Purpose

The main purpose of this policy is to provide PSU Central Library staff, and PSU community with a policy document, that describes the process and procedures of collection development and acquisition at Foreign Information Resources Management & Development Department at Central Library.

Policy

Definitions

• Collection development: Process of systematically building library collections to meet study, teaching, research, accreditation, and information needs of users.
• Information resources: Print information resources in library that provide information to library users.
• Faculty Liaison Committee Members: A faculty member from each academic department to help the library in materials selection process.
• Library budget: A financial statement of the estimated expenditures for a definite period of time.
• Library acquisition: Acquisition is a library department responsible for order, claims, receives, and request for payments of selected and approved library materials.

Policy Statement

The Central Library provides a balanced library collection in languages other than Arabic to its users satisfying their present and anticipated research and teaching needs. Library also acquires resources for non-credit courses where the materials may be used for leisure readings.

Procedures

Foreign Information Resources Management Librarian collaborates with faculty and staff regarding the selection and development of information resources aligned with areas of teaching, learning, research related with the curricular foci and university fields of concerns, through library faculty liaison committee, whose faculty members represent the varied academic spectrum of the programs offered at Prince Sultan University.

Various selection tools are available in print and online from publishers, booksellers and distributors, in addition to Central Library Information Resources Management and Development Department. Book recommendation form is available on library website; faculty members are advised to be in continuous contact with the information resources, available at the library, and with latest publications in their various fields of specialty and interest; this will lead to their recommendation to acquire updated editions of textbooks, and other significant information resources deemed to be significant and enriching to library resources in PSU academic specialties.

The Library Liaison Committee has an advisory role in collection development; however final decisions lie with the Director of Central Library. Members of Library Liaison Committee overlooking selections of information resources ensure that they match with the teaching and research needs of their respective programs/departments. The deans, chair persons and directors are authorized to recommend purchases.

Director of the Central Library authorizes the faculty recommendations before ordering.

Explanation

Collection management at PSU Central Library is viewed as a user service function, and is a joint effort of the Library and teaching faculty with the Central Library managing the process. Faculty members are encouraged to recommend and to request the acquisition of specific titles through faculty and departmental liaison arrangements. The University Library recognizes that liaison arrangement is the primary ingredient necessary for the successful development of its collections. While this policy statement enumerates library intentions and actions, cooperation between the Central Library and teaching faculty is seen as a precondition for accomplishing library collection development objectives. Every teaching faculty member is considered to be an integral part of the collection development team.

Building the library collection is a joint responsibility of the Foreign Information Resources Management Librarian and the members of Library Liaison Committee. Members of said committee give broad interpretation to their subject responsibilities as they build the collection, and work closely with each other to ensure that the research and teaching interests At PSU are supported adequately.

Faculty liaisons are an integral part of the Central Library collection development program. The tasks of the faculty liaisons committee member are two-fold: first to represent the interests of the department to the Library by informing the Foreign Information Resources Management Librarian of teaching and research developments at his department that affect the Central Library; and second, to represent the interests of the Central Library to the department by informing his colleagues of relevant developments in the Library,

PSU Central Library places an emphasis upon the development of “core” collections that support the undergraduate and postgraduate experience. Only by understanding fully both the nature of the curriculum supported and the research interests of a wide number of faculty and students, Foreign Information Resources Management Librarian can shape the collections in an effective configuration. Foreign Information Resources Management Librarian supports the instructional programs and scholarly research interests of the University by assessing areas of present strength and weakness in the collection, by consulting teaching faculty members for suggestions and advice, and by building the collections accordingly within existing collection development policy. Data related to demand (e.g. circulation reports), anticipated demand, and short-term speculation are utilized by the Foreign Information Resources Management Librarians when developing the collection. The aforementioned librarian is expected to maintain close communications with the teaching faculty and academic departments within their disciplines to ensure appropriateness of selected material and to prepare for departmental needs.

Individual Items (Criteria for Selection)

Criteria for selecting individual items may include:

• Relevance to academic, teaching, research and training needs of PSU
• Demand from PSU Central Library users
• Up-to-datedness
• Within scope of the Collection Development and Acquisition Policy (Foreign Print Collections)
• Contents are of special significance to PSU itself
• Physical condition or suitability (this may apply, for example, to audio-visual material)
• More than one copy (in special circumstances)
• Language
• Price

Material Types

Print Books

Monographs are acquired in support to the PSU approved curriculum as per the recommendations of Library Liaison Committee members.

Textbooks

List of recommended textbooks is provided to the book shop approved by the University Management. Students can purchase the textbooks directly from that book shop.
Three copies of recommended textbooks are made available at Central Library. Number of required copies may be acquired from approved book shop.

Audio/Visual Material

As per the recommendations of Faculty Liaison Committee members.

PSU Publications

The Library endeavors to collect PSU Publications in print and place those in the Central Library. Where publications are not supplied to the Central Library, the publication is not added to the collection.

PSU Affiliated Authors

Publications authored by PSU Faculty/Staff are added to the collection once have been identified and got approved.

PSU Approved Theses

Three print copies along with CD-ROMs of every PSU approved thesis are deposited in the Central Library. Received copies are kept/sent to:

1. One copy Central Library-Men Campus
2. One copy Central Library-Women Campus
3. One copy for King Fahad National Library

Access to the electronic version of a thesis is available through Central Library’s electronic repository of theses.

Gift/Donation Guidelines

The Central Library welcomes the donation of gifts to enrich its collections. The library decides the acceptance of gifts under the following guidelines;

1. Appropriateness of the gift to Central Library’s holdings
2. Physical condition of the material

The library may accept the gift as a whole or in a part.

Applicability

The services documented in this policy are aimed to fulfil the information, teaching and research needs of PSU faculty, staff and students. These service encompasse both the needs of the campus academic community and those of the wider scholarly and local communities. The collection development objectives, however, are focused primarily on the needs of the campus academic community.

Library staff, faculty, students and staff of PSU, Library vendors and suppliers have main concern with this policy.

Sanctions

Failure to abide by the Collection Development and Acquisition Policy may invite the intervention of the Library Director. The Director reviews the nature and extent of violation of the policy and determines the corrective measures.

Appendices

Appendix A: Book Recommendation Form