Policies

Dodge City Community College

Learning Resource Center/Library

Collection Management Policy

August 2020

This policy serves as a guide for the selection and retention of Dodge City Community College Learning Resource Center/Library materials and resources and is designed to support the college’s mission to, “provide a student-centered learning environment where students can achieve their educational, personal, and career goals.”

The Learning Resource Center/library provides equitable access to materials in a variety of formats that are responsive to the academic and teaching needs and interests of the faculty and students. This includes, but is not limited to; print, electronic, audiovisual, and digital formats.

The collection management policy serves several purposes. They include:

- To create an orderly plan for collections at the Learning Resource Center/Library

- To align the Learning Resource Center/Library’s collection with the mission, vision, goals and objectives of the Dodge City Community College and to the teaching and scholarly needs of the students and faculty.

- To assist in the evaluation of collection strengths and gaps and to promote planning for future collection development.

- To the purpose and communicate the intent of library collection purchases

- To outline guidelines for the scope and depth of the collection.

Scope

The library serves the needs of the students and faculty. The library shall acquire as completely as possible within its budget allocations all resources necessary to meets its obligations to faculty, students and administration. Additionally, the Library aims to increase literacy levels of students through the collection and to assist with developing and enhancing student research skills.

Library resources will be in available in a variety of formats including; books, eBooks, journals, periodicals, electronic databases, archival materials, and audio-visual material.

The Learning Resource Center/Library supplements the collection through resource sharing within our consortium (SWKLS), as well as state-supported regional sharing (ILL) and a mediated national inter-library loan system.

Several different tools and considerations are used by selectors to acquire materials: review of professional journals, publisher’s catalogs, consortium generated purchase alert reports, and patron and staff requests and recommendations. The following criteria may be used by librarians to determine the suitability of an item for purchase: current usefulness or interest, accuracy, popularity and local demand, price and availability, ability to support the existing collection, and long-term benefit to the overall collection. Additionally, the library shall coordinate with the teaching faculty on specific areas of the collection that are needed to support curriculum.

Materials are purchased by designated selectors under the direction of the Library Director, who operates within the framework of the policies, goals, objectives, and the library budget. The budget is established by the college’s administration yearly.

While every library user may not agree with the viewpoints offered in some Library material, the Library has a responsibility to provide a balanced collection with access to material reflecting diverse ideas through which any side of a question, cause, or movement may be explored. A title will not be excluded from purchase so long as it meets the outlined selection criteria and coincides with budgetary limitations. Selection of materials by the library staff does not mean endorsement of the content or the views expressed in those materials.

Items in the collection

Content, relevancy, quality, accuracy, authoritativeness of material, the timely value of material and resources, and the quantity of material in the collection; will be the basic criteria for selection of materials and resources. The library aims to avoid duplication of library material and resources.

Electronic and digital material are the preferred format for reference material. This allows the information to be up to date, be accessed remotely, and allows for quick searching.

Access

Students, faculty, and DC3 stakeholders will have access to a variety of material in varying formats. This access includes collections in the physical and digital library spaces of the library. All access will be available in delivery models that are equitable within the position of that individual – student, faculty, DC3 staff member.

The library is a congressionally designated depository for U.S. Government documents. Public access to the Government documents collection is guaranteed by public law. (Title 44 United States Code).

Weeding

Materials may be removed (weeded) from the collection for a variety of reasons. Materials that are in poor or unusable condition, outdated, duplicated, or no longer circulating may be considered for removal from the collection. The library attempts to replace outdated material with newer materials to maintain a sufficient level of subject coverage in the collection. The librarys consider replacement of lost or worn materials that are still of value for informational or recreational needs based upon price and availability. Additionally, curriculum changes may influence weeding.

Weeded materials that are not damaged or outdated beyond use may be sold or donated. Proceeds from sales are used for new library collection material.

Gifts

The library welcomes gifts of needed materials or funds for the purchase of such material in support of library service. The library reserves the right to evaluate and to dispose of gifts in accordance with the criteria applied to purchasing material. The use of the gift is at the library’s discretion.

Federal Internal Revenue Service regulations inhibit library evaluation of gifts in kind for income tax purposes for a donor. As an interested party, the library will not provide evaluations of gifts in kind. Donors are encouraged to seek out professional who can validate value of an item or gift.

Gifts which do not comply with the college and library’s objectives and policies will be declined and, when possible, referred to a more appropriate recipient.

Request for Reconsideration of Materials

Library users may request reconsideration of library materials using the following procedure:

Patrons requesting reconsideration of material will be given a copy of the Library’s Collection Policy.

All requests for reconsideration of materials must be submitted in writing on the “Request for Reconsideration” form which will be provided to the user. The “Request for Reconsideration” form will be reviewed by the Library Director. Item(s) will not be removed while under reconsideration. The Library Director will notify the patron of the result of the request of reconsideration within three weeks.

