University Mission
The University has the primary mission of undergraduate education, with a broad range of programs in arts and sciences, business, environmental science, computer science, education, nursing and allied health and social services. There are graduate programs in education, business, social services, and health sciences. The University’s degree programs, as well as continuing education programs, serve the needs of part-time, working students. Building on a strong program at the undergraduate level, the University will have the opportunity to develop a center for environmentally oriented graduate programs and research. An important characteristic of the University is the variety of alternative learning and teaching systems, including distant learning, computer-assisted instruction and competency based exams.

Library Collection Development Policy
The primary goal of the University’s Library Services is to provide access to recorded knowledge, information, and data which support academic programs involving teaching, service, and research. To meet this goal the Library selects, acquires, and organizes recorded knowledge and provides gateways to information worldwide, employing the latest technologies and a highly qualified staff. In addition, the Library incorporates a learning resource center in support of the curriculum, independent study, and continuing education.

The acquisition of library materials and the provision of gateways are guided by the needs of the primary users: Florida Gulf Coast University students, faculty and staff. The Library is responsible for insuring equity of access to all students, regardless of their learning styles, physical abilities, or economic circumstances.

The Library has as resource partners the other institutions of the State University System, the libraries of Southwest Florida and of the state and nation. Beyond resources that enhance the University Curriculum, unique materials related to environmental issues; and to local and regional history, economic, and social conditions will be sought.

Responsibility for Selection, Legal and Delegated
The collection development process supports the curriculum, program offerings, service and research of the University. It is informed by the University Library Committee. Decisions are made with the advice of the teaching faculty through library liaisons, library faculty, and others in the University. These decisions are made in observance of University and Board of Regents administrative policy and in compliance with the laws of the State of Florida and of the United States. The Dean of Library Services and the Library faculty implement the Collection Development Policy in accordance with the attached guidelines.

The Library endorses the tenets of the Library Bill of Rights of the American Library Association. (Attachment)

Responsibility For Collection Development
Collection development is a shared responsibility. Staying abreast of developing disciplines and tracking new directions of academic research and service is an important function of university faculty. Members of the teaching faculty are encouraged to initiate requests for library materials to meet teaching needs and to support student learning. University administrators, students and staff may submit requests for library materials appropriate to the collection and to support administrative, professional and academic needs. Primary responsibility for acquiring materials and implementing collection guidelines for the University Library rests with the Collection Librarians with the assistance of designated staff. University colleges and schools appoint faculty members to serve as liaisons to the Library in materials selection. Through an innovative partnership under the direction of the Dean of Library Services, a book approval vendor selects some materials for the collection based on specified collection profiles developed by library faculty with the advice of teaching faculty.

Collection Description
The library collection includes recorded knowledge, data, and information in a variety of formats:

• Printed monographs, reports and serials when they are best for sustained referral and reading or clarity of physical presentation.
• Electronic resources, such as reference materials, indexes, encyclopedias and dictionaries, for quick look up of facts and for complex search strategies.
• Databases and their associated access software for specialized resource needs, such as numeric databases to support programs in business.
• Audiovisual and multimedia resources to support educational programs.
• Electronic products that include the full text of articles and documents. Serial subscriptions to print journals will still be acquired for journals when electronic format is not sufficient or available.
• Microform of backfiles of serials and collections when needed to supplement newer materials.

For the majority of materials, those which are necessary to support our innovative undergraduate and graduate curricula, as well as sustained independent study will be acquired. Collecting scope includes extensive acquisitions and access in subject areas emphasized by the academic programs, with supplementary materials in support of the University’s focus on environmental and cross-cultural issues.

Resource Sharing
To maximize University resources and to increase cooperative use of expensive resources, the Library supports regional and local consortia for cooperative acquisitions and interlibrary loan. This includes the State University System Libraries and those of the Southwest Florida Library Network. The University also shares library materials with the local, state, national and international library communities through interlibrary loan.

Selection Guidelines

General:

• Materials appropriate for a basic undergraduate core collection which are balanced, diverse, comprehensive and represent unabridged ideas.
• Applicability to patrons’ research needs and learning processes.
• Intellectual and physical durability.
• Appropriate format for university use and resource sharing.

