Non-Library Campus Collections Policy

Effective Date: March 2018
Issuing Authority: St Olaf Library
Program Coordinators: CIO
Last Updated: March 2018

Purpose of Policy

This policy addresses the St Olaf College Libraries’ responsibility to non-library campus collections such as those held by individual St Olaf departments, offices and student organizations. The Libraries have adopted this policy to reduce confusion and inaccuracies within the Libraries’ online catalog and to maintain the Libraries’ commitment to fiscal responsibility and the efficient use of staff time.

Scope

This policy applies to collections of books, media, scores and other similar materials housed outside of the Libraries on the St Olaf campus and not controlled directly by the Libraries.

Policy

While the Libraries recognize that many “library like” collections exist on campus, we are unable to provide support for acquiring, cataloging, processing or indexing collections that are not directly owned by or housed in the St Olaf Libraries. Similarly, we do not include non-Library collections within our online catalog or other discovery systems in order to limit confusion for our users and prevent unsustainable system complexities.

We are always happy to take suggestions of materials to add to our own collections, and we encourage St Olaf departments, offices or student groups to send any lists of suggested resources to libraryacquisitions@stolaf.edu. If materials are in scope of our collecting parameters and budget, we can often purchase and add them to our library collections. This can provide the St Olaf community with access to important resources, while at the same time reducing duplication of effort by non-library staff managing local “library like” collections.