The purpose of this policy is to define and systematically guide the curation of a library collection that will serve the academic needs of the students, faculty, and staff of the University of Puget Sound, now and into the future.
The purpose of the library’s collection is to actively support the teaching, learning, and academic needs of the University of Puget Sound user community as outlined in the library mission, vision, and values. The library’s goal is to develop a robust collection suitable for a liberal arts college which prioritizes the needs of the undergraduate and graduate curricula and emphasizes diverse voices. Successful collection building is achieved through careful stewardship of physical space and financial resources. Participation in consortial arrangements, such as the Orbis Cascade Alliance, and obtaining access rather than ownership when practical, extends available resources.
The library follows a number of principles when selecting material to add to the collection. We strive to provide efficient and convenient options for access to a diverse range of materials in a variety of formats; maintain a core collection locally that is size- and budget- appropriate; continue to enhance the collection with diverse viewpoints to add depth and inclusivity to scholarship; and cooperate with our consortium to ensure access to a much larger collection than we can fiscally support independently.
The library acknowledges that the sources, assessment tools, and metrics used to select, evaluate, describe and shelve our collection are inherently biased. Library staff members are working at individual and systemic levels to recognize those biases and to address them whenever possible.
In addition, we support and employ the following principles in our selection decisions:
The library also houses smaller specialty collections, which have specific and more focused collection development and maintenance policies. The attached policies will take precedence in the following areas:
