The guiding principle of the LIC collection is the support of the academic curriculum. Collection development – providing the best, most relevant information – is part of that mission.
Materials Collected
The primary goal of the materials to be collected is to support the Khazar University curriculum. Other materials may be added to the collection after this goal has been met. The library collects both print and electronic copies of books and journals depending upon availability and cost. Some materials are better suited to electronic formats (e.g. encyclopedias), but many others are either not available in non-print formats or more appropriate for print formats (e.g. art monographs), so the library will continue to collect print materials. In the case of journals and reference materials, electronic access is favored when available. The materials that the library collects are complementary to the materials used for classroom instruction.
Selection Criteria for Books
Selection criteria vary across disciplines. Subject-specific criteria can be found in the collection development policy statement by discipline. General considerations for the selection of monographs include:
- Appropriateness – Should support the curricular needs of the students and faculty;
- Level – Should be written for an undergraduate, graduate community and PhD students;
- Currency and accuracy of the information;
- Scope and depth of coverage;
- Critical Reviews – Choice, Chronicle of Higher Education, Library Journal, and Books in Print among others are consulted when considering new library materials for the collection;
- Language – English will predominate within nearly all areas except where foreign language instruction is part of the curriculum. Azerbaijani, Chinese, German, French, Japanese, and Spanish are taught at the University; materials collected in these languages will be at a basic reading level.
Selection Criteria for Journal Subscriptions
With the exception of general interest and popular magazines and newspapers (Time, Economics, National geography, Power , etc.) electronic is preferred over print; electronic and print is preferred over print alone.
Factors used to determine the selection, continuation, or cancellation of journal titles include:
- Use;
- Importance of the title to the discipline, as determined by metrics like the number of times a journal is cited and requirements for accreditation;
- Relevance of the content to the library’s collection and university's curriculum;
- Accessibility of the content via indexing;
- Cost and cost-history of a title;
New journal titles, whether print or electronic, are considered 'on probation' for a period of one subscription year. At the end of that time the title will be evaluated and either continued or cancelled on the basis of use.
Evaluation Criteria for Electronic Databases
Access to databases may be leased on an individual basis by the library, received as part of state grants or funding, or arranged through Azerbaijani Library & Information Consortium agreement.
Criteria used to determine the library's licensing, continuation, or cancellation of a database include:
- usage;
- scope of the library's collection;
- type and method of access to the intellectual content of the database;
- reliability and usability of the database’s functionality;
- cost to the library for access;
- availability of usage statistics for evaluation purposes.
Gifts and Donations
The library may accept small gifts of up to thirty volumes if the materials meet the needs of the collection. Gifts of periodicals and multimedia are not accepted.
The library reserves the right to dispose of gifts to its best advantage.
In accordance with the donor’s wishes, book plates or other labels can be affixed to selected items showing the donor’s name and, if applicable, the person or cause in whose honor or memory the gift was made.
Gifts of rare or valuable materials or special collections of scholarly importance that are in keeping with the scope of the library’s collection are also welcomed.
Collection Management
It is not part of our mission to keep materials in perpetuity. Instead, we support current curriculum and limited research needs. As part of this mission, the library staff engages in collection management. This includes the replacement of worn materials, the withdrawal of outdated or infrequently used materials, and the addition of second copies of highly-used materials.
General Criteria for De-Selection
In order to maintain a relevant and useful collection, materials will be reviewed annually for possible withdrawal from the collection. If an item is 20 years old or older and has not circulated in the past 5 years, it will be removed from the collection unless a compelling reason to keep it is presented. Additionally, items will be removed from the collection for one or more of the following reasons:
Titles outside the collecting scope of the library
Titles no longer relevant to current curricular or research needs and therefore not within the scope of the library's current collection development policies may be removed from the collections or (in the case of subscriptions) canceled.
Redundancy
Copies or editions of titles may be deselected to minimize redundancy of holdings.
Physical Condition
Deteriorating books are evaluated for preservation and withdrawn if necessary.
Lost items
When items are categorized as lost, the library decides to replace them as warranted.