Alexandria Campus Library Mission Statement
The Alexandria Campus Library strives to provide excellent customer service to the students, faculty, staff and the community. Our goals are to provide a well-balanced collection of materials in a variety of print, audio-visual and electronic formats that support the campus curriculum. In addition, we provide individual and group instruction in the identification, use and evaluation of information resources to enhance teaching and lifelong learning.
The Alexandria Library collection of more than 60,000 items is supplemented
by access to materials at the other NOVA campuses. We also subscribe to
many periodicals, and have access to more than 100 electronic databases
via the Internet. There are more than 296,000 items in the total college
collection.
Collection Development Policy
This policy is a guide to the planned development of a library collection that will meet the educational needs of the Alexandria Campus community of Northern Virginia Community College. The Library supports the mission of the College and is an integral part of the instructional program. Our goal is to provide well-organized access to materials in formats that enhance teaching and learning. We strive to build a collection that will support the development of critical thinking skills, and we are committed to educating library users to become capable researchers and effective users of the information resources we provide.
The NOVA Faculty Handbook (3.7300) states guidelines for the selection of library materials. Materials will be collected in varied formats which support the mission and goals of the College, the curricula, teaching methods and professional development of the faculty, and special student needs.
Selection of materials is a cooperative responsibility, with participation and recommendations by librarians, faculty, staff, students and Learning Resource Committees. Liaison librarians to each of the academic divisions have primary responsibility for the library collection in their disciplines, working with faculty to integrate collection development with the curricula on an ongoing basis. The Collection Development Librarian is responsible for coordination of all collection development activities on the campus; final responsibility for selection and quality of these materials on each campus rests with the Director of Learning Resources.
In accord with the Faculty Handbook selection guidelines, the Alexandria Campus Library has established the following priorities for collection development:
- To provide students with resources supporting disciplines, programs and courses offered at the Alexandria Campus.
- To provide faculty and staff with resources supporting their teaching and professional development activities
- To provide the campus community with educational and informational resources of reference and general interest.
Collection development activities (including selection, regular updating and weeding of materials) will be carried out to provide resources that meet the following criteria:
- They are current and authoritative
- They are in a variety of formats that can be accessed in the library
- They support the varied academic levels of community college students
- They present a wide range of viewpoints
- They are available at a cost that is justified in terms of anticipated use
Generally, the Library does not acquire materials that are consumable, kept outside the Library, in a format that cannot be used in the Library or duplicates, unless warranted by sufficient demand.
This selection policy applies equally to all resources, whether acquired by purchase, gift or exchange.
Procedures for specific selection decisions and schedules can be found in Collection Development Procedures. Criteria for selecting media, such as DVDs and audio CDs, can be found in the Media Collection Development Policy.
The College affirms that professional integrity and responsibility to the academic community served by the College support freedom of access to a wide spectrum of materials and viewpoints. The Library is committed to the principles of intellectual freedom reflected in the following statements: