Library Information

Last Revised Fall 2020

a) Objective of the Library Collection

1. Prepare students to succeed in their education by providing research and review materials for their coursework at Chabot College.
2. Support students to progress in their vocation by providing testing materials for their licensor exams.
3. Support curriculum of Chabot's course offerings.
4. Support student retention by providing easily accessible information, both in print and electronic, onsite and remotely.
5. Support achievement of an AA or AS degree.
6. Support job placement and transfer to four-year institution.
7. Reflect the diversity of Chabot’s student body.
8. Provide diverse and balanced perspectives
9. Support development of critical thinking skills
10. Promote life-long learning among the entire Chabot College community— students, faculty and staff.
11. Provide library resources that are sufficient in quantity, currency, depth.
12. Support educational programs, regardless of location or means of delivery, including distance education.
13. Maintain quality of the collections through replacement and repair.
14. Develop collections based on data driven analysis.
15. Reflect the input provided by students, faculty and staff.

b) Collection Analysis

1. Current Levels of the Collection
   1. A thorough collection analysis determines the strengths and weaknesses in current collection development levels. Most subject areas are represented in the collection at levels II and III.
2. Definition of Collection Levels
   1. Collection Level II is defined as, “A collection that is adequate to support general interest and initial study […] It includes judicious selection from currently published titles supported by selected, retrospective significant titles, a broad selection of works of more important writers; a selection of major journals; and current editions of the more significant reference tools and bibliographies pertaining to the subject” (Skokie 33).
   2. Collection Level III is defined as, “A collection that is adequate to support study past high school or practitioner levels, or sustained independent study; which is adequate to maintain knowledge of a subject required for student or occupational needs of less than research intensity; or a popular collection of materials which has a large and diverse number of titles representing many aspects of the subject and some titles that will be kept for historical values. “ (Skokie 33-34).

c) Collection Goals

1. Future Collection Levels
   1. After the collection assessment has taken place and gaps in the collection are identified, collection development monies will often be allocated to raise supported curriculum subjects areas to Collection Level III. Subject areas in allied disciplines will often be at Level II.

d) Selection Criteria

1. Curriculum Support
   1. Curriculum Outlines: : One librarian, typically the Collection Development Librarian, will serve on the Curriculum Committee to stay abreast on the latest additions to the Chabot Course offerings. The Collection Development Librarian ensures that textbooks are appropriate for class. Approved Course Outlines submitted by instructors also provide guidance on which materials would best support the information needs of Chabot students.
   2. Division Liaison Work: Librarians serve as liaisons to divisions where they can get feedback about how the library is serving the needs of their area, as well as inform them of library changes that may affect their course offerings and overall department.
   3. Faculty and Staff Suggestions: : Faculty and staff are encouraged to review the collection in their subject area, make acquisition suggestions, and weed materials that are no longer relevant.
   4. Student suggestions: Students are encouraged to request materials by contacting the Collection Development Librarian or via Chat Reference.
   5. Library Orientations: : Librarians will make purchases based on specific course needs at the point of library orientations.
   6. Reference Transactions/Course Assignments: : Librarians are constantly assessing the collection when providing reference assistance. When materials needed by students and are not available at Chabot or Las Positas, librarians will purchase materials that support student assignments.
   7. Systemic Collection Review: The Collection Development Librarian is responsible for reviewing the collection based on the curriculum, special topic and/or subject needs (such as topical research needs, holistic call number subject reviews, and special areas of interest such as updated nursing and dental assisting needs).
   8. Search Analytics and Usage Reports: review of search analytics and usage reports of the library catalog and databases inform collection development. Based on these findings, targeted purchasing can be done in a fiscally responsible manner.
2. Evaluation of New Materials
   1. Title and table of contents match the key terms listed in assignments and course outlines.
   2. Table of contents matches the content of the course outline.
   3. Positive reviews from credible review sources (i.e., reviews by college/university faculty, relevant associations, relevant journals, and practitioners).
   4. When available, Ebooks are previewed by librarians to determine they are ready to be ordered (ECM and other platforms do often provide a preview option for at least a portion of the ebook).
   5. Bibliographies for specific subject areas.
   6. Availability of library materials at Chabot’s sister college Las Positas College.
   7. Appropriate reading levels for general, undergraduate and vocational audiences with an emphasis on basic skills students.
   8. Currency of the materials.
   9. Cost of the item, relative to the annual funds available and importance of that subject area.
   10. Material adds to a diverse and balanced collection.
   11. Disaggregation of student population to ensure that the collection reflects Chabot student demographics, particularly as they relate to race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical challenges, religious affiliation, etc., to ensure that students see themselves reflected in library materials.

