4.1 General Selection Criteria
The library acquires resources to support the curricular needs of the college based on the following selection criteria:
- Relevance to students’ learning needs
- Relevance to instructional needs of the faculty
- Relevant to accreditation requirements of programs
- Relevance to existing and new Central Piedmont programs
- Accuracy and objectivity, currency, interest level
- Academic level primarily appropriate for community college students and/or general readers
- Reviews and reputation of the author, publisher, and/or producer
- Captioned or visually-described resources are preferred over non-accessible choices
4.2 Selection Aids
Librarians routinely consult a variety of sources to find appropriate materials for the collection. The primary selection aids used are standard library journals and catalogs, including but not limited to: Booklist, Library Journal, and Choice Reviews Online.
Additionally, other selection aids may be used. These include publisher’s brochures, promotional flyers, bibliographies or subject-specific lists of materials published by professional associations, book jobbers or commercial publishers, and similar libraries catalogs.