Collection Development Policy

Collection Development Goals

The primary goal of the library is to develop and maintain collections that support and enhance the curriculum and instructional programs of Morton College in order to meet the needs of students, faculty, and staff of the college. The library serves a community of life-long learners with a broad range of interests and prior educational experiences. Therefore, library resources also include a variety of general information resources in subject areas not covered by classroom instruction, but generally supportive of a learning environment. For those members of the college community whose scholarly or research needs are beyond the scope of library collections, librarians will help to indentify, locate, and borrow such materials through interlibrary loan. Within the constraints of available funds, facilities, and staffing, the library will acquire and make available materials in various formats, evaluate existing collections, and develop policies and procedures to maintain the quality of collections and information resources. The library is involved in a variety of resource-sharing agreements that expand the range of materials available to the college community.

Evaluation and Selection Guidelines

The selectors take into account the following criteria when making selection decisions:

  1. Relevance to curriculum based needs of students.
  2. Relevance to instructional needs of the faculty.
  3. Intellectual content and scholarly worth.
  4. Probable need based on existing programs and collections.

The primary goal of the library's collection is to support the curriculum and instruction. Textbooks for class use will not normally be purchased for the collection. Instructors wishing to place textbooks on reserve are responsible for obtaining them. The library will not routinely purchase consumable materials such as workbooks or tests.

Reference Materials

The reference collection is intended to meet the verification, location, and information needs of Morton College by providing basic reference works in subject areas covered by the curriculum, as well as general information requests. The reference collection does not circulate, ensuring that within the library reference works are always available to students and staff.

Internet and Digital Resources

The library provides both on campus and off campus access to a number of databases to help with the learning process. These are accessed through the library website and are available offcampus to students currently enrolled at Morton College. Any student or staff accessing these off campus must provide their social security number and date of birth. These databases are reviewed periodically to check for usage,, need, cost, and to ensure they are still relevant based on classes and programs offered at Morton College.

Interlibrary Loans

Please contact the library for further details.

Weeding

Building a viable collection of materials to serve the college community is a dynamic process that includes assessment and the removal of materials that are obsolete, damaged beyond repair, no longer relevant to the curriculum, or not essential to the Morton College community. In order to maintain a relevant and up-to-date collection, the Library will periodically evaluate sections of the collection and identify items to withdraw. Items may be replaced, either by a new copy or edition of the same work, or by another more recent work that is similar. Items in poor condition, but still valuable in terms of intellectual content will be considered for repair or replacement. Replacement will be determined on a case-by-case basis. When subjects are no longer relevant to the curriculum they will not be replaced.

The library also utilizes the MUSTIE guidelines while evaluating books for current usefulness to the collection. The following represent the acronym:

  • M = misleading (and/or factually inaccurate)
  • U = Ugly (worn and beyond mending or rebinding)
  • S = Superseded by a truly new edition or by a much better book on the subject
  • T = Trivial (of no discernable literary or scientific merit)
  • I = Irrelevant to the interests and needs of your community
  • E = Elsewhere (the material may be easily borrowed by another source).

Reference librarians will select materials for weeding using the criteria outlined above, the Library Director will review and make the final decision about all materials selected for discard.