Glossary

All the procedures involved in obtaining resource materials for the library’s collections, including working with vendors, ordering, payment, and check in, along with other processes. Includes selection and fund accounting, as well as materials obtained as gifts.

The process of distributing the library’s available financial resources for the purchase of library resources to support the needs of the university. 
 

This is a further elaboration of concerns covered more generally by the Library Bill of Rights. It addresses the patron’s freedom to read whatever he or she chooses, which is essential in a democracy, and reiterates that free communication is essential to the preservation of a free society and a creative culture. Seven tenets of freedom to read are expressed.
 

This is the American Library Association’s policy statement on censorship, based on the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It was first adopted in 1940. The importance of intellectual freedom within a democratic society is addressed in this statement by delineating the philosophy of the library regarding controversial material and the need for all views to be available. Six basic tenets of library service that affirm that all libraries are forums for information and ideas are expressed.

Assessment of a collection means the evaluation of the scope and quality of the collection, and its ability to meet specific objectives, and local needs and expectations for the collection. Assessment programs include a variety of measures, such as use studies, comparison to benchmark library collections, statistical analyses, and others. Synonymous with collection evaluation.

This collection was established in 1977 in honor of the former SWT Associate Librarian (1957-1976). The scope of this collection is current popular fiction and non-fiction. 

The Library has its own in-house binding operation that performs the following activities: simple book repair for torn and uncut pages, damaged bindings; pamphlet binding for scores and paper materials unable to stand alone on shelves; lace on bindings for incomplete periodical runs; and envelope housing for materials contained within books. The bindery plan is part of the larger collection management plan which preserves library materials.
 

Activities related to the development of the library collection, including the determination and coordination of selection policy, assessment of needs of users and potential users, collection use studies, collection evaluation, identification of collection strengths and weakness, selection of materials, collection maintenance, and weeding. Synonymous with “collection.”

A statement that indicates the mission, goals, and objectives of a library’s collection development programs and describes the past, current, and, desired collecting levels for various collections. Collection development is a planning function.

All of the activities carried out by a library to preserve the materials in its collections; includes binding, mending, repairing, materials conversion, etc.

The use of chemical and physical procedures in treatment or storage to ensure the preservation of books, manuscripts, records, and all other physical materials.
 

The official removal of titles from a library’s collection, as a result of weeding or the withdrawal of missing or physically damaged materials. Deselection also includes final disposition of the items, as well as guidelines for the cancellation of subscriptions.

A gift is a donation of resource material, or cash gift for the purchase of library resources, which is accepted by the library provided the donated resources are consistent with the policies and mission outlined by the library collection development plan.

Any publication originating in, or issued with the imprint of, or at the expense and by the authority of, any office of a legally organized government or international governing organization.
 

All of the materials, in all formats, owned by the library, or with access provided to library users, in the case of databases and remote electronic resources.

Librarians with collection development responsibilities who work in liaison with a faculty library representative in that subject area
 

A bibliographic item either complete in one part, or intended to be completed in a finite number of separate parts.

A serial publication (issued in successive parts, bearing numerical or chronological designations, and intended to appear indefinitely) in any format, with a frequency of issuance of more than one per year. Types of periodicals include magazines, journals, newsletters, newspapers, e-journals, annuals, etc.

The activities associated with maintaining the physical condition of library and archival materials for use, either in their original physical form or in some usable way. It includes conservation, reformatting, and binding.

The selection process has two aspects. It may be considered as the process within the whole collection development operations which results in decisions on which materials (or types of materials) will be acquired and which will not. It may also be considered as the means by which selection decisions are made within the organization. Selection is the decision-making process that implements the collection development goals. Selection criteria include subject matter, intellectual content, potential usage, relation to the collection, bibliographic considerations (such as reputation of the vendor) and other criteria.
 

A publication in any format, issued in successive parts, bearing numerical or chronological designations and intended to be continued indefinitely, with a frequency of issuance of only one per year, i.e., annual.

An individual serial or annual issue ordered as a one time only purchase rather than an ongoing subscription.

The library is supplied with everything that the publisher puts out except for stipulated exceptions. Also refers to agreement with publishers to supply the library with each succeeding issue, volume, or part of designated series, serial, membership, or multi-part monograph, as they are published.

Subject criteria refer to factors, which form the guide for the continuing development of the library’s collection in each subject or discipline. Subject criteria include collecting level, which is an indication of the past and current strength or level of the collecting in the subject; languages collected or excluded; formats of material collection or excluded; Library of Congress classification ranges for the subject range of the discipline; audience needs for the subject; chronological periods of geographic areas which represent strengths or exclusions; and any other criteria that the department and the library determine are necessary to define the scope of materials needed for the department’s subject area. General criteria are applied to the character of the whole collection. Specific criteria are applied to materials, which are contained within an academic department’s subject area.
 

One who sells materials to the library. It may be a publisher, wholesaler/jobber, or retailer. A publisher is a person or company that turns an author’s work into a published book. A wholesaler is a vendor who buys books from publishers for resale to libraries and bookstores. A jobber is one who purchases books from producers for resale to libraries.
 

The official removal of titles from a library’s collection based on the value of the materials to the overall collection.