The Mission of Chan Shun Centennial Library

In support of the library's mission, the staff is committed to creating an environment that supports vigorous academic and spiritual inquiry by developing whole Christians, who are focused on service and the pursuit of truth. As the intellectual crossroads of the campus, the library includes a diversity of materials necessary to successful critical analysis of the questions raised in the disciplines explored at Southwestern. Among these resources is a strong selection of materials that explain and advocate the Seventh-day Adventist Christian understanding of life and mission.

Resource development at Chan Shun Library, as with other academic libraries, continues to include acquisition of collection materials but also encompasses the selection and management of licensed access to electronic resources. Libraries' service realm has expanded considerably in the last decade as electronic resources have assumed an increasing share of resource availability. Managing electronic resources typically involves working within consortia or with vendor-selected packages that grant cost-effective access to materials. As the content of electronic resource packages changes over time, ongoing oversight is necessary to ensure that the overall content continues to support the mission of SWAU's library.

General Guidelines for Resource Development

The mission of Southwestern Adventist University is to offer quality higher education in a Christ-centered environment. Accordingly, the core values which serve as the foundation for SWAU's mission are:

1. God is the ultimate source of knowledge and meaning.
2. SWAU is committed to the Seventh-day Adventist value system.
3. SWAU is committed to the continual growth of the whole person.
4. SWAU is committed to the heritage of diversity, tolerance, concern and compassion for others.
5. SWAU is committed to the personalized development of students.
6. SWAU is committed to academic excellence.

II.    Responsibility for Collaborative Collection Development

Southwestern Adventist University believes library collection building is most successful when it is a partnership between departmental faculty and professional librarians. To enhance the spirit of cooperation and teamwork, Chan Shun Centennial Library uses a collaborative process in which librarians work as delegated liaisons with individual departments to strengthen the library's resources in focused areas. Liaison librarians and departmental faculty will commit to a joint vision of what the collection should be for each assigned discipline. Faculty members monitor their professional literature for desired library acquisitions, and identify the materials necessary for course requirements and for students' research needs. Department chairs or their designees are asked to review the publisher-sponsored "approval plan" books regularly for materials appropriate to their discipline(s). The library staff depends on the faculty to provide the subject and bibliographic knowledge needed to help evaluate Chan Shun's collection and to select additional titles for acquisition. Requests for materials are welcomed and encouraged, and will be filled to the extent that funds allow.

Funds set aside by Southwestern Adventist University for building the collection of library resources are expended with the guidance of two principles: Does the material support the academic mission of the university and does the material support the Seventh-day Adventist mission of bringing humanity into relationship with God? To assist in meeting these principles, the Library Advisory Committee (a cross-disciplinary body comprised of six faculty members, the university librarian, the vice president for academic administration and one student representative chosen by the university librarian) will oversee the selection of library resources by ruling on the acquisition or deselection of materials. This standing committee, which also advises on other aspects of library policy, mission, and budget, will work to ensure that the library's collection reflects the comprehensive nature of the university's mission.

III.   Materials Review

As part of the Christian's assignment to be "in the world, but not of the world," Southwestern acknowledge the experience of this life without embracing all aspects of it. The library's collection will include some books, journals and media that explore the pain and challenges of life choices that are at odds with Christian discipleship, and not compatible with Seventh-day Adventist beliefs, values, lifestyle or mission. These resources will be balanced by others that vigorously advocate the value of a life lived in Christ. Materials selection will be based on the intent or purpose of the material with regard to the university's curriculum and mission. If the library receives a request for reevaluation of existing resources or for a more comprehensive evaluation of requested resources, then the university librarian will refer this request to the Library Advisory Committee for review. A "Request for Re-evaluation" form is available at the library's front desk.

Specific Guidelines for Resource Development

Selection guidelines for acquiring library resources, either through ownership or through access to online materials, follow.

I.     Print Monographs and Books

Specific considerations in the selection and acquisition of print monographs and books for the main collection include:

• Resources acquired will contribute to the comprehensive support of Southwestern's curriculum.
• Resource cost will affect inclusion.
• Strength of present holdings in the subject area may require shifts in allocations.
• Appropriateness of content depth and quality for the University affects choice.
• Suitability of format to the content will affect selection.
• Lasting value of the content will affect choice.
• Authoritativeness of author or reputation of the publisher will inform choice.
• Literary works in the collection will not be characterized by violence, profanity, or sexual explicitness.
• Modest funding will be available for recreational, cultural, and general information resources.

