Oregon Collection Development Policy
The Oregon Room is located on the second floor of the library. Materials in the Oregon collection include: factual materials about the history of the state, county and local areas, as well as book on the State’s environment, geology and other topics.
Users & Programs Supported
The Oregon Collection provides materials specific to Oregon for the student's use in course work and independent study, materials for faculty class preparation and subject area research and general and historical information of interest to the community. Although borrowing privileges are extended to adult residents of the community, materials are not purchased specifically for this clientele.
Selection Responsibility
Ultimate responsibility for the selection, acquisition, and disposition of library materials rests with the Library Director. Continual evaluation of and selection for the collection is the responsibility of the identified library discipline librarian under the leadership of the Director. The library will collect in all formats and for all periods, Oregon topics appropriate in supporting both the curriculum and community of Eastern Oregon University.
Selection Criteria
The primary goal driving the collection of materials for the Oregon Collection at Pierce Library is to provide access to state-wide material in support of the curriculum and the community and the provision of general information about the state in which the University resides.
The library will not collect materials for solely recreational reading purposes. Students, faculty, staff and members of the community will be referred to their local public library for such reading materials.
All formats of material will be evaluated according to the libraries ability to successfully store and maintain the material. Fiction by Oregon Authors will be shelved in the appropriate location in the Main Collection. Nonfiction books by EOU faculty will be shelved according to subject, those titles written about Oregon will be placed in the Oregon Room, otherwise they will be shelved in the Main Collection. Maps of Oregon will be filed with the Map Collection. Gifts to the Oregon Collection will follow the general rules for gifts to the library.
When two copies of a title are to be added to the collection, one in the Oregon collection and one in the Archive collection, the hard bound copy will go in the Archive and the soft bound in the Oregon collection.
Collection Scope
Binding: Books will be bought in hard cover or paperback format, with preference given to the hard cover format when available.
Level: The primary focus of the Oregon Collection general and historical information about the state.
Language: Books will be purchased in the English language.
Copies: The library will typically buy only one copy of a given item. Duplicate materials received as gifts may occasionally be added to the collection.
Formats: The following formats are included in the general collection: print materials (books, journals, newspapers); online materials (books, serials, reference tools, databases); films; LP audio recordings; VHS tapes; CDs; DVDs; and microfiche.
Materials in formats which cannot be supported by EOU or Pierce Library will not be purchased, or accepted as gifts. In other respects, materials will be purchased regardless of format in accordance with collection development guidelines.
The following types of materials will not be collected routinely by the library for the Oregon Collection:
- Popular materials (including fiction and non-fiction) more suited to the public library.
- Textbooks, written specifically about Oregon for classroom use.
- Titles or subject areas with a narrow appeal, and outside the scope of the collection.
- Pamphlets and ephemeral materials (except for some creative and fine arts materials and reserve items).
- Materials aimed at the high school or younger student.
- Oregon family histories
Collection Arrangement
Books form the majority of the Oregon collection; they are arranged by Library of Congress call number and the collection is maintained on the second floor of the library. Current Oregon newspapers can be obtained at the information desk; newspaper backfiles are held in microfiche, arranged by title.
Collection Maintenance
Maintaining the Oregon Collection is critical to access to the information, material that is missing serves no one. The goal of the inventory/shelf-reading process is to ensure that materials are on the shelf and in the prescribed location. Often material is intentionally or accidentally miss-shelved, when this happens the items appear as available in the catalog, while in fact they are missing. The library staff will arrange for regular, ongoing shelf-reading with the objectives of maintaining the physical organization of the collection, identifying items needing repair, and evaluating the collection to identify areas for collection development.
Collection Preservation
The overall quality and preservation of the Oregon Collection is the responsibility of the assigned discipline librarian. The library will endeavor to purchase the necessary tools and materials to stabilize any deterioration and to insure the existence of the collection into the foreseeable future
Paperback books will not be pre-bound. Spiral, plastic and similar bindings will be treated as paperbacks. Materials thin enough to accept pamphlet binders will be bound by the Library. Worn or damaged books that merit retention in the collection will be repaired by the Library unless condition warrants rebinding or replacement.
Collection Retention
Evaluation of the Pierce Library collection will occur on a routine and on going basis. The library will retain materials that meet any of the following minimum requirements:
- The title is recommended and justified for retention by a faculty member
- The title appears in a standard core collection, i.e.. (Books for College Libraries)
- The title has been in the collection less than five years
- The title is less than 10 years old
- Titles that have seen any use in the past five years
Criteria used when evaluating materials for withdrawal include:
Poor content, A subject no longer part of the curriculum, Obsolete information, Superseded editions, Inappropriate level, Duplicate copies, unless demand requires more , Circulation history, Poor physical condition, Age in some subjects is important, where currency is a factor, i.e.. sciences, 10 years from publication is a general rule, Mistake in initial selection: variant printings; vanity press; low quality materials; specialized materials of no interest or usage, Unreliable material.
For periodicals, the following additional criteria will be considered when reviewing periodical titles for cancellation or weeding:
- Periodicals that have ceased publication
- Consistent non-receipt of a publication
- Periodicals not indexed
- incomplete sets
- Infrequent use
All materials must be withdrawn completely. All OPAC and bibliographic records will be removed from the files. The materials will then be transferred to surplus property for disposition.