Distinguishing Features:

• Standing reputation of author or publisher.
• Presentation (writing or graphical style, readability, clarity, etc.).
• Educational or informative intent (beyond popular entertainment value).
• Fiction when representative of cultures, styles, beliefs, intellectual trends and attitudes.
• Broad academic need and continuing applicability to the educational mission of the University.
• Special features (e.g. value-added details; logical, accurate index; bibliography; cited references; graphical images, etc.).
• Physical size and usability.
• Content reflects standards in the discipline based on critical review.

Criteria for Particular Formats

Technology and Media:

• Content reflects standards in the discipline based on critical review.
• Effectiveness of communication.
• Purposes and use (e.g., acquisition of content based information as opposed to productivity tools).
• Convenience of use for both on and off-campus patrons.
• Equipment required for use.
• Durability.
• Technical quality.
• Timeliness.
• Free of distracting elements (commercial promotion, unusual search protocols, etc.).
• Preservation of facts or ideas.
• Price

Gifts Policy
Florida Gulf Coast University welcomes donation of gifts of materials or money for information resources for the Library collection when such gifts enhance the Library’s present and future mission in support of the University curriculum, programs or endeavors. Donated materials will be added to the collection when they are consistent in both content and format with the policies and mission set forth in the collection development plan.

Present and Future Library Needs
The Library strives to provide the latest recorded information and knowledge for its students, faculty, resource partners, and southwest Florida. The Library collection includes print books and journals, current print and electronic journal subscriptions, audiovisual materials, digital reference sources, and microfilm collections. The Library supports the research and informational needs of distant learners as well as of students and faculty who travel to the campus. Consequently, library resources that can be made accessible remotely via electronic means are of high priority. Beyond resources that enhance the university’s curriculum, materials related to local and regional history or environment, for example on the Florida Everglades, may be catalogued and added to the collection.

Conditions for Acceptance and Disposal of Gifts
Materials offered for donation to Library Services will be given a preliminary evaluation by a Collection Development librarian for acceptance or declination of the offer. This initial review will serve to exclude materials clearly outside of the parameters of the University’s library collection(s) and may include discussion of alternate recipients of the material. Gifts donated to Library Services are accepted in the name of the FGCU Foundation according to the following guidelines:

1. All gifts are final. By the act of donation and/or deed of gift, the donor permanently relinquishes all rights to ownership and dispensation. The gift will be accepted with no restrictions on usage of the material except at the discretion of the Dean of Library Services. By receiving such gifts, the Library and University accept no responsibility of appraisal or valuation.

2. All items will be carefully evaluated by a collection librarian in consideration of their overall accordance with the library’s mission and collection development policy. The advice of faculty, outside experts and the University Administration may be sought before accepting collections that require significant allocation of library resources, such as space, cataloging, or security measures.

3. Items to be added to the collection will be processed and treated as any other item acquired through purchase. Additionally, when practicable, book plates may be affixed to show appropriate recognition of either the donor or person in whose memory the gift was made. Library Services does not normally set aside a special location for gifts, nor place labels, signs, or plaques to physical facilities indicating the presence of gift materials.

4. Library Services reserves the right to deselect gifts. If after careful review it is determined that the material does not complement Library Services’ mission or selection criteria, due to either subject, format, or condition, Library staff will follow State and University accountability requirements and may choose to:

a) transfer gifts to other departments of the University,

b) transfer gifts to another institution within the State University System of Florida,

c) donate items to other local, regional or international institutions or organizations, or,

d) sell materials.

5. Neither Library Services nor FGCU will provide appraisal of gifts.

Library Bill of Rights
The American Library Association affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas, and that the following basic policies should guide their services.

1. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.
2. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.
3. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.
4. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.
5. A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.
6. Libraries which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.

Adopted June 18, 1948. Amended February 2, 1961, and January 23, 1980,inclusion of "age" reaffirmed January 23, 1996, by the ALA Council.

De-Selection
Libraries have found that periodic collection review for withdrawal of titles that have outlived their usefulness leads to facilitated and increased circulation of the collection. The Association of College and Research Libraries "Standards for College Libraries, 1995" recommends this continued evaluation. "No title should be retained for which a clear purpose is not evident in terms of academic programs or extra-curricular enrichment." ¹

Although this process is considered de-selection it serves a dual purpose, allowing the library to increase space availability for current and future growth of resources in print, microform media, computerized storage formats; for individual and collaborative work areas, and for computer workstations.

