The Instructional Effectiveness Center (IEC) is a collection of library materials housed in the Main Campus Library. The goal of the IEC is to collect relevant resources on educational and instructional improvement, to help the college's faculty and adjunct faculty raise the quality of their instruction, improve the level of education in their classrooms, and continue their professional development.
All items in the IEC are listed in the library's online catalog. If you need a book which is not listed in the catalog, you may request it through interlibrary loan.
Other instructional resources include journal articles accessible through IRSC's online databases, media items, and the Internet.
The Indian River State College Libraries must be understood in light of the College's dedication to college transfer education, career-technical education, baccalaureate education, and lifelong learning for students and community. Its holdings and services exist primarily as a means to promote the College's broader educational objectives. The College has traditionally prided itself upon the excellence of its instruction and continues to place greater weight upon teaching than upon research. As well, an objective of the College’s administration, faculty, and staff is to utilize new and emerging technologies to expand access to education, enhance teaching to help students learn, and to stay ahead of the curve with cutting edge training for technology-based careers. The College is also a member of the International Learning Styles Network, so the collection supports an alternate delivery of educational resources. Thus, the library collection must also reflect these priorities.
The College Mission Statement is located on the institutional website.
The purpose of the Libraries is to support the College's mission by providing dedicated service, effective instruction, and quality resources to the college community. To facilitate our support, we strive to accomplish these objectives:
The College’s library facilities must serve certain needs of both the general college community and the residents of the outlying communities. The collection, therefore, must meet the needs of a diverse clientele, but its development should occur according to this priority of general principles:
The responsibility for the selection of materials for the library's collection lies with members of Indian River State College's faculty, librarians, staff, and students. Every effort is made to accommodate requests that conform to stated guidelines. Departments or programs may opt to appoint one faculty or staff member to select in their respective areas. However, it is strongly urged that individual faculty members stay abreast of the newly published materials in their particular areas of teaching and interest. This effort helps keep the College attuned to curricular needs. The professional library staff meets with new faculty to acquaint them with general library services and also to promote input for collection development.
In accordance with the American Library Association Library Bill of Rights and the American Library Association Freedom to Read Statement, the College Library collection will provide for the free exchange of all ideas. The collection is available to all patrons of the library, and offers the widest possible range of viewpoints; regardless of the popularity of these viewpoints, or of the gender, sexual orientation, religion, political philosophy, or national origin of their authors.
In areas where there is a disagreement concerning the truth or wisdom of particular ideas, issues, or beliefs, and in the interest of reasonable economy, the library attempts to see that the views of all parties are represented.
No censorship is exercised on the basis of frankness of language, or the controversial manner an author may use in dealing with religious, political, sexual, social, economic, scientific or moral issues.
In handling disapproval of material or attempts at censorship, the Dean refers such matters to a Library Review Committee (library employees, library dean, ENC faculty (upon request)). The committee will reply to the person or group, quoting or referring to the above guideline. Persistent or repeated censure from persons or groups will be referred to college officials through the library's administration.
The library‘s top priority is the acquisition of materials in direct support of the educational programs. As new programs develop, the library will evaluate holdings to ensure they are adequately supported. Faculty teaching needs will be met whenever possible, given the long- term appropriateness to the collection, relative price, and anticipated use of these materials. Reviews will be sought before ordering materials of questionable value or high cost.
Some types of library materials and services will not be available at the College Libraries. In the case where services or materials are not available, patrons will be directed to the appropriate resource, and library personnel will assist, where possible, in acquiring access.
Requests made and submitted by faculty, staff, students, or guests will be reviewed by the library professionals. The item(s) will be ordered or the request will be considered for purchase at a later time. In either case, the requestor will be notified. Information about items submitted by individual authors utilizing the collection development request form for self-marketing purposes will be included with publisher catalogs and flyers. Therefore, in an effort to develop and maintain a collection of informational resources adequate in quality and quantity for curricular needs, the following Library Collection Development guidelines have been adopted.
The library professionals have the responsibility to evaluate and select resources for library users in any format including Internet or online resources. Internet resources frequently lack the publishing industry’s filters of need and worth, may be poorly maintained, and be only transiently or intermittently available. Our basic evaluation criteria of quality, credibility, accessibility, scope and costs are considerations.
