Library Policies

The mission of the Circulation Department of the WLAC Library is to function as the center for the distribution and intake of library materials. It collects, organizes, maintains, and provides materials in multiple formats including, but not limited to print and electronic resources. It also sets the policies for the use of such materials. These policies, which may change from time to time and without notice, are set forth below.

The facilities and resources of the WLAC Library are open to all users. Only currently enrolled students, faculty, staff with valid ID, however, are eligible to borrow library items or access electronic resources such as library databases. All circulating materials must be checked out at the circulation desk and returned to the circulation desk during operating hours.

Library materials are to be checked out with a current WLAC student photo ID; this ID card is also the Library card. All ID card holders are responsible for transactions made on their cards whether they are incurred by them personally or by another. Thus, lost cards should be reported to both Campus Police and to the Circulation Department immediately.  ID cards are non-transferable. Student photograph, name, and student ID number displayed on the ID card are used to verify card ownership.

Please notify the Admissions Office of any change of name and/or address.

Books from the General Collection (3rd floor stacks) are checked out for an initial period of four weeks. They may be renewed up to three times, but only in person. Telephone renewals are not accepted.

Holds can be placed on general collection materials (see “Online Library Catalog” below).

Each student may have up to 10 books checked out at any one time.

Borrowing resources from the Library is a privilege granted to students in good standing at the College. This privilege may be suspended or revoked if District, College, and Library policies, rules, and regulations are violated.

Please return materials promptly so that others may use them.

Reserve materials may be borrowed at the Circulation Counter. Some reserve materials are provided to the library by college instructors for use in their classes and are not library property. Instructors determine the checkout period. Reserve materials must be returned to the Circulation Counter. Do not deposit Reserve materials in the book drops. NO RENEWALS FOR RESERVE MATERIALS (2 hr reserve have 1 hr waiting period between each checkout, Overnight, 3 and 7 day reserve have 1 day waiting period between each checkout).

In support of the stated goals and objectives of West Los Angeles College, the library is developing a unified collection of library resources and services. The collection development policy provides guidelines for establishing priorities for the selection of library materials and the criteria for withdrawal of materials from the collection.

Although the library's staff is primarily responsible for the quality of the collection, the selection of new materials and the withdrawal of materials are collection development activities shared with other members of the college community. Librarians, teaching faculty, and college administrators initiate most material requests. Students and other staff are also encouraged to suggest additions to the collection. A suggestion form is available online. Library staff with collection development responsibilities works with coordinators from subject area faculty to ensure that materials which support the instructional programs of the college are added to the collection. Recommendations from the teaching faculty are particularly important in building a collection that supports student success. Selection and withdrawal criteria are described in more detail below.

The primary goal of the Library is to develop and maintain collections that support the curriculum and instructional programs of West Los Angeles College and the needs of students, faculty, and staff of the college. The library serves a community of life-long learners with a broad range of interests and prior educational experiences. Therefore, library resources also include a variety of general information resources in subject areas not covered by classroom instruction, but generally supportive of a learning environment. For those members of the college community whose scholarly or research needs are beyond the scope of Library collections, librarians will help to identify, locate, and borrow such materials through interlibrary loan.

Within the constraints of available funds, facilities, and staffing, the Library will acquire and make available materials in various formats, evaluate existing collections, and develop policies and procedures to maintain the quality of collections and information resources. The Library is involved in a variety of resource-sharing agreements that expand the range of materials available to the college community.

Selection of materials by the library does not imply endorsement of the contents or the views expressed in those materials. No material will be excluded from the collection because of the race, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, political or social viewpoint or controversial nature of either the author or of the material.

The following guidelines are presented to assist library staff, faculty, and administrators in selecting quality materials for inclusion in the Library collections. It is recognized that some of the criteria included in the guidelines are more important than others and that the quality of content should be a primary consideration. General factors to be taken into account are:

• Relevance to curriculum-based needs of students. Relevance to instructional needs of the faculty.
• Probable need based on existing programs and collections. Intellectual content and scholarly worth.
• Current, in-print publications will generally be given priority over out-of-print publications.
• Captioned or visually-described resources are to be preferred over non-accessible choices.

First priority shall be given to resources which directly support subject areas and vocational emphases currently represented by credit courses offered at West Los Angeles College. Library staff and faculty should be alert to important new works in their subject areas, works by key authorities in the field, and major critical studies. The prestige of the publisher or sponsoring organization is another important consideration. Print materials added to the collection should be accessible to the general reader, not specialists.

