This policy provides guidelines for the acquisition and disposition of materials in the library collection. The collection is meant to support the curriculum in accordance with the missions of the university and the library
Canisius is an independent, medium sized institution of higher education located in the city of Buffalo, NY. The mission and curriculum are based in a Catholic and Jesuit tradition. Canisius offers undergraduate, graduate, and pre-professional programs. Academically, the university is organized into the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Education and Human Services, and the Richard J. Wehle School of Business. Canisius is accredited by the Middle States Commissions on Higher Education, the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. There are also program-level accreditations within the university.
Canisius has one library, the Andrew L. Bouwhuis, SJ Library. Materials in the library collection are available to all currently affiliated students, faculty, and staff.
The library collection supports the All-College Honors program, the Core curriculum, all majors and programs at both the undergraduate and graduate level, and the interdisciplinary work of students and faculty at Canisius. The library also supports the mission and values of the university by providing non-academic and recreational materials.
The library serves a diverse population of users who come from varied backgrounds and lived experiences, and who bring varied abilities and needs. The library recognizes that free access to ideas and freedom of expression are fundamental to research and education in a democratic society. The library is committed to providing a balanced collection representing a diversity of perspectives. We strive to bring diversity of content, diverse identities of creators, experiential diversity (including the creator's abilities and affinities), and cognitive diversity when acquiring materials for the library collection. The collection does not exclude any materials based on the creators’ and/or publishers’ race, color, ethnicity, religious creed, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, or physical or mental abilities.
The library strives to maintain a collection that inspires discovery and the creation of new knowledge by providing resources that support teaching, research, and scholarship. The depth of collection development varies by discipline and is driven by the curriculum.
Decisions about which material we acquire or retain, and in which format, are increasingly influenced by the holdings of other libraries and the ease with which material may be borrowed through interlibrary loan. Since no library can possibly purchase all of the books or subscribe to all of the journals that researchers need, interlibrary loan and document delivery services supplement our collection.
A number of principles guide the selection and deselection of material, primary among them are equity, diversity, scope, balance, and freedom of intellectual pursuit. These are outlined in the following statements:
Collection decisions (acquisition, location, retention, deselection, preservation, conservation, digitization) are evaluated against criteria that reflect the varied, evolving, and increasingly interdisciplinary curricula at the university. We collaborate with other libraries to ensure the widest possible access to resources with minimal duplication.
The library uses the following general criteria to determine whether materials should be acquired and retained:
The library acquires materials in all languages that are taught within the curriculum. With the exception of titles where high demand can be anticipated in advance, we acquire a single copy of a print work. We prefer electronic book licenses with access for multiple simultaneous users.
All professional staff in the library act as liaisons to academic departments. In addition, all academic departments have been asked to designate a faculty member as a liaison to the library in order to ensure the selection and retention of material that best supports the current curriculum.
The library aims for curricular support with the collection and not comprehensiveness. It is a general collection intended to support the Core Curriculum and All-College Honors program. The collection has been expanded beyond general knowledge in fields where the university has programs and majors. The strengths or weaknesses of current holdings are continually evaluated by librarians in each subject area relative to the curriculum, available funding, and the scope/scale of collections available in our library networks. While building on established collection strengths is important, the library is also cognizant of the need to evolve the collections alongside a changing university community and curriculum.
The library participates in programs that allow for more comprehensive subject coverage by using a network of libraries willing to share materials and share product licensing for favorable pricing. The holdings of other libraries in our networks are considered when making collection decisions.
The library acquires collections that result in perpetual ownership when possible, but perpetual ownership is not offered by all vendors, and when it is available, it is often prohibitively expensive. In those cases, we strive to facilitate access over ownership of resources. We consider leased access for resources that directly support the curriculum. In all cases, librarians carefully weigh the conditions of access (e.g., read only, ability to make download and print full content) in the context of the curriculum, technology, and the needs of users.
The library does not purchase or maintain a collection of currently adopted textbooks for coursework. We consider requests to purchase textbooks on a case- by-case basis. We will add textbooks deemed to be important to the general collection only if the budget allows. We prefer digital editions, especially when they permit multiple simultaneous users. We will acquire only one print copy of a textbook, and we will not automatically acquire new editions, regardless of format, due to prohibitive cost.
The library collects materials in the most useful format for the content and intended use in the context of the university’s technical infrastructure and available staff expertise to support patron use.
The library recognizes that the shift from print to electronic publication formats is different across disciplines and is sometimes different for monographs versus journals within a discipline. For some fields of study, print publications remain primary and critical to supporting the work of students and faculty. For other areas, there is an established preference for electronic resources. Most disciplines use a mix of formats. Librarians carefully monitor this trend for its impact on collecting decisions and respond to the changing needs and preferences of students and faculty.
The library maintains an active program to acquire recently published material for the general collection. Most of the books purchased are in the humanities, with more selective acquisitions in the social sciences, and very selective acquisition in the sciences and business. We purchase Ebooks when the anticipated use indicates it, with preference given to electronic books that support multiple simultaneous users.
Databases that support the curriculum are licensed if they have appropriate content with sufficient depth and scope and are within budget parameters. We give preference to remotely accessible full-text resources which permit multiple simultaneous users and support citation-linking.
The library maintains subscriptions to key journals in the disciplines covered by the curriculum. The journal collection is a mix of print and digital titles, as well as aggregated electronic journal collections. Librarians are very selective when starting new journal subscriptions, not only because they represent a significant long-term budgetary commitment but also because it is possible to provide access to individual articles on an as-needed basis through interlibrary loan. The library tries to support open access publishing whenever possible.
For disciplines in which the early literature provides essential background for current study, the library attempts to maintain uninterrupted access to earlier issues of journals, either in print or electronic form. If backfile access is not critical – or if the costs are prohibitive – we allow gaps in coverage to develop, filling them when needed by document delivery or interlibrary loan.
The library’s media collection supports undergraduate study, faculty instruction, and basic faculty research across the curriculum. We acquire media primarily on DVD or via subscription streaming services. We have migrated or replaced media when formats have been superseded and will continue to do this as technology changes and as the budget allows. We will convert material based on the pedagogical importance of the new format, the degree of penetration of the new format, the degree to which the content supports the curriculum, staff expertise, availability of necessary technology on campus, and budget.
The library has vetted demand-driven programs in place for the acquisition of electronic books. These programs make ebooks available to library users based on predetermined profiles. After a certain amount of use, we purchase electronic books and add them to the collection, ensuring the collection is responsive to student and faculty needs. It also contains cost.
The library makes every effort to ensure that the technology platforms we invest in, and the content provided within them, follow evolving national standards for accessibility. Vendors should adhere to the U.S. Access Board's final rule on accessibility requirements for information and communication technology, covered under Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act, and follow guidelines set forth by the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative.
The library does not accept gifts due to limited space and staffing. We consider exceptions to the gift policy on a case by case basis.
Please see the Library's full Gift Donation Policy for additional information.
The library evaluates collection-related data gathered by the library operating system and data provided by vendors. This informs selection and deselection of physical material. It also guides the management of electronic resources. Factors considered include use, cost per use, turn away statistics, interlibrary loan requests, and overlap with other resources as part of the collection management process. This data helps determine which databases are underutilized and which are well used. Whenever possible, the library will arrange trials for new databases to gather input from faculty and students before committing to a long term license.
