Collection Development Policy Statement

Higher Education Administration

University of Northern Virginia Library

Linda Nainis, Dean, Learning and Instructional Resources

Antje Mays, Consultant (email)

I. Purpose

The purpose of the Higher Education Administration collection development policy is to guide the library's support of UNVA's present needs and anticipate future program growth and changes. Higher education administration, while not directly covered in the programs of study, is a crucial element of overseeing the curricula and business aspects of a university. While there is a great deal of overlap among the intellectual facets of curriculum design, certain aspects of campus life and higher education are unique and require support with tailored library materials.

II. Scope

Language
The materials are almost exclusively English or translations into English.
 

Geographical Areas
Materials are geographically focused on United States educational practices.

Chronological Periods
Material from the twenty-first century predominates for current and evolving issues in higher education administration. Some very targeted historical focus is sought only for specific research on historical foundations or teaching interests of UNVA faculty.

 
III. Types of Material and Formats
Given the geographically dispersed locations of UNVA, subject-supporting scholarly and practitioner-oriented e-book collections and full-text databases of journals, trade magazines are the best way to ensure that all UNVA campuses' users have access to equal library resources. To provide as equal information access as possible, the primary emphasis should be on in-depth electronic Education resources to serve the higher-education administration research needs of UNVA's communities, including distance learners.

Higher education administration is rooted in theoretical, psychological, historical foundations, as well as practical applications of higher education. Higher education administration also draws from business management principles. Higher education is affected by ongoing changes in policy and new advances in pedagogy; thus electronic formats can most efficiently provide continually updated content. Care should be taken to balance on-site print workbooks with electronic versions for the benefit of the distance students and university faculty and administrators located at UNVA's dispersed campuses around the world.

Through electronic resources the library can provide current journal literature, conveniently accessible to on-site and distance students, faculty, and administrators. Electronic products are generally preferred over print equivalents, all else being equal. There is an ever increasing demand for online resources with remote access. This is an area with unlimited growth potential, and the library will meet that challenge. Thus, electronic resources are actively purchased.

For online materials, the purchasing preference is the subscription basis. Perpetual use purchases are generally discouraged. Given a choice between similar databases when selecting new content, it is preferred to stay with the same vendor, unless there is a strong reason such as truly unique content which only another vendor can provide. Many databases from few vendors keeps the database interface more consistent for students and faculty.

Print may be purchased selectively, as appropriate, on a small scale, mostly for reference materials such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and certain types of directories and handbooks. The most appropriate scenario which could occur that might justify campus-specific exclusivity of materials not available to other locations would be materials of strictly local importance.

IV. Strengths & Weaknesses
The online collection is strong; of approximately 110,000 e-books, about 5% are devoted specifically to Education. Recent imprints represent a high percentage of the e-book collection. Higher education is affected by ongoing changes in policy and new advances in pedagogy and needs library support from continually updated content. A rich collection of databases includes Education Research Complete, the Education module within ABI Complete, and IbisWorld.  Additional databases may be added in the future.

The print collection is small, but in light of UNVA's multi-campus research environment, the collection-building emphasis should continue to be on electronic resources.
 

V. Related Resources
Additional library collections pertaining to Education are described in the collection policy statements for  Early Childhood Education, Educational Communication and Instructional Technology, Educational Leadership, TESOL, and Higher Education Administration; they are served by separate collection development policies. Business aspects of administration are also covered in the Management collection development policy.

VI. Subjects and Collection Levels:
Subject collecting is characterized by levels 1-5, with Level 1 representing the most intensive buying, and level 5 representing the lowest level of buying.

1. Research Level: Advanced and comprehensive collection supporting doctoral dissertations and independent research, as well as support for faculty in their doctoral-level course preparation and specialty-related research. Materials at this level should include research reporting, new findings, scientific experimental results, and other primary documents and/or original research dissemination. Other resources at this level include all important reference works, a wide selection of specialized books, e-books, instructional videos and/or streaming web-based instructional A/V materials, an in-depth collection of journals, e-journals, major in-depth full-text databases for indexing, abstracting, and full-text journal content.

2. Study Level: Thorough collection supporting baccalaureate and master's level coursework, master's theses, and project-based independent study, as well as support for faculty in their baccalaureate and master's level course preparation and specialty-related research. This level supports general subject overview and some specialized knowledge, but is not as in-depth as the Research level. Materials include a wide range of books, e-books, workbooks (for example teacher's workbooks, lab manuals), A/V materials where appropriate to the academic discipline, core journals, e-journals, electronic full-text databases, and reference works providing study foundations.

3. Basic Level: Introductory collection to provide a basic subject overview. May include some resources for faculty course preparation and research. Materials include major encyclopedias, dictionaries, important bibliographies, a few major journals / e-journals and possibly drawing from general academic full-text databases already purchased for other subject areas.

4. Minimal Level: Few selections of either very basic works or occasional selections of specialized works in a narrow sub-field, but no systematic support of the subject area.

5. Not collected.

 

Subject emphasis: Materials should be primarily chosen for their emphasis by subject, keeping in mind that English is a second language for most undergraduate and graduate students. The subject list below is a starting point for selecting new materials and a guidepost in case of withdrawal projects.

Subject	Collection Depth	See also in other policies
Higher Education	3 - Basic Level
Higher Education Administration	3 - Basic Level
Higher Education Curricula	3 - Basic Level
Higher Education Law	3 - Basic Level
History of Higher Education	3 - Basic Level

 

Pertinent LC Call Number Areas

Although UNVA's library does not actively pursue print collections where call-numbers are traditionally emphasized, the Library of Congress (LC) call-number classification system has great value in drilling down with precision to the curricular areas to be supported, even with e-book collections. Similar to a taxonomy, the LC call numbers classify knowledge consistently. This systematic language for coding subjects supports several important library roles: (1) retrieving library holdings by classification ranges of e-books from the online catalog to assess where collections need to be enhanced or pared down; (2) coding curriculum-support profiles for e-book vendors and approval plans; (3) teaching students an additional way to search with precision for library resources on their research topics.

Following are some of the call-number ranges into which titles related to Higher Education Administration can fall:

LA

LA 173-186 History of higher education

LA 190-398 History of education – U.S. – Includes American education outside the U.S.

LB

LB1705-2286 Education and training of teachers and administrators

LB 2300-2430 Higher education. Institutions of higher ed, teaching personnel, student finance, administration, curriculum, graduate education, degrees

K

KF4225-4258 Higher education law and legislation

T

T61-173 Technical education. Technical schools