PSU Library’s General Collection Values

Portland State University Library’s General Collections Values

Accepted by PSU Library Information Resource Management Council 

November 2019

Reviewed June 2020

PSU Library workers dedicate ourselves to: elevate student success, advance excellence in teaching and research, commit to equity and inclusion in representation, and develop sustainable access to our collections and resources.

We do this by focusing our collection values and priorities on being led by local scholars, user focused, and mission driven.

Scholar Led

•  Collection decisions for selection and deselection are made with thoughtfulness and nuance geared towards each discipline by librarians with input from campus units, departments, colleges, faculty, and students.
•  Selections by format are consistent with the needs of the discipline and students’ ability to successfully use the resources.
• Disciplinary criteria for selection and retention vary by discipline and are established by librarians in consultation with their respective departments.
• The collection and purchasing of faculty and student publications and edited works are a priority for maintaining the scholarly record of Portland State University.

User Focused 

•  The resources purchased and supported by the PSU Library collection are from vendors and publishers who prioritize accessibility, racial equity and inclusion, provide intuitive interfaces, are as free from digital rights management (DRM) as possible, and with the least amount of contractual restrictions.
• Our collections represent the diversity of the PSU community in relevant languages and supporting cross-cultural interaction. We regularly collect resources that represent marginalized communities and work to highlight these materials on a regular basis.
• We strive to allow our resources to serve the broader community through interlibrary borrowing agreements, consortia participation, and document access programs.

Mission Driven

• We commit to “Letting Knowledge Serve…” the motto of Portland State University and racial justice with our collection strategies.
• Collection development and management align with the PSU strategic directions to support the balance for teaching/learning materials and research materials.
• A prime goal is to support open access as much as possible; providing ready access to resources for future, current, and past scholars.
• We dedicate ourselves to maintaining sustainable collections which serve long term availability and access to the scholarly endeavors and directions of the PSU community.