Collection Development Guidelines

“The Library is a growing organism” (Ranganathan, 1931).  It must be able to adapt to the many and changing environments of scholarly information and academic learning needs. These guidelines are intended to provide direction within these changing environments to manage, develop, and provide access to academic information resources. These guidelines also serve as a means to communicate to our stakeholders the intention behind resource management decisions for all Trent University Library sites (currently including Oshawa and Peterborough campuses). Like the Library’s resources, these guidelines are not static, and will be reviewed periodically.

Responsibility

Librarians coordinate resource management with input from faculty.

Selection Criteria

The Library acquires material to support academic success within current curricula and research needs, as well as material of local significance.  All materials purchased with Library funds are housed in the Library or accessed via the Library web site.

Selection Criteria include:

  • relevance to course content;
  • accreditation or external review requirement 
  • interdisciplinary value;
  • merit of work including
    • authority
    • accuracy
    • scope of coverage (basic, study, research, comprehensive) 
    • unique features (original approach, illustrations)
    • currency;
  • relevance to the existing collection (updates, supplements, completes or fills a gap); 
  • faculty recommendation; 
  • recommendation through standard lists, general or subject specific (e.g. CHOICE magazine);
  • availability through resource sharing networks (e.g. Interlibrary Loan, Reciprocal borrowing);
  • evidence of demand through Interlibrary Loans; and
  • relative cost.

The primary language for the collection is English. The Library supports collections of non-English language materials as needed in order to support the curricula. 

Multiple copies and replacement copies 

Single copies are normally acquired. At the Librarian's discretion a second copy may be acquired.

Lost or damaged copies may be replaced at Librarian’s discretion.

Required Textbooks

Upon request of the course instructor, through the Learning & Liaison Librarians and subject to budgetary consideration, a single copy of a course required textbook may be ordered for course reserves or course reading lists.  

Types of Materials & Formats

The Library will collect materials in appropriate formats. Although content is the main criterion for selection, format is also a major factor. Increasingly, the same content may be published in more than one format, making clear guidelines about format preferences essential.

A major, ongoing format shift is the move from physical to virtual resources. Therefore, information found in electronic sources, both acquired and freely available, increasingly has an impact on the physical collection. Electronic resources may offer numerous benefits such as:

  • increased access in terms of location, hours and convenience;
  • increased number of simultaneous users;
  • more current information and frequent updates; 
  • improved searchability; 
  • decreased space/storage/handling requirements;
  • integration into mixed-mode or online courses; and  
  • meeting user expectations in a networked information environment. 

Electronic resources may, however, entail complications or drawbacks in areas such as

  • content availability;
  • cost;
  • copyright and digital licensing restrictions; 
  • subscription to rather than ownership of content; 
  • ongoing or archival access; 
  • technical issues, both for the user and the Library;
  • usability; and 
  • vendor technical support (training).

The Library will monitor information environments and adjust format preferences as needed.

Some general format considerations include:

  • appropriate format for the content; 
  • cost relative to other formats;
  • accessibility and convenience of use;
  • delivery method of course content; 
  • user preference for remote access; 
  • user demand or preference for format; 
  • projected volume of use;
  • space and maintenance impacts;
  • availability of equipment necessary to support the format; and 
  • integration with rest of the collection.

Types of materials collected and format considerations are listed below.

Supporting Intellectual Freedom

The Library supports the Ontario Library Association Statement on Intellectual Freedom and the Intellectual Rights of the Individual and the Canadian Federation of Library Association Statement on Intellectual Freedom and Libraries.  Questions regarding material acquired by the Library should be directed to the University Librarian.

Collaboration with other libraries 

All academic libraries collaborate in the delivery of resources and services.

Consortial Licensing 

Trent University participates in consortial purchasing and licensing agreements in order to acquire electronic resources and media on the best possible terms. Partners include Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) and Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN).

Interlibrary loans 

Trent University Library works with a network of institutions in order to provide interlibrary loan and media booking services, including the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) and the Ontario Interfilm Group. 
Reciprocal borrowing 

Trent University Library has reciprocal borrowing agreements with other publicly funded Ontario and Canadian post-secondary institutions. Details are described in the Canadian University Reciprocal Borrowing Agreement.