e) Types of Materials Collected

1. Books and E-Books
   1. Print and E-books are selected based on use and availability.
      1. Hardbound books are generally more expensive and purchased when a book length and weight would negatively affect the book’s durability. Softbound books are generally less expensive and purchased to increase purchasing power.
      2. Print books are bought to for users who like the tactile feeling of the book or who may have challenges viewing a screen for a long period of time. E-books allow for access 24/7. E-Book also allows for keyword searching. Both types will be bought for different types of students and different needs. As more classes go online, the number of eBooks will increase, and the number of print books will decrease accordingly.
2. E-books are mainly ordered via online subscription which means individual titles will not always remain, but this process provides a great variety of subjects available via simultaneous access through key E-book vendors (that have community college learning as a focus). In addition, the Library purchases individual titles in reference and key subject areas in support of courses, assignments, and occupational/career needs. In general, the Library strives to have the majority of its E-books to have simultaneous access, although some necessary titles such as novels used in courses, may only have access to one student at one time. The aim is to offer access to E-Books that are accessible in a way that there is no confusion in printing or saving portions, and that they meet as many ADA requirements as possible.
3. Reference Materials: E-Reference materials are preferred. Print titles will only be selected in cases where an e-material is not available.
4. Course Reserves
   1. The instructor provides course reserves with instructions on the appropriate loan periods.
   2. Textbooks: The library does not normally purchase textbooks. Purchasing textbooks can be cost prohibitive and unwieldy due to changes in edition. Instructors may utilize the course reserves system to circulate textbooks. The library will willingly purchase some non-textbook materials such as novels that are relatively low cost and not subject to changes in edition.
5. Popular Fiction: The Collection Development Librarian may select non-assigned popular fiction. This is done because a number of students use the library like a public library; moreover this will further support students’ recreational reading habits, a beneficial lifelong learning disposition.
6. Duplicates: Duplicates will be purchased based on the demand for the book (based on circulation statistics) and cost of the item. Note: turnaways may prompt Collection Development Librarian to consider purchasing additional copies if available and not cost-prohibitive.
7. Audio/Visual: Audio/Visual Materials are an important part of the Chabot College Library collection. Most titles directly support courses and faculty requests are generally fulfilled, budget allowing. The library does not attempt to provide a holistic AV collection but instead is a mostly a teaching support collection All materials must be closed captioned or have subtitles in compliance with federal law, Section 508 (29 U.S.C. '794 d). The library will work with the DSPS Department when rare essential titles that are not either captioned or subtitled and where the college has copyright permission and transcripts provided by the publisher. Streaming video subscriptions will also be Section 508 compliant (i.e., Films on Demand), see Library’s Streaming Video Collection Policy for more details. The library does purchase realia (Models, bones etc.) that supports course work as well as laptops, telescopes for student use.
8. Print periodicals are currently still being purchased on a limited basis. Currently, the print collection fills gaps in our electronic periodicals collection, as some titles are not available digitally. Electronic periodicals are preferred for their ease of access for students.
9. Electronic Periodicals
   1. Electronic periodicals make up the bulk of our periodicals as well as the webbased materials in the collection. The Technology Librarian negotiates acquisitions of electronic databases and journal titles on an on-going basis, in almost all cases titles are in aggregators that come and go based on publisher/vendor agreement, not with the Library. Given that, the librarian will only consider vendors that demonstrate effort in maintaining the quality of coverage of subjects given their regular replacements of such titles.
10. Librarians will consider faculty and students’ recommendations of websites if deemed appropriate for community college education needs and do not exist strictly for commercial interests. Solicitations to link to websites from anyone outside the college will not be considered (vendor solicitations will be made on a case by case basis).
    1. Librarians also evaluate a selection of publicly available websites and include them in the collection.
    2. Criteria for inclusion of the sites are as follows:
       1. Reliable content (authors or affiliated institutions are credible and authoritative in the subject area)
       2. Site is updated regularly
       3. No additional software is required to view the site (Java Script and Flash are acceptable)
       4. Site is professional in its appearance and is well written

f) Weeding Policy

1. One major factor in determining what is removed is how sensitive the subject is to change: Areas relating to scientific and statistical data, testing material, and possibly medicine and law will be examined more closely than other areas.
2. Another major factor in determining whether a book is removed is whether it is “dated.” This may mean that the work fails to take advantage of changes in modern publishing: usage of spacing/white space, picture, graphs, tables, graphics, and timely examples to make reading more pleasurable. This may also mean that the viewpoints are not reflective of the substantial gains in current academic scholarship in that field.
3. The print periodical collection is also weeded annually due to space, availability online and subject considerations.
4. Librarians weed monographs in print annually. The criteria for discarding materials should be based on guidelines similar to that of the criteria for evaluation of new materials but also include:
   1. Relevance to current program
   2. Physical condition of the book
   3. Currency in current popular/scholarly discourse iv. Historical relevance (as a primary document)
   4. Historical relevance (as a primary document)
   5. Discarded materials will be sent to a vendor for purchase.
   6. Electronic databases are dropped either due to evidence of low usage (especially with respect to price) or due to pricing issues (i.e. a significant price increase that is not viable to sustain). Databases will only be dropped due to budget restrictions as a last resort, as all content goes away with such discontinuation of subscription.
   7. Links to selected websites may become de-selected if the website ceases to exist, its quality is no longer at an appropriate education level, it is no longer being updated, has later had obvious out of date or inaccurate material, or a superior and more preferable website of the same type comes into existence. The Technology librarian checks on an annual basis the status of such websites.
5. eBooks are generally much newer compared to print books. Despite this fact, eBooks will need to also be weeded. Weeding eBooks has similar criteria compared to print. An added layer of complexity is that eBooks are displayed in the library catalog and EBSCO database based on relevancy algorithms and display certain pages of results based off of key word searches. Since it is unlikely that a patron would search more than a few pages, we will need to think about what titles rises to the top. Part of that is tied to what eBooks set is recalled based off of the key word search and another part will be based on tweaking the search algorithm as well as the tags in the record. As a result, weeding is only one factor that needs to be used to filter what results populate on online search results.

g) Standing Order

Materials that are bought at a regular interval will be put on a list to be bought automatically to ensure that the latest edition of the book is available. Materials that are subject to constant change such as law, medicine, or testing material will be put on the list.

h) Gifts

1. The library welcomes gifts. The Collection Development Librarian will evaluate the gifts and add them to the collection if the materials meet the guidelines for new materials.