Golden Library Collection Development Plan
Mission
The Golden Library provides information, resources, services, and technology that support teaching, research, and lifelong learning at Eastern New Mexico University.
Purpose of Policy
This policy is intended to define the collection aims of the Golden Library. It connects the mission of the Golden Library and how its collections support the broader campus mission at Eastern New Mexico University. The policy outlines the scope of what resources are appropriate to acquire and retain in fulfillment of this mission and what items are outside that realm.
The GSSC Community
The Golden Library’s collection serves ENMU students, faculty, and staff as its primary users. Students and faculty access the library’s materials on site as well as online. All materials purchased with library funds are property of the Golden Library and are intended for use by all members of the university community. The library also serves residents of Portales, surrounding locales and the State of New Mexico. Through interlibrary loan lending, the library serves many patrons throughout the US.
Intellectual Freedom & Copyright
In keeping with the ALA Code of Ethics and ALA Bill of Rights, the Golden Library is committed to preserving and protecting intellectual freedom and copyright, even if those materials are controversial. This commitment extends to all areas of information access and provision.
Acquisitions and Library Liaisons
Librarians are assigned as liaisons to academic programs/departments. Library liaisons will communicate and collaborate with all faculty within their assigned liaison responsibility areas on digital and print requests/suggestions for addition to the collection. Individuals who wish to suggest digital or print additions to the collection should complete the materials purchase suggestion form.
Because of space and budget limitations, the library emphasizes the acquisition and maintenance of materials that are current (within a specific time-frame of relevance), standard or foundational to the discipline, and that represent careful attention to research methodology, theoretical facility, and clear writing. The subject liaisons and department faculty work to identify new materials to add to the collection, and to identify those materials whose currency and relevance to actual instruction and research ongoing at the university no longer exist. Funding for the purchase of new materials comes out of Golden Library’s book and database budget, supplemented by bonds.
The contingency fund allows new faculty to request items they need to meet their instructional and research goals: up to $500 per new faculty member. The fund can also be used to purchase items needed for curriculum changes, accreditation requirements, or for interdisciplinary materials that fall outside of specific departments.
Budget
The development and management of the library collections are guided by this policy within the scope of available resources. The University allocates funds to the Library for the acquisition and processing of materials. The Library Director has primary oversight of the library budget. The decisions regarding appropriate materials are made in consultation with library liaisons and departmental faculty. Rather than being constrained by inflexible formulas, collections are regularly evaluated, and collection adjustments are made, as needed. Inflationary costs from information vendors require an equal increase in library budgetary funds to maintain stable and on-going access to the information resources needed for the University's education mission.
General Description of ENMU Programs
The Golden Library’s resources reflect the education and research of the University. The Library keeps abreast of changes in the curriculum through Curriculum Committee and Faculty Senate.
Selection Priorities, Goals, Organization, and Access
For primary subjects, the library collects at a level adequate to support the course work of advanced undergraduate and master's degree programs and sustained independent study. This collection includes a wide range of primary resources, basic and retrospective collections of the works of important writers, selections from secondary writers, representative journals, and reference tools pertaining to the subject. For subject areas with advanced degrees or intense research, the library will acquire additional information resources. Library collections are primarily organized by Library of Congress Classification Scheme. Materials are findable through the online library catalog and discovery service, library indexes and databases, finding aids, and in-house created searching and indexing tools.
The Golden Library is committed to providing web accessible resources to individuals with disabilities. We make every effort to gather information and prioritize the acquisitions of web accessible electronic resources, except in cases where a product or service would be fundamentally altered.
Preferred Languages
Most resources selected are in the English language except for basic and representative works in any other language taught at ENMU. Exceptions to this are foreign language dictionaries, encyclopedias, other reference tools, and audio, video, and other materials determined to be necessary to support the curriculum.
Collection and General Criteria for Selection
The library’s collection contains more than two million items in multiple formats: print books, journals, musical scores, and government documents; e-books; and digital journal articles available through database subscriptions.
Golden Library is host to a number of special collections, notably the Jack Williamson Science Fiction Collection, as well as collections of New Mexico authors and materials about the American Southwest.
Golden Library also houses archives for the university and local history.
Golden Library is a selective repository of Federal Governmental documents and New Mexico state documents.
In allocating resources to optimize the value of our collection, priority goes to:
Purchased Items: General criteria employed in the objective evaluation process include:
An item, in whatever format, that sufficiently meets the general objective criteria listed above, is then evaluated based on the subjective criteria related to the level of existing collections, programs, and goals. Specific criteria may also be considered for format or discrete collections.
Cooperative Purchasing with Other Units & Institutions
The Golden Library occasionally purchases online subscriptions jointly with other institutions, as appropriate. Primary partner libraries include the NMCAL, AMIGOS and LIBROS consortiums and the other ENMU campuses.
Gift Policy
Due to space and resources constraints, the Golden Library typically does not accept donations of books or other physical items to the general library collection. Please note, this policy does not apply to special collections and archives. In some cases, we may accept materials that fall within our special collecting areas of science fiction and the American Southwest. To inquire about donating materials that may fall within these collections, please call Archives and Special Collections at (575)562-2679.
Textbook Policy
As a general policy, the Golden Library does not purchase textbooks for the collection. The Library may acquire textbooks selectively for the collection if they have long-term research, study, or archival value.