- Introduction
- Use of Library Book Budget
- Selection Principles
- Acquisition
- Open Access
- Gifts and Donations
- Collection Maintenance
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Introduction
The Library is committed to developing fit-for-purpose and high-quality collections to support the advancement of scholarly pursuits of the University community. Currently, the collections comprising of millions of books and journals in both print and electronic formats, hundreds of databases, and millions of multimedia resources, plus numerous in-house developed digital collections including the electronic theses and dissertations, archives and special collections, all are searchable in either the integrated library system, 1-Search or the Digital Commons platform. This Collection Development Policy serves to guide the Library staff and the University community to build up the collections relevant to their academic goals. It will also inform the selection, evaluation, acquisition, maintenance, retention, and deselection of information resources and assist Library staff in planning and administering the Library book budget.
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Use of Library Book Budget
- The Library book budget is the funding allocated from the Library's institutional fund for the purpose of acquiring all types and formats of library materials and resources including but not limited to electronic, print and non-print resources. Its proper use and management rest entirely with the University Librarian.
- The acquisition of all types and formats of library materials is carried out by the Library.
- A certain proportion of the Library Book Budget is allocated to academic departments based on the following considerations for use by the departments to make recommendations to the Library; any unused funds before the end of the academic year will be pulled together by the Library for other purchases.
- Number of enrollment
- Number of academic staff
- Cost of subscribed resources
- To prevent duplication of resources provided by the Library, the book budget allocated to academic departments should not be used to create separate collections of resources in any format in their departments.
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Selection Principles
With limited resources, the Library selects and acquires all library materials with extreme care. At the same time, all materials supporting teaching, learning and research needs will be acquired if resources permit. The following principles will be observed during the selection of a resource.
- Selection Responsibility
- Academic departments are consulted regularly on resources selection. Recommended materials are expected to be relevant to the teaching, learning, and research needs of the University. The Library may invite corresponding Departments to participate in the evaluation. The recommendations may not be limited to the funding allocated to their departments.
- Recommendations of academic departments in supporting teaching and research will be given a top priority in selection and acquisition.
- All postgraduates and undergraduates are welcome to make recommendations.
- A Library Liaison is assigned to each academic department as the formal contact person between the Library and the specific academic department. Part of the services is to assist academic departments in collection development and management, circulate the newly published book lists to the department, and facilitate journal and database review exercises. Recommendations can be passed to the Library Liaison or directly to the Collection Development Team, or via online recommendation forms.
- All Library Liaisons and the Collection Development & Management Librarian will participate in collection development, especially in materials selection for multi-disciplinary subjects, new academic programmes and other subject gaps. They will also deselect materials according to the prevailing Weeding Policy of the Library.
- Collection Scope
- Resources that fall within University academic programmes in the disciplines of Arts & Humanities, Business, Computer Sciences, Social Sciences, Sciences, and other subjects deemed relevant to the academic programmes of the University will be collected as the core resources of the Library.
- The Library will also actively collect materials for good reads, whole-person development, and general education for the all-rounded education of students.
- Selection Criteria
- Relevancy – Whether the resources fall within the collection scope above and are suitable for scholarly use
- Quality – Whether the resources can provide high-quality content at the level appropriate to the current staff and students
- Currency – Whether the resources are updated regularly or with revised or updated versions
- Cost – Whether the resources are value for money and affordable by the Library Book Budget; and whether there is an ongoing cost
- Usage – Whether the resources are popular and had or are expected to have high usage
- Space and Storage Requirements – Whether the resources are voluminous and require huge shelving space
- Format
The Library adopts an electronic preferred (e-preferred) policy for all types of library materials if available. Electronic format will be considered when a title is available in both print and electronic formats. The print format may remain the preferred option if the electronic format is not available, the electronic format is at an unreasonably high price, or a special request is received from the recommender. For audio-visual materials, a DVD or the latest updated format is the preferred format. Other formats will also be considered with special requests.
The followings are the selection criteria for electronic resources:
- Uniqueness – Whether the resources are available in electronic format only
- Ease of access – Whether the access is provided by standard protocol and does not require substantial technical support in maintenance
- Licensing – Whether the licensing requirements can be observed by the Library and will facilitate wide use of the resources such as allowing course reserves and interlibrary loans
- Language
Chinese and English are the primary languages for the Library collection. The Library will also select materials in other languages to support foreign language learning.
