Collection Development and Management

A healthy collection for UT Libraries: 

• provides access to resources that meet the university’s research, teaching, and learning needs;  
• preserves resources that are scarce among our resource sharing partners; 
• and supports the needs and interests of TN residents. 

The Libraries develops and maintains a healthy collection by working with a committee to review new resource requests, evaluating subscription resources to determine ongoing use, regularly updating automated purchasing methods to stay current with needs, and  periodically removing items or discontinuing subscriptions. We employ various metrics to holistically assess resources. A few examples are circulation and electronic use; other holdings in the region and among peer libraries; online availability and accessibility for all users; and relevance to current courses, programs, and research. 

The majority of the Libraries collection budget is spent on resources that are licensed with agreements that dictate and control who can use resources and for what purposes. UT Libraries Philosophy of Access to Research, Scholarship, and Cultural Heritage guides our licensing activities with a framework that  seeks transparent agreements, protects the rights of faculty authors, and gives the general public the greatest possible access to electronic resources.