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Faculty Assembly

KRAEMER FAMILY LIBRARY COLLECTION PHILOSOPHY  (Draft 5-06-02)

The CU-Colorado Springs campus vision and the Kraemer Family Library mission and goals present the framework for collection building at the library.

Campus Vision:

We will provide a public undergraduate education unexcelled in the state and selected excellent graduate programs.

 Kraemer Family Library Mission:

The Kraemer Family Library’s mission is to provide information services, sources, and instructional support services that are essential to the teaching, research, and service missions of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. To accomplish this mission the library has the following goal and responsibility with regard to collection building:

Select, acquire, maintain, and preserve collections of print, non-print, and electronic library resources with a diversity of perspectives suitable to teaching and learning programs, and to a more limited extent, the research programs of the university.

Several factors affect the long-term collecting goals of the library. These are:

I.     Chronic underfunding

•          No increase in the library materials budget (except for nursing materials) from 1992/93 — 1998/99.
•          No consistent funding for research materials — for example, it would cost over $325,000 per year to replace the 509 print journal titles cancelled since 1991, many of which were research journals.  
•         3rd lowest library funding per FTE of Colorado colleges and universities in our group (1998 IPEDS) — only Auraria Library and UNC are worse. (CU-Boulder funding per FTE was $523; CU-Colorado Springs was $167.)
•          New academic programs added since 1992 did not include additional funds for the library materials budget, further diminishing the purchasing power of  existing funds.

2.      Library Current Budget Picture

•          Current 6% annual increase for library materials, if continued, covers neither annual journal inflation of 9-10%, nor growth and new programs.
•          Support from the CU President’s Office for the four campus digital library of electronic materials is one-time funding, not base, and may end at any time.  
•         Ongoing support from the student technology fee will help address the needs for electronic resources.
•        It is unlikely that we will be funded to fully support research in the foreseeable future even if the campus mission changes.

3.     Availability of electronic resources, including many that are interdisciplinary
           
•           Users at all levels want the flexible, expanded access that electronic resources offer.
•           Electronic resources are not free and the annual costs for them inflate at rates similar to journals. FTE price models frequently increase significantly after
        enrollments reach 5,000. (This year our enrollment reached 5,072.) Funds must be found for their purchase and continuance.

•        New purchasing models and cooperative purchasing agreements allow us to leverage our buying power more with electronic resources. But new models also make it more difficult to charge costs to a specific discipline.

4.    Pattern of demand

•        Dollars expended must be directed at ensuring maximum return as a resource in demand.

Collection Principles:

We must make optimum use of the limited dollars available to us. A primary element in improving the usefulness of our collections is the adoption of principles that guide the allocation of library materials resources. These principles include the following:

·     Support for undergraduate programs — over 86% of the student FTE are enrolled at the undergraduate level, and undergraduates account for over 55% of current circulation of’ library materials. 46% of the undergraduate degrees conferred in the last six years were in three programs — business administration, communication, and psychology. Building a basic collection of books, journals, non-print materials, and electronic resources that will address the primary needs of these undergraduate students, particularly those in the three disciplines noted above, is a major priority.

•      Basic support for all graduate programs with emphasis on support for student curricular needs. Building library collections to support these needs is a’so a priority.

•      Support for large new programs, specifically the Beth El College of Nursing — in the last four years the Beth El College of Nursing awarded almost 1 0% of the undergraduate degrees conferred making it the fourth largest program on campus. Building library collections to support this area is a priority. Support for other new programs, such as mechanical engineering, ethnic and minority studies, sports and leisure, and new areas in visual and performing arts should also be considered.

•      Support for PhD programs — CU —Colorado Springs currently has two PhD programs in electrical engineering and computer science. Building library collections to support these degrees, within the limited resources available, is a priority.

•      Support for other programs and faculty research — it is unrealistic to expect the development of adequate collections in all programs and for faculty research. In these areas, priority will be given to access tools (i.e. electronic indexes and databases), and aggressive pursuit of electronic and document delivery options.

•      Continued support for cooperative projects and services, such as Prospector and local Pikes Peak area library collection development projects. These cooperative efforts allow us to enhance our collections and maximize return on collection dollars by sharing resources with other libraries, but they also cost money. Continuing cooperative efforts is also a priority.

The above principles seek to serve the greatest number of users possible within the limits of available resources, and form the basis for a collection development philosophy. Successful implementation of this philosophy requires the concerted effort of library faculty and staff working in conjunction with campus faculty and students.