• Textbooks are rarely acquired. Exceptions include "classics" in their field or those that provide the only or best source of information on a particular topic.
• Workbooks, lab manuals, and instructor, student, and answer manuals to texts are not normally added to the collection
• Duplicate or multiple copies are not normally acquired unless one copy is destined for a separate collection such as the Curriculum Library or the Adventist Heritage Center.
• High cost but low use items held in nearby libraries may not be acquired by SWAU.
• Cost differential, lasting value of the content, and expected use dictate the choice between paper and hard cover.
• Lost or stolen materials are replaced within six months, if use and content value so dictate.
• Current imprints comprise the majority of acquisitions, with occasional acquisition of older or out of print materials if requested by faculty. Retrospective collecting is limited by funds and space considerations.

II.    Electronic and Digital Resources

Electronic resources comprise a rapidly expanding component of the library's resources. These resources may be owned or may be available via subscription-based access licenses. Subscriptions take priority over ownership of digital resources at this time (2006), but this decision should be reevaluated annually. Consortia purchasing determines the content of most digital resources, thus moderating the selective influence of Southwestern. Nevertheless, in arranging access to these materials, the guidelines that apply include:

• Comprehensive support of SWAU's curriculum will determine selection choice.
• Projected cost of accessing the resource (cost per use) affects selection.
• Quality of the electronic resource for scholarship and reliability affects choice.
• Demonstrated use or value of the resource to SWAU's programs (based on usage statistics) will affect selection.

III.   Print Periodicals

Print journals and magazines, identified as "periodicals," represent a sizable, long-term financial commitment for Southwestern. Chan Shun Library subscribes to over 450 print periodicals at present. The addition of new academic and professional titles necessitates the consent and support of the appropriate academic department(s). Back files of print periodicals will be purchased if deemed critical, if funds are available and if no electronic or digital archive is accessible to Southwestern. The following criteria are used in evaluating titles for acquisition or cancellation:

• Support of the present academic curriculum
• Strength of the existing collection
• Present use of this or other periodicals in this subject area
• Projected future use
• Subscription cost and projected availability of future funds
• Reputation of periodical and / or inclusion in prominent abstracting / indexing sources
• Number of recent interlibrary loan requests for this periodical
• Availability of the title in full-text in current database subscriptions

IV.  Media Resources

The acquisition of media and other non-print materials to support the curriculum at Southwestern, including CDs, DVDs, videos, and other audio formats, occurs on a by-request basis. The library's budget allocates a modest, fixed dollar amount for media acquisitions annually for each department. Materials acquired in this way are to be made available to the entire campus community. Adequate library funding may not be available to purchase course-limited materials, restricted to enrollees. Withdrawal or replacement of non-print items follow the same guidelines and procedures as for books and monographs, as described below (Section VII).

V.   Special Collections and Archives

Chan Shun Library maintains three special collections, whose materials reside in locked areas apart from the rest of the library's resources. Gifts are the primary source of rare materials for the library. Limited resources may be reallocated within programs to provide access to electronic or microform formats of rare items if they are deemed necessary for curriculum support.

The Ruth King McKee Curriculum Library collects and houses textbooks and educational support materials approved by the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists' Education Department for instruction in SDA schools. Support for this collection comes from a small allocation within the library's budget. In addition, textbooks approved by the Texas State Board of Education's textbook review committee are included as they are made available. Use of this collection is open to all SWAU students and faculty, but circulation is limited to Education majors and faculty and to members of the Johnson County teaching cooperative.

The library also maintains archival collections for the university and the Seventh-day Adventist church in the Southwest. Under the umbrella of the Adventist Heritage Center, the University archives serves as the official repository for SWAU's institutional records. The Rust-Carter Southwest Seventh-day Adventist Archives is a collecting archives dedicated to preserving the records of Seventh-day Adventism in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Materials which come to the Rust-Carter collection are donated by individuals, churches, and other denominational entities.

Housed in the same area of the library are the rare book, gift, and special subject collections. Gifts provide the principal source for enlarging these collections. Acceptance depends on available space and preservation requirements.

Affiliated with the library is the Ellen G. White SDA Research Center, which is housed in one room of the archives and special collections area. This entity holds photocopies of unpublished manuscripts prepared by Ellen White and other Adventist pioneers, as well as print copies of published works of the pioneers. Access restrictions mandated by the White Estate apply to the private, unpublished materials, which belong to Ellen G. White Estate, Inc. Published materials are freely available to researchers during designated hours.

