Collection development at Austin Peay is a collaborative endeavor. All librarians participate in collection development and deselection activities by serving as librarian liaisons to academic departments and programs. (see links below).

Departmental Budget Allocations: Books & Audiovisual Materials, 2012-2013
2012-13 Library Materials Budget
Selection Guidelines
Librarian Liaisons
Book Budget Allocation Formula Used to Distribute Funding to Academic Departments
Deselection Guidelines

Submitting Departmental Order Requests

Book Purchase Request
DVD/Video Purchase Request Information

All departmental requests must come through the department's library representative using the processes currently in place.

Requests to rush process an item will be honored when they are based on specific and immediate curricular requirements of faculty or students. To request the rush processing of an item, please contact Deborah Fetch, Director of Library Services, with the author and/or title of the item, date needed, course taught, and a justification for the request.

Gift policy

Test Collection Guidelines

Responsibility for Collection Development

Austin Peay State University is a comprehensive regional university with undergraduate programs in the liberal arts, professional programs, and offers a limited number of graduate programs at the master's level. The University community recognizes that a strong library collection is critical to the educational mission.

Woodward Library endeavors to develop a collection that reflects the educational objectives of the university community and supports the curricular programs of the University. Limited funds, rising costs, increasing publishing output, and a relentless increase in the demand for information in a wide variety of formats necessitate a highly selective collection. The Library must acquire materials that are appropriate to the level of instruction in the disciplines of the undergraduate and graduate programs offered by the University. The Library must exercise care in the purchase of highly specialized research materials solely for individual faculty use. Document delivery is usually the best method of choice for materials that do not support the undergraduate and graduate curricula.

Ultimate responsibility for development of the collection and for implementation of the library's collection development policy rests with the Director of Library Services.  Excellent collections, however, result from the collaboration of many individuals. Classroom faculty, having intimate familiarity with curricular requirements and subject expertise, identify and recommend materials for purchase. Library faculty, having professional expertise, training in collection balancing, familiarity with the curriculum, daily interaction with library clientele, and knowledge of the collection, also identify materials for purchase.

The Library uses a team structure and one-on-one contact between library and classroom faculty to facilitate the development of the best possible collection and provide for the broadest input into the development of that collection. Collection development at Woodward Library involves the work of a Collection Development Team, the Resources Management Coordinator, Librarian Liaisons, and Faculty Representatives.

The Collection Development Team  oversees and affects policy. The Team is composed of the Resources Management Coordinator (leader) and three other librarians.  Three classroom faculty members serve in an advisory role to the Team. The Collection Development Team meets regularly to plan and review policy and major projects. Additionally, this Team reviews all requests for library serials subscriptions, as well as those for electronic resources that are proposed for the Library. Both of these formats require substantial commitments of on-going funds and have unique storage and management issues. New serial subscriptions and electronic resources should therefore, be purchased only when the materials are deemed to have long-lasting value to the collection and the curriculum.

The Resources Management Coordinator assists in policy formulation, establishes mechanisms for achieving goals, manages the collection development process, analyzes the quality of the collection, and makes recommendations for its improvement. The Resources Management Coordinator works closely with the Director of Library Services, all other librarians, and the teaching faculty in fulfilling these responsibilities.

Each academic department selects a faculty member to serve as a Faculty Representative to the Library. The Faculty Representative coordinates the department's selection activities and reviews and authorizes recommendations to the Library for purchase. All faculty are expected to recommend library purchases that will develop the library collection in the entire field of their discipline, not just their own teaching or research interests.

All library faculty members work as Liaison Librarians with one or more academic departments. Each Liaison is responsible for developing the library collection in her/his assigned areas. It is expected that the Liaison will work closely with the Faculty Representative assigned to her/his department to select appropriate library materials. Liaison Librarians review all faculty recommendations for purchase for adherence to the selection guidelines and their appropriateness for addition to the collection. In addition the Liaison meets with the entire faculty of each department on a regular basis to exchange information about curriculum developments, library needs, and developments in the library such as new services, policies, and collection development activities.

Because the Director of Library Services and library faculty are accountable for the quality of the Library's collection, final decisions regarding the purchasing of materials are made by the Liaison Librarians after considerable input from faculty. In most cases an agreement as to what should be purchased can be reached. When a dispute arises, it will be mediated by the Resources Management Coordinator. The Director of Library Services will be the final arbitrator on library material purchases