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SLU Libraries’ Collection Philosophy

The Saint Louis University Libraries acquire resources and materials that support the research, teaching, learning, and clinical care needs of the Saint Louis University community in accordance with the mission, vision, and values of the Saint Louis University Libraries & Museums and of Saint Louis University. We uphold the principles of Equity and Access, the Freedom to Read, and Intellectual Freedom as articulated by the American Library Association. 

Guiding Principles 

The Saint Louis University Libraries will:  

  • Provide access to materials aligned with the research, teaching, learning, and clinical care needs of the Saint Louis University community. 
  • Acquire and provide access to materials in the most effective and fiscally responsible manner possible to maximize the use of our budgetary and human resources.  
  • Actively participate in shared regional and national consortiums to develop shared collections and provide mechanisms for our community to access materials not in our collections.  
  • Increase our collection’s discoverability through enhancements in our systems and metadata.   
  • Prioritize online access when it meets the needs of users but recognize that other formats might be more effective in some disciplines.  
  • Be responsive to the needs of the SLU community in selection and management of resources and materials 
  • Support more sustainable, open access publishing practices to both make scholarships from SLU researchers more freely available and to provide better access to our community. 
  • Cultivate collections that support and reflect the diversity of our local community, with a focus on resources from historically under-represented groups.  
  • Acquire, preserve, and make available rare and unique materials for research and instruction to the SLU, academic, and local communities

Collection Considerations 

While selection processes are cooperative and can involve consultation with users, librarians have the ultimate responsibility for developing and maintaining the University Libraries’ collections based on their knowledge of the collections, expertise with collection resources, and understanding of the information and resource needs of the University community. 

Below are some of the factors that librarians consider in the acquisition and curation of our collections:  

  • Relevance to SLU’s research, curriculum, and clinical care needs 
  • Research value of the material 
  • Faculty and staff requests 
  • Current coverage of the topic within the collection 
  • Number of potential users  
  • Institutional licensing availability  
  • Discoverability of resource through metadata and indexing  
  • Cost consistent with responsible financial stewardship  
  • Format most accessible to the core user group 
  • Support of evolving scholarly communication landscape including Open Access  
  • Existing strengths and instructional demand for unique material collections

Rarely Purchased Materials 

We rarely acquire the following:  

  • Duplicate materials of items already in the collections  
  • Traditional textbooks  
  • Microform, unless is the only available format, for a critical resource  
  • Personal or small group subscriptions  
  • Software – requests for software should be directed to ITS
  • Whole collections or individual/organizational libraries
  • Historic digital and media formats