Another benefit of de-selection, as a library collection grows over time, is that the speed of access to the collection is increased and accuracy in retrieval of specific items is improved. Concurrently, economy and efficiency in the use of time by library staff can be achieved.²

Candidates for de-selection are resources that are no longer relevant to the library and University’s programs, as defined in the Collection Policy; that are redundant in the collection, or that are unusable due to physical condition or inaccessibility.

• Actual Use, evidenced by circulation and interlibrary loan records, shelf-time counts, in-house use statistics and subjective assessments by librarians or experts.
• Projected Use, made by subject specialists knowledgeable about the University’s programs, current and developing.
• Qualitative Factors, such as: Conformity to program needs; lack of reference, historical or critical value; reduced significance due to form, age, or subject, etc. out of scope due to obsolete information or theme; lack of relevance to patron interest.
• Redundancy, Notwithstanding, if not justified by use patterns to include duplicate or superseded editions and multiple formats.
• Availability, Academic libraries are obligated to retain materials that provide research or historical value. The goal of the FGCU Library is not necessarily to collect, but to provide convenient access to recorded knowledge and information.

Reference Collection Development at the FGCU Library:

A.The Functions of the Reference Collection

The FGCU Reference Collection makes accessible reference materials to meet the curriculum, research, and general academic needs of FGCU students, faculty, and staff.

Service to the community is considered a public trust, and the community is welcome to use the materials in the Reference Collection.  Selection of Reference materials, however, is driven primarily by the needs of the Board of Regents-approved academic programs hosted at FGCU.

In general, Reference materials do not circulate.  Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis and with the written approval of a Librarian.

B. Users of the Collection

The Reference Collection is designed to accommodate both in-house and distance users whenever possible, as evidence by the Library's commitment to web-based electronic resources.  Because of proprietary arrangements, users not affiliated with FGCU are referred to their local public library for many electronic resources and for Inter-Library Loan support.

"Quick Reference" questions (as defined in the FGCU Reference Policy and Procedure Manual)  are handled over the phone; additionally, out-of-house users are referred to the Library Services Distance Learning web page.  A mail/fax/scan policy is also in effect for situations in which telephone reference and distance learning services are not adequate.

In-house users are given priority assistance over telephone and other out-of-house requests.

The needs of students, faculty, and instructors involved in an FGCU Distance Learning course (as identified in the FGCU course catalog) are given priority over other out-of-house requests.

C. The Ideal Reference Collection

Ideally, FGCU Library's Reference Collection is one in which the best resources have been carefully selected to match the FGCU's academic offerings, particularly at the undergraduate level.  Additionally, the Collection houses a core of traditional reference sources appropriate to any academic library of FGCU's size and budgetary resources.

Individual titles in this core collection are not necessarily related to a specific course offering or program, but are held in the recognition of the comprehensive needs of the traditional comprehensive-level library user.

Materials deemed valid by the Library's Collection Development Team are included in the Collection regardless of their physical format-print, video, sound recording, electronic, or other.

The decision to provide access to a particular resource in its print or electronic format is based on many factors, including ease of use, cost, uniqueness, frequency of update, comprehensive coverage, timeliness, and reliability.  Some titles, as decided on a case-by-case basis, are held electronically as well as in print or another physical format.

D. Scope

FGCU's  Reference Collection, a collection of selected academic resource materials that are primarily used for the purpose of compiling information and/or conducting further research, houses materials that are of a reference format.  A work is in a "reference format" when it is laid out in such a way as to be intended to be, or suitable for being, referred to or consulted rather than being read in a linear fashion.  Such works include, but are not limited to, indexes, dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, concordances, atlases, field guides, and tables of formulae or data.  Such works would not include resume guides, test study guides, job-seeker guides, or "how to" manuals.