The Library supports the following documents:

* The Library Bill of Rights – Adopted June 19, 1939, by the ALA Council; amended October 14, 1944; June 18, 1948; February 2, 1961; June 27, 1967; January 23, 1980; inclusion of “age” reaffirmed January 23, 1996.by the ALA (American Library Association) Council.

* The Freedom to Read Statement – Adopted June 25, 1953, by the ALA Council and the AAP Freedom to Read Committee; amended January 28, 1972; January 16, 1991; July 12, 2000; June 30, 2004., by the ALA Council and the AAP (Association of American Publishers) Freedom to Read Committee.

DC3 Archives Collection Development Policy

October 2020

Mission

Our mission is to preserve college history, student works and information of permanent historical value; provide records management services; and serve as an educational resource to students, faculty, and the community.

General Scope

The Dodge City Community College Archives is committed to preserving the work of individuals, departments, organizations and other entities associated with Dodge City Community College in their original formats (when possible), whether that be physical or digital. We actively seek to collect materials as well as document academic departments and programs, in order to build upon and expand our collection holdings to help preserve these records for future generations.

Collecting Areas

The sections below represent the main collecting areas of the college Archives. We collect a broad variety of formats which include (but are not limited to) paper documents, electronic and born-digital records, artifacts, photographic media, audio, and moving images. In addition to subject content, we also consider long term preservation needs and storage capabilities, as well as duplicate copies when adding materials to our holdings.

Historical materials

The Archives collects historical materials that help tell Dodge City Community College’s story and document the people, places, and events that contribute to that story. These items include (but are not limited to):

• Student life: records of student activities on campus such as correspondences, scrapbooks, photographs, and programs, administrative records, programming and outreach files, memorabilia, and much more.

• Publications: publications in which the college is described or mentioned or which provide background for the history of the college.

• Materials collected by people or organizations not connected with the college but which document the intellectual, cultural, administrative, and social life of Dodge City Community College.

College publications and student newspapers

The Archives collects published materials created by the Dodge City Community College campus community for internal and external purposes. These include both publications created for immediate public access and those created for school or departmental needs and not intended immediately for public access. Examples include the Conquistador yearbook, serial publications, newsletters, social media, and reports.

Organizational records

The Archives collects records created by students, faculty, staff, and alumni organizations. In addition, the Archives may collect records created by organizations whose members are affiliated with the college in some way through work, study, or general interest. Activities and shared interests create and enhance the social and cultural network of the college community and foster relationships through organizations, groups, and clubs. Evidence of these organizations most often is found in their records.

Collecting groups may include:

• Student clubs and organizations

• Alumni clubs and organizations

• Current or retired staff clubs and organizations

What We Don’t Collect

Below are the areas and resources that we either do not collect or do not plan on collecting in the future. Materials we do not accept generally fall into three broad categories: materials better suited to other repositories, short-term or active records, and materials duplicative of our current holdings. On occasion, there may be types of electronic records or born digital content that we are unable to accept. Please consult with Dodge City Community College Learning Resource Center/Library staff prior to donating. Typically the following items are not added to the collection;

• Non-college state records

• Local history collections

• Rare books

• Student files such as: transcripts, registration records, grades, degrees earned, etc.

• Personnel files of employees

• Raw electronic big research data

• More than three duplicate copies of most serial publications and other items (determined on a case by case basis).

• Human and animal remains

• Plaques, awards, and trophies

• Materials from minors without explicit written consent from a parent and/or legal guardian

• Large items that are better suited for museum displays

• Materials exhibiting mold or exposure to rodents/pests

• Severely damaged or extremely fragile items

• Material unrelated to the college outside of our collecting areas

• Materials to which access is restricted in perpetuity or for a period of time deemed by the college Archives staff to be beyond a reasonable limitation

Deaccessioning

Deaccessioning is an essential function and tool of collection development and curation. Material selected to be deaccessioned may be returned to the donor (based on donor agreements), gifted/transferred to a more appropriate repository, or discarded. In identifying materials for deaccessioning (whether organized and described or not) the Learning Resource Center/Library staff considers the following:

• Does the material in question fall within the scope of our collection management policy and collecting practices?

• Has the material deteriorated in such a way that it cannot be reproduced or is beyond being useful due to its condition?

• Have the materials been subjected to poor environmental conditions, resulting in mold, water damage, fire damage, or show evidence of being exposed to rodents/pests?

• Do any established externally imposed restrictions such as records retention schedules, disposition authorizations, or donor agreements apply to the material?

There are various methods we use to deaccession electronic and born digital records. For example, if the electronic format is no longer accessible, the item may be deaccessioned. If the item exists in electronic means outside of the LRC/Library resources, the item may be deaccessioned from the LRC/Library’s collection.