- Course Readings
The Library will acquire course reading materials to support the educational needs of the University.
- Good Reads
The Library will select award-winning titles in both academic and non-academic disciplines to cultivate reading habits in the University.
- Respect for Intellectual Freedom
- The Library fully respects intellectual freedom in its collection development activities. The Library aims to provide access to resources representing a wide variety of perspectives and will not exclude or censor materials that may be considered controversial, unorthodox or unacceptable as long as they will support the advancement of scholarly pursuits of the University community.
- The Library will also acquire sexually-related materials based on the recommendations of the academic departments and if they are needed for an academic programme. These materials will be on closed stacks and will only be available upon request.
- Selection Responsibility
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Acquisition
- Format - The Library adopts the e-preferred policy and will acquire materials as identified in Section 3 above.
- Binding – Paperback edition is preferred.
- Number of copies – To better utilize the Library spaces and budget, the Library supports a single copy policy either in print or electronic format unless otherwise stated. One of the exceptions is the staff publication. In addition to the electronic format if available, a print version should also be acquired for the author's autograph or display at the Library.
- Multiple copies - Mainly apply to course readings with the following formula:
- Maximum 2 copies for a course with 31 – 60 students
- Maximum 3 copies for a course with over 60 students.
- Additional copies will only be ordered if heavy demand is evident.
- Subscription of journals and databases - The Library will conduct annual review exercises on journals and databases with Faculties and Departments. The evaluation will be based on budget status, usage statistics, and professional judgement from Faculties, Departments and the University Librarian.
- Acquisition of e-books – The Library supports the subscription and purchase of e-books that are available in different options such as Patron Driven Acquisition (PDA), Demand Driven Acquisitions (DDA), and Evidence-Based Acquisitions (EBA). The Library will consider the appropriate acquisition options based on their expertise and budget availability.
- Consortium Purchasing – The Library is a member of the JULAC Consortiall and will participate actively in consortium deals to gain savings from collective purchasing power.
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Open Access
The Library supports and promotes open access initiatives. Numerous open access (OA) resources are accessible in 1-Search. Depending on the rights stipulated by content owners or publishers, digital collections including staff publications would be made freely accessible online through the open-access platform, Digital Commons @ Lingnan, which is also the green OA publishing arm of the Library. The same evaluation criteria as specified above are applied to the evaluation of open access materials. The Library will provide consultative advice to the Faculties and Departments to assist them to publish their scholarly or creative works as OA-compliant.
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Gifts and Donations
- The Library welcomes gifts and donations that may be valuable additions to the current library collections.
- The Library will assess cautiously the potential gifts and donations according to any of but not limited to the following criteria before they are accepted.
- Relevancy to the teaching, learning, and research activities
- Scholarly or historical values to the University
- Physical condition of materials
- Copyright
- Currency
- Formats of the materials such as monographs, manuscripts, photos, and artifacts
- Potential duplication with existing materials
- Processing and storage capacity of the Library
- Accepted gifts and the donations will become the property of the Library. Donors may be required to sign the University Deed of Gift.
- For items not being accepted, the Library reserves the right to dispose or handle them in appropriate ways determined by the Library or agreed with the donors.
- The Library will store, preserve, and/or display the material(s) with the standard library or archival practices as deemed appropriate.
- Selected materials may be digitized for preservation and openly accessible in accordance with the wish of the donors.
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Collection Maintenance
- Weeding- To ensure the currency of Library collection and optimize the use of space, the Library will conduct weeding exercise annually. Details can be found in the prevailing Weeding Policy of the Library.
- Stocktaking - The Library will conduct stocktaking exercise annually to ensure all the library materials are safely kept at the Library. Users should report loss of their check-out materials for proper record keeping by the Library.
- Shelving and shelf-reading - Library staff will shelve all returned library materials and perform shelf-reading to ensure all library materials are shelved accurately and in good order for users to retrieve the materials easily. Users are welcome to seek help from the library staff in searching for missing items on the bookshelves.