X. LIBRARY
LIBRARY MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of the library is to advance the
educational goals of the students enrolled at Virginia Western Community
College by providing access to learning resources and helping students develop
their information-seeking skills.
Library services are available to all students, whether they are taking
classes on campus or through some form of distance learning (including both
off-campus classes and online courses).
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The library provides books, periodicals, and
other informational materials needed by students to fulfill the reading and
research requirements of the College's course offerings. Materials needed by instructors for
maintaining a current knowledge in their fields are also acquired. Various commercially available periodical
and newspaper databases are made available through web site subscriptions paid
for by the VIVA consortium or by the VCCS.
The library provides students and faculty with convenient access to these
print-based and electronic collections.
A professional reference staff helps users access these
collections. Items not available
in-house or on-line are obtained through interlibrary loan. Special actions are taken to provide
convenient access for distance learners to the library's collections.
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The library enables students to learn
information-seeking skills, including the new skills mandated by advances in
library technology and by the development of the Internet. Reference librarians place an emphasis on
teaching the use of the online catalog and various web-based services. These librarians conduct orientation classes
as needed throughout the school year.
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The library also advances the educational
goals of students by providing an accessible, friendly, and comfortable
physical facility, with adequate lighting, hours, and seating, where students
can study and do research.
The effectiveness of the library in achieving
its mission is assessed informally on a continuous basis through student and
faculty feedback and more formally though the student and faculty surveys
administered by the VWCC Library Committee every two years, the Alumni Survey
administered annually, and through student and faculty responses to the online
Distance Learning Evaluation.
Revised 4/01
Revised 7/03
Policy for Library Orientation
General Orientation
The basic orientation to the Brown Library is
given as a part of English 111. It consists of an introductory lecture, a
fifty-page handbook written by the library staff, and a library assignment
which requires the students to use the major library databases as well as the
print collection. English faculty members schedule the orientation classes with
the reference librarian. Many teachers also schedule workshop sessions in which
the teacher and librarian assist students in the use of the library’s
resources.
Open Library Orientation
General orientation sessions are scheduled at
the beginning of each term for students who have not taken English 111 and are
not enrolled in the class at that time. Faculty members are notified of these
dates.
Specialized Orientation
Teachers in classes other than English 111
who would like a formal, specialized library orientation should follow these
criteria:
·
The orientation must be in connection with a
written library assignment originated by the faculty member.
·
Faculty members should give the library staff
at least one week’s notice to prepare specialized instruction.
Class Use of the Library
Faculty members may bring their classes to
the library to use the electronic databases or other library materials. A librarian is always available to work with
the teacher and class. These sessions
must be scheduled in advanced.
7/2002
BOOK
SELECTION POLICY
In this document, "book"
usually means any type of informational material that the library adds to its
collection. Types currently in the
library include books, periodicals, microfiche, CD‑ROM products, compact
disks, audiocassettes, phonorecords, and videos.
Collection
Development
The goal of collection development is
to make sure that the library adequately and fairly supports each teaching area
of the college. Responsibility for book selection lies both with the faculty
and the library staff. Faculty members are largely responsible for recommending
the acquisitions of materials in their subject areas. It is the responsibility
of the library staff to maintain the reference collection and to obtain new
books of general interest.
Because Virginia Western is a two‑year
college, most of the books acquired by the library should be at an introductory
or undergraduate level. However, the acquisition of material to enable faculty
to keep up with the growth of knowledge in their fields is also desirable,
because this promotes faculty development and ultimately benefits the student.
Therefore, the library may from time to time acquire graduate level
material.
Procedure
for Requests
To make sure that individual
instructors do not lack materials to recommend, the library staff stimulates
the interest and activity of faculty by routing announcements and reviews of
books on a routine basis.
The request procedure is simple and
flexible. Instructors may submit requests on special forms available from the
library. It is also acceptable to sign Choice cards or to submit publishers'
catalogs, flyers, and other listings with the wanted material checked off. Faculty may also phone in requests or submit
them via e-mail.
Gifts
Gift books are added to the collection
if they are relevant to the curriculum and contain current information.
Otherwise, they are disposed through Duplicate Exchange or by some other means.
Departmental
Collections
Items for departmental collections
should be purchased with departmental funds.
Books purchased out of the library's book budget will become part of the
library's collection.
5/99