Faculty

Collection Development

Order Requests
Books, DVDs, & eBooks

As faculty, you know your field better than anyone on campus. You know what types of materials your students need to complete their assignments and which resources are required for program accreditation or review. The library staff makes decisions every day about what should be added to the collection based on the student assignments we see and by analyzing the curriculum at the College. We can better help your students when faculty members submit order requests for materials that support your courses and ultimately support the missions of the library and CCCC.

Periodicals

Periodical subscription renewal memos are sent to lead instructors annually, usually in the late spring. The memo includes a list of current subscriptions for the curriculum or department, and it indicates which titles are available in library online databases. At that time, the lead instructor may indicate if a title should be dropped or if a new title should be added for the next calendar year. All new subscriptions begin with the next calendar year in January. The memo is then returned to library staff for renewal and/or changes. If you are not a lead instructor but would like to request a new subscription title, please communicate this with your lead instructor so that the recommended title can be added on the subscription renewal memo. Many of our online databases contain full-text articles from magazines and professional journals. You may want to search NC LIVE by periodical title to see if coverage is available online prior to requesting a new subscription.

Collection Review

Complete a Collection Review of your department's library materials in order to ensure that:

  1. Your students have the necessary materials to complete course assignments.
  2. The library has the materials to support your program needs and accreditation requirements.
  3. Outdated materials in the library collection are identified, removed, and replaced with new materials. New materials can be suggested by you, your colleagues, and the library staff.

A collection review provides insight into what materials the library has or does not have to meet your program needs. All areas of the library collection are evaluated including books, reference books, audiovisual materials, periodicals, online resources, and special collections (if applicable). Criteria for evaluation include currency of materials, collection usage, gaps in subject coverage, and appropriateness of scholastic levels. Faculty completing a collection review can recommend materials to be withdrawn and/or recommend new titles to be purchased by the library. Lead instructors and anyone completing an End of Cycle Review or a program accreditation process should review library collections.

Email cccclib@cccc.edu, to begin a Collection Review and to obtain a collection report (see below). The Library Collection Evaluation Form should be used to record Collection Review findings and be submitted to the Library Director upon review completion.

Collection Report

A Collection Report contains a list of all collection materials for your program with circulation (usage) data in Excel format. This information is useful in determining what the library owns and what needs to be updated when evaluating library collections. Please allow up to one week for a Collection Report to be compiled as this can take some time. Email cccclib@cccc.edu, to request a collection report. It is advisable that this report be used in conjunction with a library visit to review library materials in person and pull items to be withdrawn.

Download a sample collection report that was created for the Dental program in Fall 2012. The report shows the titles, call numbers, and circulation data.