Building & Managing Your Library Resource

Collection Building Goals

Auraria Library provides access to digital, streaming, and physical materials to support the learning, teaching, and research needs of students, faculty, and staff of Auraria Campus.

How are Materials Chosen?

Collection Development Librarians are responsible for ensuring users have the appropriate print, media, digital, and streaming materials readily accessible to them.

Methods and processes we use to assure the selection of relevant resources include:

Monitoring curricular offerings and changes
Staying abreast of campus research initiatives
Understanding changing discipline resource requirements and needs through faculty interactions, professional reading, and accreditation standards
Encouraging and facilitating suggestions for books, videos, journals, online collections, and other resources through the Recommend a Purchase Form:
Recommend a Purchase Form
Soliciting input from users on database trials
Reviewing book titles forwarded by academic book distributors from publishers worldwide
Monitoring the emergence of relevant resources by communicating with publishers, vendors, and other distributors

Collection Development Guidelines and Policies

General Collection Development Guidelines
Special and Digital Collections Development Policy

Does the Library Buy Textbooks?

As a general rule, the Library does not purchase textbooks.

The Library can help faculty and instructors in choosing alternative, open, and affordable classroom materials. The Library’s Open Educational Resources Research Guide supplies strategies for pursuing such materials.

What Other Materials do you Have Besides Books?

The Library purchases a variety of materials to support learning, teaching, and research including:

databases, including article, data, image, primary sources, and journal databases
statistical sources
journals
streaming videos
DVDs
streaming music
music CDs
maps
special collections, photos, and rare materials
technology, including wifi hotspots, cables, chargers, and video cameras
special items, including anatomy models, skeletons, calculators, and State Park passes.

What Type of Streaming Media Do You Have?

The Library provides access to extensive streaming media collections. All media titles may be found through Start My Research on the Library’s homepage. Video collections are described in the Videos & Streaming Media Research Guide, and online music collections are highlighted in the Music Research Guide.

The Library does not purchase spoken-word audio titles since most available are non-academic. Local public libraries offer substantial audiobook collections.

Are Your Videos Closed Captioned?

Every effort is made to purchase videos with closed captioning. If closed captioning is unavailable, a transcript is sought. Non-captioned films, which were purchased before the closed captioning mandate, exist in the collection. Efforts continue to decrease the number of films without closed-captioning or transcript options.

Does the Library Purchase Dissertations and Theses?

Since dissertations and theses frequently address niche issues, the Library buys only a small percentage of dissertations. Many dissertations from non-Auraria campus schools are available at no charge. See the Library’s Dissertations & Theses Research Guide for finding strategies and sources.

Most University of Colorado dissertations and theses are searchable through the Dissertations & Theses at University of Colorado System collection, with full-text supplied for most post-1996 titles. Auraria Library archives campus-produced theses and dissertations. Consult the Digital Collections Manager on the deposit process.

Why Does the Library Remove Materials from the Collection?

Library collections may appear to be static but they are constantly evolving. To insure an active, academically useful collection, materials are regularly evaluated for possible withdrawal and cancellation. Factors considered in removing or discontinuing access to materials include:

relevance
cost
overall use
recent use
quality
space capacity
format
condition

Can I Recommend Purchases, Subscriptions, or Trials?

Yes! If there is a resource you feel would complement the Library’s collections, use our Recommend a Purchase form to share your recommendation. A librarian or staff member will review your request. determine if the resource is a good fit for our collections, and inform you of our decision.