In most subject areas, collection development activities will be directed toward an “initial study level” of collection intensity. As defined in guidelines prepared by the Resources and Technical Services Division, American Library Association, the collection should include:

“… a judicious selection from currently published basic monographs (as are represented by Choice selections) supported by seminal retrospective monographs (as are represented by Books for College Libraries) a broad selection of works of more important writers; a selection of the major review journals; and current editions of the most significant reference tools and bibliographies pertaining to the subject.”

Contingent upon available funds, secondary priority will be given to the acquisition of additional materials to support programs or subject areas covered by cooperative agreements where West Los Angeles College is not the designated primary collection and to backfilling the collection in areas where deficiencies have been identified by faculty or library staff.

As noted above, the primary goal of the library's collections is to support the program of instruction. Textbooks adopted for class use will not normally be purchased for the collection. Instructors wishing to reserve textbooks are responsible for obtaining them.

The library will not routinely purchase textbooks and consumable materials such as workbooks or tests.

In addition to these general guidelines, policy statements for specific formats and areas of the collection are presented below.

The reference collection is intended to meet the verification, location, and information needs of the college community by providing basic reference works in subject areas covered by the curriculum, as well as general information requests. Verification and location sources, such as the OneSearch catalog, enable the library to facilitate access to holdings in other collections through interlibrary loan. The reference collection may include both print and electronic materials.

Non-print media, including films, videocassettes, videodiscs, audiocassettes, computer application software, multimedia software, compact discs, online subscriptions, Internet access and CD-ROMs, may be relatively expensive. Selection of these materials should emphasize support for classroom instruction, as well as the quality, effectiveness, and currency of the material.

Whenever practicable, faculty should have an opportunity to preview non-print media before a purchase decision is made. Whenever possible, selectors should negotiate a test or trial period for expensive media.

Film or videocassette rental, temporary online subscription or free Internet access may be a cost-effective alternative to actual purchase.

Listed below are general issues to be considered in the selection of non-print materials.

1. Content should directly support classroom instruction or be potentially useful for more than one class or department.
2. Treatment and presentation of subject content should be on an appropriate academic level.
3. Technical quality of color, sound, continuity, etc.
4. Cost effectiveness and durability and accessibility of the format (i.e., compact disc vs. audiocassette vs. record; video vs. laser disc vs. film; floppy disk size; CD-ROM vs. on-line access; single user vs. network).
5. Cost and/or availability of appropriate equipment.
6. Cost and/or availability of sufficient technical support for maintenance of software and hardware.
7. Collection development specialists will designate e-media as “circulating” or “reference” or “library use only” as appropriate.
8. See below for additional guidelines for the evaluation of electronic resources.
9. See below for Collection Development Policy for Internet Resources.

The Library welcomes gifts of materials that are consistent with the collection development policy and provided that there are no restrictions attached as to their disposition. Because all items added to the collection generate processing and storage costs, materials received as gifts will be evaluated by the same criteria as materials purchased. Gifts are accepted with the understanding that materials not added to the collection will be disposed of in ways most advantageous to the library.

Weeding, the removal of materials to be discarded, is an important part of the overall collection development process. Building a viable collection of materials to serve the college community is a dynamic process that includes assessment and the removal of materials that are obsolete, damaged beyond repair, no longer relevant to the curriculum, or not central to WLAC cooperative collection agreements.

Library staff with assigned areas of collection development responsibilities is primarily responsible for weeding the collection. Faculty are strongly encouraged to review their subject areas to identify items which should be withdrawn and bring such materials to the attention of their library liaison.

The following categories of materials will be considered for weeding from the collection.

1. Outdated materials.
2. Superseded editions.
3. Excessively worn or damaged materials. Items in poor condition, but still valuable in terms of intellectual content will be considered for repair or replacement.
4. Multiple copies of monographs which are no longer needed to support the curriculum.
5. Textbooks and instructional materials or previous editions of more recent texts.

Whenever possible, monographs initially chosen for discard will be checked against standard bibliographies (e.g., Books for College Libraries) before being discarded.

• Resource name
• Vendor/publisher name and address
• Coverage & currency: dates of coverage update frequency cumulative or supplements?
• Audience: undergrad, researcher, discipline
• Quality: Sample, demonstration, or review copy? Beta test or trial period? Reviews available? (attach reviews)
• Licensing considerations: limitations & restrictions
• Unique features
• Skills needed: (patrons and staff) Patron training needed
• Staff training needed
• Local needs for: acquisitions cataloging preservation archiving