Overview: The purpose of this Collection Development Policy is to support, enrich and help meet
the needs of the educational programs of Gateway Community and Technical College through
the interaction of librarians and other members of the college, and to provide guidelines
for building the collection of educational resources.
The primary mission of the Gateway Community and Technical College Library and Information
Services is to support all the campuses and their respective programs. The Library
and Information Services is a hybrid library providing access to digital and print
information, and fostering life-long learning skills essential for the college community
to succeed in the information intense environment of the 21st century. The Library
has embraced new information technologies and cooperative relationships with regional
academic and public libraries in order to serve its clientele in the most efficient
and cost-effective way possible.
Responsible Party: Director, Libraries and Information Services
Procedures:
Clientele
The primary clientele are the faculty, staff, and students of Gateway Community and
Technical College.
Students, faculty, and staff engaged in off-site programs are supported primarily
by being given electronic access to Gateway Community and Technical College and cooperative
libraries’ holdings.
Clientele Needs Assessment The librarians act as liaisons to the Gateway Community and Technical College divisions
and request the resource needs to support the curriculum.
Scope
The scope of the core collection supports the curriculum of the programs at Gateway.
A full list of the programs, and recommended courses for each certificate or degree
path can be found at this url: https://gateway.kctcs.edu/education-training/program-finder/
The Library commits to constant evaluation of library collections on an annual basis
by reviewing and analyzing the collections of cooperative libraries with the GCTC
Division Deans and Program Coordinators.
The Library continues to revise and expand the scope of the collection and coverage
as the educational needs change.
Types of Resources
The Library’s collections include printed materials and electronic resources, including
databases, eBooks, eJournals, and electronic reference sources.
The reference collections in the library include almanacs, encyclopedias, dictionaries,
organizational directories, atlases, style manuals, and college test preparation resources.
Resource Sharing The Library cooperates with regional libraries and has developed agreements with Kenton
County Public Library, Grant County Public Library, the Kentucky Virtual Library,
Northern Kentucky University for students enrolled in the Gateway2NKU program, and
Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) to support the information
needs of the faculty, staff, and students. The agreements, which are evaluated at
the end of spring semester annually, encompass cooperative cataloging (KCTCS), interlibrary
loaning, collaborative purchasing of media and electronic databases (KCTCS), and access
to library collections.
Selection Responsibility The librarians, program coordinators and division deans are engaged in the initial
responsibility to select resources. The ultimate responsibility resides with the Library
Director.
Selection Criteria The criteria used to select resources are as follows:
Research and College Libraries: Resources for College Libraries published by the American Library Association
Kentucky Community and Technical College System 4.1.1.3.5 Policy on Library Collection
Resources support, and are consistent with, the Library’s mission and goals.
Resources are chosen to support the curriculum and educational programs.
Collection Evaluation and Assessment
The Library continuously evaluates the needs and status of the collection. Statistics,
such as digital circulation reports, and electronic database searches, are used as
tools. Faculty, staff, and student input are also used in the evaluation process.
On an annual basis, the evaluation process starts in August and is completed by May
1st with the librarians’ assessment of the collections within the institution and
cooperative libraries. Assessment reports are periodically delivered to the Division
Deans and Program Coordinators for feedback and recommendations. Orders for the recommended
and approved materials are processed by the Director of the Library April-June in
preparation of the new Fiscal Year budget.
Weeding
Materials are weeded (deselected) if the content supports obsolete programs, or are
worn, out of date, incorrect or damaged.
Weeded materials will be replaced if there is:
sufficient need
historical value
updated, newer or revised materials that better replace the weeded
The Library, suggests weeding 5% of the collections based on the recommendation of
the American Library Association.
The Library recommends that the divisions and programs review and weed the collections
on the program level in the spring and summers semesters annually. The Library also
recommends that each program updates its collection index with the Library by August
31st annually.
The reference collections in the Information Commons on the Boone, Urban Metro, and
Edgewood campuses are reviewed annually in the spring semester and weeded by August
31st.
Policy Review and Revision The Collection Development Policy is renewed and revised on an annual basis at the
end of Spring Semester by the Library Director and/or the Library Advisory Committee,
if applicable.