Collection Maintenance, Deselection and Assessment 

Collection assessment is necessary because library collections are not static, items are being added continually, and space available in the library is finite.  Librarians are responsible for assessing the collection in their respective liaison areas and for deselection in consultation with Faculty. The following criteria should be considered on a discipline by discipline basis.

Deselection Criteria

  • relevance to course content and research interests of the Trent University community;
  • physical condition;
  • use pattern and circulation; 
  • cost benefit;
  • superseded by a newer edition or a superior item on the subject;
  • redundancy;
  • duplicate copies are discarded, unless usage justifies duplication;
    • Electronic copies of print titles (books or periodicals) are considered duplicates if the electronic version contains complete and equivalent information. If the electronic version is owned by the Library and/or a consortium of which the Library is a member, and if perpetual access is assured through appropriate licensing and archiving provisions, then the print copy will be discarded with the exception of materials in Special Collections.
  • short or scattered runs of periodicals; and
  • obsolete media.

Last updated: March 2012

Material & Format Considerations 

At Trent University Library, we are dedicated to supporting both students and instructors in accessing essential course materials. However, we cannot guarantee that a library copy of every required textbook—whether electronic or print—will be available for all courses.

In accordance with our Collection Development Guidelines, instructors can request a single copy of a required textbook for course reserves. Please note that requests are subject to budgetary constraints, and fulfillment is not guaranteed, as some publishers restrict libraries from purchasing their textbooks.

Alternative Options for Students

Students are encouraged to explore various options for acquiring textbooks, including:

Current Challenges

The acquisition of textbooks has become increasingly challenging. Many publishers now only offer electronic textbooks for individual purchase, which limits library access. Furthermore, certain publishers—such as Pearson, Cengage, Elsevier, McGraw Hill, and Thieme—restrict libraries from acquiring e-textbook versions, impacting students’ access to essential learning materials. Even when electronic versions are available for library acquisition, they are often prohibitively expensive, sometimes costing $1,000 or more for a single-user licence. This situation arises because textbook publishers have structured their profit models around selling e-textbooks directly to students.

Support for Instructors: Instructors are encouraged to contact the library for assistance with sourcing course materials at any time, especially for upcoming courses. The library is committed to fostering an equitable learning environment and can assist with exploring alternative options to textbooks, such as open educational resources, using existing library materials, or posting or linking to individual book chapters or excerpts of course content to Blackboard (subject to copyright limitations).

Books are non-serial publications that may be published in any format. Some general guidelines for the selection of electronic vs. print books are detailed below. 
Where funding permits, electronic is preferred for:

  • reference books, and other works not normally read cover-to-cover;
  • maximizing access to users; 
  • books with added utility in the electronic format;
  • titles that undergo frequent revisions;
  • supporting online or mixed-mode courses;
  • books available on a vendor platform already offered at the Library;
  • e-book collections available in a cost-effective way via subscription; and
  • titles acquired via patron-driven acquisition, including short-term loans. 

Print may be preferred in some instances.

Journals, magazines and newspapers are selected to support courses taught at Trent University, to cover recent developments in a discipline, and to cover current events reading. 

Electronic is the preferred format, but print may be preferred in some instances, including 

  • not available electronically or no site license option; 
  • substantially cheaper than electronic; and 
  • important content missing from electronic version.

The Library collects electronic and print indexing and abstracting sources that provide article-level access to periodicals. Existing print index collections will be retained as needed in order to maintain access to historic content, where an online equivalent is not available or is cost prohibitive.

The Library actively acquires aggregated third-party databases of electronic periodicals in order to provide both indexing and cost-effective access to full-text periodical contents. As with periodicals, databases are selected to support courses taught at Trent, to cover recent developments in a discipline, and to cover current events reading.

The Library also actively collects databases which offer full-text collections of e-books, e-reference materials and primary historical documents.

The Library collects media formats supported by the University’s current technology infrastructure, including streaming media.  All media formats are acquired with appropriate rights to ensure their legal use at Trent University.