Digital formats include eBooks, eAudiobooks, Databases, streaming media, and other digital formats. These principles will serve as a guide in developing and reviewing proposals to providers of information in digital format. Our conventional collection development criteria will apply consistently across formats including digital resources. We recognize, however, that many issues are not yet fully defined or understood in the digital age. Accordingly, we will evaluate information in digital formats using these principles:
Principal considerations include meeting faculty and student information needs, providing orderly access and guidance to the digital resources, and integrating them into the library service program. Ensuring that the advantages of a digital resource are significant enough to justify its selection in digital format; giving priority to digital format acquisition of those resources which offer economies of scale by benefiting the most faculty and students by providing more timely availability, more extensive content, and offer greater functionality such as the ability to link to local or related resources. A digital resource must provide greater access because it can be delivered rapidly and remotely, at any time; improve resource sharing due to the ubiquity of digital resources; and, a digital collection must contain a sufficient critical mass to evaluate it suitability and to justify its selection. As well, e-content addresses learning styles.
The collection will include all forms of print and non-print materials.
The Pruitt Campus Library is a cooperative library with IRSC and St. Lucie County Library System. IRSC information resources are added to the SLW Library collection to reflect the Pruitt Campus curriculum needs. All efforts are made to avoid duplication of resources and to enhance the needs of the clientele the library serves.
The Morgade Library at the IRSC Chastain Campus is a cooperative library project with the Martin County Library System. IRSC information resources are added to the Morgade Library collection to reflect the Chastain Campus curriculum needs. All efforts are made to avoid duplication of resources and to enhance the needs of the clientele the library serves.
The Brackett Library at the IRSC Mueller Campus is a cooperative library project with the Indian River County Library System. IRSC information resources are added to the Brackett Library collection to reflect the Mueller Campus curriculum needs. All efforts are made to avoid duplication of resources and to enhance the needs of the clientele the library serves.
The library's collection may be separated into several distinct parts; the general circulating collection, the reference collection, the media collection, the serials and periodicals collection, the Government documents collection and other special collections. The basic cataloged collection is comprised of the following:
1. Those items that support the curriculum.
2. Supplementary and ancillary reading for courses.
3. A basic reference collection. 4. An adequate collection of current periodicals and their back files. In determining the appropriate levels of collection development the following categories have been established.
LEVEL ONE: MINIMAL/BASIC REFERENCE LEVEL - Fundamental reference works containing general information on a subject, dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.
LEVEL TWO: SELECTIVE LEVEL - This level includes slightly more information resources than the basic level. In addition to reference works, it includes a collection of print and electronic resources for general coverage of the subject fields.
LEVEL THREE: REPRESENTATIVE/UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING LEVEL -A balanced collection that covers all aspects of a subject field without going into great depth. This collection will support an undergraduate degree program in the field.
The College has dealt with both natural and facility disasters (e.g., back to back hurricanes in 2004 and flooding of the Brackett Library in 2010). The Facilities department leads and coordinates Physical Plant and college personnel for planning, site preparation (when known) and for recovery (for both known and unknown disasters). This office maintains contacts for consortial insurance and disaster recovery companies involved with books, carpets, furniture, etc. Additionally, the Council of Instructional Affairs – Learning Resources Standing Committee makes available to its Florida members a set of resources to help guide planning, preparation, and recovery. See also the Learning Resources Standing Committee's page on preservation and preparedness.
Since IRSC is a member of the Federal Depository Library Program, we must also contact the FDLP. Consult Disaster within the Physical Facilities and Maintenance of the Collection section of the Legal Requirements document. “In the event of a natural or man-made disaster, depository library staff must immediately inform Library Services and Content Management through email at FDLPOutreach@gpo.gov, or by phone at (202) 512-1119. Library staff must make every reasonable effort to replace or substitute, as appropriate, any depository receipts that have been lost or damaged.” Let the FDLP know if the shipments need to be suspended or redirected during recovery. See also the FDLP website.
The last section of the Collection Development Guidelines includes a link to the Library of Congress for its breakdown of the major classes and subclasses. Since two of the joint use libraries also use the Dewey Decimal System, faculty and patrons may suggest items using the Dewey classification. Additionally, the Superintendent of Documents Classification Scheme is used for the majority of the Federal documents collection.
The Collection Development Guidelines were developed by library staff in March 1987, August 1989, February 1997, September 1999, September 2001, August 2005, August 2006, June 2007, August 2008, July 2011, March 2012, July 2012, June 2013, August 2013, and June 2015.
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