Collections at the UWB/CC Campus Library: Collection Development Philosophy

University of Washington Bothell and Cascadia College
Campus Library
Collection Development Philosophy

In accordance with our mission, the Campus Library supports and enhances teaching, learning, and research at UW Bothell and Cascadia College through the provision of information and resources. As a unit of the University of Washington Libraries we acquire and manage materials and online resources, and promote the creation and use of knowledge in an atmosphere where information and ideas represent diverse perspectives and users, are readily accessible, and freely exchanged.

The Campus Library has a primary responsibility as a teaching library. In order to support this focus on teaching and learning, we continually strive to develop a strong local collection which meets the research needs of our community and particularly focuses on developmentally critical points in the curricula of each institution. The Campus Library maintains an interdisciplinary, curriculum-focused collection, acquiring materials that directly support student learning, development, research, and classroom activities. As the institutions we serve grow and expand their programs, it is assumed that the local collection will need to respond to these shifts in focus and population.

Students’ research needs that exceed the current strengths of the local collection, as well as the specialized research needs of our faculty, are met through access to the extensive research collections within the UW Libraries and via our resource sharing arrangements with regional partners. Although resource sharing arrangements vastly increase potentially available resources in both number and breadth of subject coverage, it is recognized that time-bound, place-bound students often need immediate access to library materials on campus. As such, materials acquired for the collection may duplicate holdings in other UW Libraries, especially in the cases of course reserves and media.

High quality, remotely accessible collections provide a similar level of service to our user community. Every effort is made to acquire valuable electronic collections and databases and to leverage the purchasing power of our collection budgets by partnering with the UW Libraries and participating in their consortial relationships. When appropriate, gift acquisitions are also actively pursued to expand the collection and stretch resource dollars.

With some exceptions, the Campus Library does not house archival or rare materials and looks to Special Collections and the central research branches of the UW Libraries to fulfill this need.

We recognize that serving co-located institutions with distinct missions, goals, and populations and our relationship with the UW Libraries gives our collection a unique character. The collection is conceived as a hybrid of several traditional types of academic collections and the following ACRL standards inform our thinking about the community we serve and how we define collection priorities:

• Standards for Libraries in Higher Education (February 2018)
• Guidelines for Media Resources in Academic Libraries (July 2018)
• Guidelines for Distance Learning Library Services (June 2016)
• Guidelines for University Library Services to Undergraduate Students (October 2013)

The Campus Library operates under a fund group model in which individual programs/discipline areas are served by a librarian liaison who monitors the instruction and selection needs. Coordination of fund group activities and the materials budget is overseen by the Head of Collections and Course Support Services. Librarian liaisons work closely with faculty and other administrative units to ensure that changes in curricular focus are reflected in our selection of materials. Recommendations are solicited and accepted through a variety of channels, including reserve acquisitions, consultation with faculty, liaison inquiries and knowledge of assignments, observations about point of need requests, and higher-level conversations regarding future developments and trends in the curriculum. For liaisons at the Campus Library, instruction and collection development are interdependent activities.

updated October, 2019

Related:

• UW Libraries Collections
• One Library Three Campuses