UW Libraries Media Center
Collection Development Policy
Prepared
by John Vallier with Tammy Salman and Nia Lam
Purpose of the Policy
The purpose of the Media Center
collection development policy is to offer guidance to primary media selectors
and to librarians who purchase materials in specific subject areas. Collection
development decisions are made in accordance with the University of Washington
Libraries' mission and vision.
Mission and Vision Statements
Mission - The University of
Washington Libraries enriches the quality of life and advances intellectual
discovery by connecting people with knowledge.
About
the Media Center
The Libraries' Media Center develops and
provides access to the University of Washington's main collection of
audiovisual materials. Consisting of nearly 35,000 items in a variety of analog
and digital formats, its collections cover a broad and interdisciplinary range
of subjects and genres. The Media Center is
responsible for developing and maintaining an audiovisual collection to support
the entire panoply of University programs.
Media Center Goals
To acquire audiovisual (AV) media across a
broad range of academic disciplines.
To collect AV media
which represent a broad range of communities.
To build a collection of AV
media that has international, national, and regional foci.
To enrich the quality of life and advance
the intellectual discovery of the UW community by providing access to AV media
resources and services.
To assist in the preservation of Libraries AV media collections.
To provide non-UW affiliated community
member access to AV media and services to the extent possible.
Other UW Media Collections
Not all of the Libraries AV media
collections are housed in the Media Center. A number of units and branch
libraries house AV media in support of the respective disciplines they support.
These include:
Drama Library - http://www.lib.washington.edu/Drama/
Health Sciences Library – http://healthlinks.washington.edu/hsl
Music Library - http://www.lib.washington.edu/music/
Math Library - http://www.lib.washington.edu/math/
Social Work Library - http://healthlinks.washington.edu/hsl/swl/
Special Collections - http://www.lib.washington.edu/speciaLcoll/
UW Bothell and UW Tacoma also
develop, house, and provide access to considerable media collections:
http://www.tacoma.washington.edu/library/media
Outside of the Libraries there
are a handful of UW departments house AV media collections, including:
Responsibility for collection development
Evaluative criteria
User Groups
Primary - Current University of Washington faculty, students, and staff.
Secondary – Other patrons with UW Libraries borrowing privileges,
including UW Alumni Members, Friends of the Libraries, and current
faculty/students/staff from Summit Consortium institutions.
Tertiary – The general public and those researchers not officially
affiliated with the University of Washington or Summit Consortium institutions.
Format statement/Scope
AV media come in a wide variety
of formats. This section describes those formats actively collected,
selectively collected, and not collected.
Actively Collected:
DVDs in regions 0 or 1.
Audio CDs.
Selectively Collect (Media Center
will attempt to digitize obsolescent formats and incorporate the digital
surrogates into its collections):
DVDs in regions other than
0 or 1.
VHS videocassettes when
DVDs are available. NTSC preferred, but PAL and SECAM will be considered.
VCDs that playback on
existing Media Center equipment.
Film (e.g. 16mm, 8mm).
Laserdiscs titles if and
only if those titles are not available on DVD or VHS.
Analog audio recording if
and only if those titles are not available on CD.
Streaming, downloadable,
and other Ňformat freeÓ audiovisual materials.
Not collected:
Computer application
software
HD DVD, Blu-ray, DVD
audio, and other high definition formats are not currently being collected.
Playback Equipment
The Libraries Media Center
maintains equipment to play a variety of audiovisual materials, including DVDs,
CDs, videocassettes, laserdiscs, audiocassettes, LPs, slides and streaming
media.
Languages
AV media titles in all languages
are collected. Preference is given to titles with English captions or
subtitles. Whenever available, the Media Center will purchase materials with
closed-captioning.
Selection tools
The Head, Distributed Media
Services relies upon an array of print material and online sources when
selecting for the collection, such as:
The expertise of our
community
Catalogs of various
documentary distributors (e.g. http://www.documentaryfilms.net/filmmakers.htm
Film festival selections (e.g.
http://www.imdb.com/festivals/)
Reviews (e.g. Film
Comment, Film Quarterly, New York Times, Pitchfork, All Music, NPR.)
Listserv notices (e.g.
videolib, videonews).
Conference presentations
and vendor contacts (e.g. ALA, ACRL, SEM)
Copyright statement
The collections of the UW Libraries are
purchased by the university for the nonprofit educational use by its students,
staff, faculty, and instructors. All library materials are acquired with the
understanding that there will be multiple uses of a limited number of copies,
and that said material shall be used in support of research and instruction. In
making a determination of what uses can or cannot be made of a particular
title, the UW Libraries consults any licensing agreements that accompanied the
purchase of a title, as well as Sections 106, 107, and 108 of US Copyright Law,
Title 17.
Intellectual freedom statement
The Libraries Media Center is
committed to promoting and safeguarding a climate of
intellectual freedom. This commitment is critical to the development of
collections and services that dispassionately meet the education and research
needs of a our University of Washington community. See this document for more
information: http://tinyurl.com/6r5chd
Services
The Media Center offers a wide range of services
for it users (see: http://www.lib.washington.edu/media/faculty.html
and http://www.lib.washington.edu/media/students.html),
including equipment and consultation opportunities for users with disabilities:
http://www.lib.washington.edu/services/disabled.html
Acquisitions
All acquisition purchase
decisions are funneled through UW Libraries Monographic Acquisitions. They
place and track all orders.
Gifts statement
In the over 35 years since its founding, the UW
Libraries Media Center has amassed a collection and developed a range of
services that places it among the top academic media collections in North
America. We could not have accomplished this without the generosity and vision
of friends, alumni, and faculty. The continued commitment of our university
community is critical if we are to maintain the depth and breadth of our
collections. As the cost of audiovisual materials and electronic resources
continue to soar, purchasing power for media collections supported with state
funds continues to shrink. Therefore, we ask the Media CenterŐs users and
friends to consider their role in securing the future of the Media CenterŐs
extraordinary collections for future generations.
References
Books
Evans, G. E., & Saponaro, M. Z. (2007). Developing
Library and Information Center Collections, 5th ed. Journal of Academic
Librarianship. 33(1), 151.
Fenner, A. (2004). Selecting materials for library
collections. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Information Press.
Hoffmann, F. W., & Wood, R. J. (2005). Library
collection development policies: academic, public, and special libraries.
Good policy, good practice, no. 1. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press.
Mack, D. C. (2003). Collection development policies: new
directions for changing collections. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Information
Press.
Articles
Laskowski, M. S., et. al., Academic media center collection
development and circulation policies: A comparative analysis. College & University Media Review v. 10 no. 2 (Spring/Summer 2004) p. 85-118
Web sites
Indiana University Media Collection Development
policy. http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=1163