VI.  Gifts

Donations of books, journals, and other scholarly materials to Chan Shun Centennial Library are encouraged and welcomed, with the understanding that the library director will have the right to retain or dispose of donated materials at his or her discretion. As a general rule, gift materials will be added based on the same selection criteria as purchased materials. The library does not appraise gift items. Gifts with restricted stipulations may be declined if the library is unable to comply with the restrictions.

VII. Collection Maintenance and Evaluation

Chan Shun Library is committed to providing relevant print materials and media for teaching, research, and student needs related to SWAU's programs and courses. To meet this goal the library's collection must be continually evaluated using the criteria listed below. Any materials failing to meet these criteria are subject to deselection pending review by library staff and involved teaching faculty. Weeding or deselection may result in the removal of materials (books, periodicals, media) that contain obsolete or misleading information, are marked or damaged, have been superceded with newer editions, are surplus copies or copies available in other formats, or that are materials which have had little or no use for many years.

• Comprehensive weeding in any academic discipline is undertaken in consultation with the faculty who specialize in that discipline.
• Older editions will be weeded when the new edition comes out, except when the older edition is considered a classic. Serial titles are evaluated on a case by case basis to determine which volumes should be kept.
• Classic texts and definitive works are retained regardless of age and usage.
• Titles in a complete state of deterioration are weeded. Every effort is made to replace important titles.
• Materials which have been declared missing will be withdrawn if replacements are not needed or cannot be obtained.
• Materials which are obsolete may be weeded if they have no historical or research value, as determined by the library director in concert with academic department chairs.
• Nursing materials are given particular recognition when added to the collection, through the placement of a yellow label with "NRS" designation. Visual identification of nursing materials older than five years is aided through placement of a green dot on the yellow label. After ten years the yellow and green labels are removed and the title is reevaluated to determine its significance to the university outside of the needs of the Nursing Department.

VIII. Fund Allocation for Books, AV Materials, and Periodicals

The University Librarian allocates the materials budget to fulfill the library's resource development goals. The Library Advisory Committee assists by reviewing and recommending the annual allocation for each of these resources. Southwestern uses a formula to provide each discipline with a book purchase allocation that balances several factors. As noted below, the formula is:

Book allocation =	% Cost of books + % Faculty + % Credit hours generated
	3

Every department receives an initial, base allocation of $3,000. Beyond this, each program receives a factored allocation that supplements the base amount to ensure that variations in resource cost and course demands are taken into account.

Each discipline's book costs or prices come from published trade figures. Thus, religion books may average 85% of the mean for all academic books, while chemistry books might average 120% of the mean.

The percentage of faculty is determined at the beginning of the academic year for each department, in comparison with the total faculty FTE count. The FTE figure does not include instructors of practicums, labs, or activity/performance classes.

Percentage of credit hours generated compares the total credit hours generated by each department with all credit hours generated by the university for a full academic year. Upper division and graduate hours are also compared to ensure that research materials adequately support courses that require research.

Media, periodicals or journal purchases, and online resource requests have their own budget line. An annual allocation of $500 per discipline is provided to purchase media materials. Periodicals and journals are added based on request and usage statistics as money becomes available through increased allocations from SWAU or through cancellation of existing titles. Departments requesting additional journals are asked to commit subscription support (course use) for five years.

IX.  Levels of Resource Development

The Research Library Group (RLG) developed a system of "collecting level codes" in the mid-1990s to be used in their National Collections Inventory Project. Intended level of collection (from "no representation" to "comprehensive") is designated according to this schema. Chan Shun Library adopted these codes to define the level of collecting to strive for in order to support adequately the academic programs offered by the University and to meet the information and research needs of Southwestern's students and faculty.

The RLG codes are:

