrary customers located outside of the United States, as well as library patrons who speak other languages within the United States, NetLibrary is actively pursuing acquiring content in many non-English languages. Currently our non-English language strengths include: Spanish, French, German and Chinese.

PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE COLLECTION

NetLibrary’s publicly accessible collection is intended to support the educational and recreational needs of a variety of readers, and to provide a new channel for distribution of texts that have been made freely available to the public. Subject areas most strongly supported at present include classical literature and history. These works must be in the public domain, or must be provided by publishers for free distribution to the public.