Future of our collection

As the library building moves forward into a new era, it raises questions about the future of the library's collections, as well. Collection development is affected by many, many factors, but general policies guide the decision-making. Let's take a look at the three main kinds of resources that we collect: videos, periodicals, and books.

Videos

The library is no longer supporting the VHS format. Our aging collection of tapes is degrading rapidly, and many people no longer have a VCR at home. We have recommended to division faculty that they use part of their library-purchasing budgets to replace any VHS in their subject areas with DVD or blu-ray format so the titles will last longer and be easier for everyone to view.

DVD and blu-ray are the formats that we will be collecting going forward. The faculty have been given any tapes that they still use in teaching, and students are welcome to any tapes that the faculty do not claim (make sure to have them properly withdrawn from the collection by a librarian-- don't just take them and run!).

We are looking into digital streaming and hope to add that to our collection in the future, as well.

Periodicals

While we still have a few journal titles in print, they are fewer and fewer every year. Our periodicals librarian, Judith Koveleskie, continues to switch our print journals to digital access whenever possible. All new subscriptions are acquired in electronic format only.

Check our subscription directory, Journal Finder, to locate and access the journal you need. In most cases our subscriptions are via a database collection, but in some situations we have digital access on the publisher's website if you enter via Journal Finder.

Books

We will be adding both print and electronic books for the foreseeable future. All other factors being equal, preference will go to the ebook format due to the greater accessibility, the likelihood that multiple users can view the book at the same time, and the fact that ebooks don't require physical storage and maintenance.