Overview
The AUA AGBU Papazian Library’s collection development mission is to identify, select, manage and preserve collections that support the University’s curriculum and the research needs of its faculty, students, and staff, as well as support the public service programs.
Intellectual Freedom and Confidentiality
The AUA’s AGBU Papazian Library recognizes that free access to ideas and full freedom of expression are fundamental to the educational process. Accordingly, the Library subscribes to and complies with the American Library Association Library Bill of Rights. The Librarians protect each patron’s right to confidentiality and privacy with respect to information sought, received, and materials borrowed.
Aim of the Collection Development Policy
The aim of the Collection Development Policy is to provide a framework for the maintenance and development of the University Library’s collections, to indicate priorities, to establish selection criteria across the range of different subjects, languages, editions and formats and to create a consistent and coherent basis for the future development of the collections.
Access to the collections
All Library materials are catalogued in conformity with accepted bibliographical standards including the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules and located in the Library to facilitate access. Electronic access to the collection is provided through the Library’s web catalogue. All physical resources are held in open access. The Library provides collection access to the following client groups: all students, faculty, staff and alumni of the University, members of the public, and other libraries through inter-library loan and document delivery services.
Responsibility for the Selection
The responsibility for the selection of library materials rests with the Library Director and academic departments. The materials budget supports the purchase of books, journals and other resources that best support the curricular, instructional, research and programmatic needs of American University of Armenia.
Selection Criteria for Print and Electronic Resources
The primary goal of the Library is to acquire and provide an effective combination of print and electronic resources needed to support the University’s curriculum and research.
The following criteria apply to all materials in both formats, print or electronic:
- Subject Areas — The primary subject areas collected are those that serve to support curricular, instructional, research, and programmatic needs of the University.
- Languages — The main language of the collection is English. Non-English language materials, such as Armenian or Russian, are collected based on their relevance to University programs.
- Chronological Period — The emphasis of the collection is on current publications. Geographical Area — The primary focus of the collection is on Armenia and surrounding regions, as well as the United States. Other areas such as Canada, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia are acquired as requested.
- Cost of material in relation to the acquisition budget.
- E-resource Licensing consideration – The license should permit fair use of all information for non-commercial, educational, instructional, and research purposes by the Library and authorized users. These include viewing, downloading, and printing. Other uses permitted under fair use are ILL, e-reserves and course packs.
- Technical considerations: IP recognition, including remote access; compatibility with course management software; full-text availability in PDF or HTML; printing and downloading capabilities; compatibility with citation management software and mobile compatibility.
1. Scope of the collection
The Library collections hold resources designed to support the learning, teaching and research needs of the University. Resources are provided in a variety of formats including books, periodicals, databases and multimedia materials.
Books
Books are acquired with first priority given to supporting the curriculum. Books are acquired in print or electronic format when appropriate.
Periodicals
Periodical collection both in print and online includes journals, magazines, and newspapers. Online access is the preferred format for periodicals when available. Current local newspapers are acquired on a highly selective basis.
Electronic Resources
Digital resources have become essential to support the basic instructional, research and information needs of the University. These include indexing and abstracting tools, reference works and specialized academic and technical databases.
Audio-Visual Materials
Audio-visual materials are acquired with priority given to curriculum and research support.
Reference Collection
The reference collections are non-circulating collections of resources designed to support the basic research, curricular and informational needs of the University community in all subject fields. These include, but are not limited to, encyclopedias, dictionaries, indexes and abstracts (print and electronic), bibliographies, directories, handbooks, almanacs, manuals and atlases. Only the latest edition of a reference work is shelved in the reference section. Older editions are transferred to the circulating collection or discarded. The Library currently emphasizes the purchase of reference materials in electronic formats to maximize their accessibility and use, and also for cost effectiveness.
Reserve Materials
The Reserve Collection consists of a temporary collection of materials that are purchased, copied and gathered from existing holdings, or provided by faculty to provide limited loan periods and maximum access to the University community to support the direct needs of course instruction.
Final Projects and Theses
The Library collects hard copies of final projects and theses completed at AUA. Digitized final projects and theses are available through the AUA Digital Repository.
Textbooks
The Library acquires course textbooks (1 or 2 copes) to support the curriculum. Like many other academic libraries, the AUA Library does not purchase textbooks in multiple copies routinely. Textbooks are quickly outdated. Exceptions are considered depending on the availability of funds. Requests for the purchase of multiple copies are reviewed on an individual basis in consultation with the Dean of the corresponding College/School.