Items housed in the Reference Collection are to be current.  "Current" describes what a given discipline accepts as appropriately recent of up-to-date information; currency of information varies according to the specific discipline.  Users working in areas such as computer technology and medicine usually demand the most up-to-date information.  The needs of users working in literary criticism or history, however, may require dated information that is nonetheless currently relevant for that discipline.

Items housed in the Reference Collection are to be of an academic level commensurate to the needs of a broad-based liberal arts curriculum.  Selection of  Reference materials, is driven primarily by the needs of the Board of Regents-approved academic programs hosted at FGCU.  Additionally, the Collection houses traditional reference sources appropriate to any academic library of FGCU's size and budgetary resources.  Individual titles may not be necessarily related to a specific course offering or program, but are held in the recognition of the comprehensive needs of the traditional comprehensive-level library user.

Items not in a reference format are not to be housed in the Reference Collection simply because their circulation is precluded by their expense, fragility, high demand, classic nature, or other consideration established by the Librarian responsible for the item.  Classic works which are used as standard models in a field of scholarship, have a history of literary merit, or are historically famous.  Examples would include, but are not limited to, the works of C.G. Jung, the Bible, Shakespeare, and Aristotle.

STAFF RESPONSIBILITIES

In recognition of the special problems and circumstances naturally resulting from an opening day Reference Collection composed of materials from  other, disparate institutions largely without the input of the FGCU Library faculty, inclusion and removal of materials in the Reference Collection is to be performed beginning in the Fall of 2000 by the Collection Development Team as described below.

This is expected to change when, at some time in the future, consensus that FGCU's Reference Collection has matured, after which time the Teams may decide to assign responsibility for materials inclusion and removal to individual librarians.

There are three goals to this policy: first, that the Reference Collection may grow into a mote unified whole resulting from a shared vision; second, that, through the process of deliberation over materials, the Team members may clarify for themselves in a practical way into what kind of whole the Collection should grow; and third, that the Team members may better familiarize themselves with the contents of the Collection.

A. Selection of Reference Materials

Any member of the Reference or Collection Development Teams may propose that a title be added to the Reference Collection, and the Collection Development Team will make the final determination.

Individual librarians will still purchase materials for the General Collection which are under $500 and which are within their subject areas freely as described in the General Collection Development Policy; it is only individual title's inclusion in the Reference Collection which is to be determined by the consensus of the Collection Development Team.

At the time of selection, if possible, the Team will also discuss retention and location issues including but not limited to:

Location: Atlas Stand, Dictionary Stand; Ready Reference; General Reference, or other location.

Retention: whether the Library will keep or discard older editions of Reference materials as they are superseded, and whether the older editions will be housed in the General Collection rather than in the Reference Collection.

B. Ready Reference Materials

Ready Reference encompasses shelves near the reference desk where standard reference books in high demand and frequent use are kept close at hand to enable reference librarians and staff to locate factual information quickly.  This material can also be used as educational tools and/or quick instructional resources.  Examples include, but are not limited to, Books in Print, Statistical Abstracts of the U.S., Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory, and style manuals. 

Placement in, and removal of items from, the Ready Reference stacks (as opposed to the regular Reference stacks) will be determined by the Reference Team as its members' needs dictate.  As curricular needs vary from semester to semester, items may be added to or removed from Ready Reference in their support.

C. Deselection of Reference Materials

Any member of the Reference or Collection Development Teams may propose that a title be removed from the Reference Collection, and the Collection Development Team will make the final determination. 

In addition, the Reference and Collection Development Teams will perform an organized group review of the Reference Collection when the Collection Development Team finds such a review to be necessary.

D. Retention of Reference Materials

At the time the Collection Development Team decides to remove an item from the Reference Collection, the Team also must determine whether the item is to be discarded or moved into the General Collection based on the merits of the work in hand and on such criteria as the age of the item, its physical condition, the kind of information it contains, and whether there is already a copy in the General Collection.

EXTERNAL RELATIONSHIPS

• As a member of Florida's State University System (SUS) and of the Southwest Florida Library Network (SWFLN), the FGCU Library will willingly share its Reference expertise with its fellow consortia member and their users.
• The FGCU Reference Team will also make every reasonable effort to share the Reference expertise with its neighbors in the five-county area of Lee, Charlotte, Collier, Glades, and Hendry Counties which FGCU serves.