0	Out of Scope.	Not collected.
1	Minimal Level.	Few selections are made in this area beyond very basic or introductory works.
2	Basic Information Level.	A collection of current, general materials that introduce and define a subject and that indicate the varieties of information available elsewhere. Dictionaries, encyclopedias, selected editions of important works, historical surveys, bibliographies, handbooks and other reference tools, and a few major periodicals, in the minimum number that will serve the purpose, may be included. This level supports lower-division courses requiring limited library use.
3	Instruction Support Level.	A collection that adequately supports lower and upper division, library-oriented undergraduate courses; sustained independent study; non-thesis master's degree programs; and/or allows users to maintain knowledge of a subject required for limited or generalized purposes. A wide range of current and retrospective monographs; the works of primary and secondary writers; representative journals supporting faculty teaching interests, local curricular strengths, and the various general aspects of the subject; and reference tools and fundamental bibliographic apparatus for the subject will be included.
4	Research Level.	A collection that includes published source materials required for graduate theses and dissertations and sustained independent research. It contains all important reference works and a wide selection of specialized monographs, journals, technical and scholarly reports, and other materials supporting research. Older material is collected and maintained for historical research.
5	Comprehensive Level.	A collection in which a library endeavors, so far as is reasonably possible, to include all relevant sorts of recorded knowledge, manuscripts (in all applicable languages) and ephemera. This level of collecting intensity is one that maintains a "special collection," the aim of which, if not the achievement, is a nationally recognized exhaustiveness.

Chan Shun Library will acquire materials primarily at the Basic Information (level 2) and Instruction Support (level 3) levels. Materials will be acquired at the Research Level (level 4) as needed to support SWAU Masters programs with thesis requirements and to support the Adventiana collection. Only Adventiana associated with the southwestern United States is collected at the Comprehensive Level (level 5).

X.   General Criteria for Resource Development

1. Geographical Focus

   The primary geographical focus for the library's collection is the United States. Map boundaries should not be considered as all inclusive-some subjects / topics do cross specific geographical boundaries. The collection will avoid materials which display bias or prejudice toward other cultures and socio-political issues.

   The library's secondary geographical focus includes Texas, the Southwest, Mexico, and the remaining geographic regions of the world (Central and South America, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Pacific Rim).

2. Subject or Topical Focus
   Undergraduate:

   The primary collection emphasis is coverage of all academic programs on campus. Collecting at the Instruction Support Level (level 3) applies to each of these program areas and their specialty subfields or topics.

   Graduate:

   Collecting at the Instruction Support Level (level 3) will occur for SWAU's graduate programs in Education and Business. Instruction support for graduate courses will be more rigorous than for undergraduate programs. Collecting at the Research Level (level 4) will occur for programs that require theses.

3. Languages

   The library will acquire minimal resources in a variety of languages other than English to support instruction and the recreational and spiritual development of all students.

4. Reference and Professional Resources

   The library's reference materials are shifting from a print and CD collection toward subscription-based, licensed access to digital resources. This shift gives patrons access to reference materials 24 hours a day, gives parity of access to SWAU's distance education students, and reduces shelf space and physical resource maintenance requirements. Hence, the library's first choice will be to license use online, if available.

   Reference categories collected or licensed:

   1. Encyclopedias (multi-subject)
   2. Dictionaries (multi-subject)
   3. Dictionaries of abbreviations
   4. National bibliographies
   5. In-print catalogs
   6. Indexes (multi-subject)
   7. Yearbooks (general)
   8. Almanacs
   9. Directories (multi-subject)
   10. Seventh-day Adventist organization
   11. Fund raising and grants (general)
   12. Scholarships and grants for education
   13. Foundations
   14. Intellectual life (general)
   15. Scholarship and learning
   16. Textual criticism
   17. Censorship
   18. Humanities
   19. Book review collections (multi-subject)
   20. General biographical works
   21. National biographies
   22. Collections of monographs, essays, etc. (multi-subject)
   23. Professional librarian's resources
       1. Collection development and management
       2. Reference and information services
       3. Information literacy and library instruction
       4. Cataloguing and classification
       5. Preservation of library materials
       6. Managing archival materials
       7. Library management
       8. Circulation services in libraries
       9. Technology for libraries

5. Juvenile Literature

   The library will provide a collection of juvenile books necessary to support SWAU's education and literature courses. The NAD selection criteria for literature in SDA schools will provide guidance for developing these resources.

6. Adventiana

   The library will acquire a research-level collection in the area of Adventiana including books, pamphlets, periodicals, theses, dissertations, diaries, reports, charts, maps, tapes, films, photographs, artifacts and similar items. The library will acquire a comprehensive collection of Adventiana for the southwest.

7. Local History and Genealogy

   The library will collect materials dealing with local history (Johnson County, Keene, Cleburne, etc.) and the State of Texas. Genealogy materials, unless they reference Seventh-day Adventists, are not normally collected.

8. Time Period Covered

   The time period covered is flexible, depending on the specific geographic or subject area and the academic needs of each discipline.

XI.   Profiles for Vendors' Approval Plans

The Library Director and Technical Services Librarian maintain copies of the approval plans for review and revision by teaching faculty.