Interlibrary Loan
The Interlibrary Loan service provides access to material not contained in the library’s print or electronic collections.
Government Publications
The Library is a selective depository for government publications. Current publications are available on the Internet.
Fiction Collection
The Library collects classic and contemporary works of fiction for a general adult audience. Titles selected for inclusion include popular works deemed to have lasting value to readers as well as new literary and genre titles that have been recognized as significant achievements in their respected areas of literature. The Library also accepts fiction donations.
Special Collection
The AGBU Papazian library holds collections whose intellectual content is valuable to instruction and research at AUA. These are:
- Archival material related to the history of AUA
- World Bank Repository
- Antranig Antreassian’s Art collection
- Richard Hovannisian’s professional collection
- Vartan Gregorian’s personal collection
Gift/Donations Materials
Gifts/Donations to the collection can be in the form of money or actual materials. Gift/Donations to AGBU Papazian Library are accepted through the American University of Armenia Foundation. Gifts/Donations must correspond to AUA academic requirements and
must benefit the Library. The Library reserves the right to accept or reject gifts, with or without restricting conditions, and the right to dispose of unwanted gift material.
2. Collection Maintenance
Weeding or De-selection
Weeding is an ongoing aspect of collection management in an academic library. The AGBU Papazian Library makes decisions to periodically deselect materials to ensure that the collection remains viable and continues to support the curricular, instructional, research, and programmatic needs of AUA students, faculty, and staff. Faculty is encouraged to work with and provide feedback to library staff to identify materials to withdraw.
Preservation
Preservation is the act of preventing and eliminating the deterioration of library materials, as well as changing their format as necessary in order to preserve the intellectual content. The primary activity of the AUA Digital Repository is to create and make accessible digital collections from AUA scholarly content and the unique resources of AUA Archives.
3. Policies by Discipline
The primary subject areas collected are those that serve to support curricular, instructional, research, and programmatic needs of the University. The majority of materials are organized by the Dewey Decimal Classification System.
Business and Economics
The Library collects materials in the fields of business and economics to support the undergraduate BA program, the graduate MBA and MS in Economics program and the individual research of faculty and students. The focus of the collection is on the traditional fields of business and economics, including microeconomics, macroeconomics, financial and cost accounting, auditing, finance, marketing, management, game theory, banking and investment.
English Language & Literature
The Library collection supports the undergraduate BA, the graduate MA and the certificate in translation of the CHSS as well as faculty research. The College emphasizes creative writing, literature, teaching, literary criticism, and public and interpersonal/intercultural communication.
Political Science
The Library collection supports teaching and research through the graduate program in the following fields: Public Administration, Civil Rights, Democracy, Political Culture, Political Ethics, Public Policy and Comparative Politics.
Law
The Library collection supports teaching and research through the graduate program in the following fields of law: Comparative Law, Criminal Law, Environmental Law, Human Rights, International Trade, and International Law.
Computer Science
The Library collection of materials in computer science supports the teaching and research of the College of Science and Engineering at the undergraduate and graduate level. The College
offers BS Computational Sciences and MS Computer and Information Science. The areas of specialization are: algorithms and data structures, architecture, artificial intelligence, computer algebra, computational geometry, database systems, hardware and software specification and verification, information processing and retrieval, logic programming, mathematics, mobile computing, natural language processing, object-oriented methods, performance and reliability measurement, scientific programming, and software engineering.
Industrial Engineering
The collection supports teaching and research in Industrial Engineering through the graduate program. The program relies on the application of rigorous mathematical and logical approaches to theoretical and practical problem solving in traditional engineering activities. The collection concentration is in operations research, computer integrated manufacturing systems, structural analysis and reliability.
Public Health
The Library collects materials in the field of public health to support the graduate MPH program, the certificate in public health program and the individual research of faculty and students. Materials are collected with an emphasis on public health policy, preventive health services, aging, health care administration, and health economics.
Environmental Science
The Acopian Center for the Environment conducts research and teaching in broad subject areas reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the discipline. The Center educates the undergraduate and graduate students about the biodiversity of Armenia and the importance of developing sustainable solutions for conserving it. Areas of concentration and collection include, but are not limited to: environmental policy, environmental economics, conservation, toxicology, nature, biodiversity, environmental movements, risk assessment, environmental problems and solutions, natural resources, ecology and environmental biology, sustainability, pollution, and international environmental issues and comparisons.
Armenian Language, Literature and History
The Library collects materials in Armenian language and literature to support coursework in the undergraduate General Education program. Materials collected are primarily in Armenian, but also in English for international students not proficient in Armenian.