Collection management guidelines

The Library collections budget is approved by the University.  The budget period operates from January to December.  The collections budget is managed by the Library's Publisher Relations team.

Core allocations are made for:

• electronic and print subscriptions
• one-off electronic and print purchases, such as books and multimedia
• document requesting, for material not held by the Library.

More than 80% of the Library’s acquisitions are published overseas, resulting in significant exposure to fluctuations in the currency market, particularly the US Dollar, the Euro and the British Pound. 

The Library will supplement expenditure on its collections with funds provided from bequests and endowments.

Resources acquired by the Library will be housed in the Library’s collections. Exemptions include electronic resources only available via suppliers’ servers and some document delivery items. 

The Library maximises access to electronic resources by:

• preferencing user-based authentication methods such as Open Athens and Single sign-on and IP address validation whenever possible
• negotiating licence and access conditions that provide access to all current UQ staff and students and permit them to access to the data in a timely manner and in a location of their choice, such as in School offices or at home
• ensuring the discoverability of its electronic resources via its web-scale discovery tool and by updating the links as required.

The Library utilises the following when selecting resources:

• Collection package purchases, such as large academic publishing output is routinely purchased by the Library in keeping with the University’s strategic direction
• Demand-driven acquisition models are used as required
• By request. Staff and students may place requests via the Library’s request a purchase form. Limits may be applied if required. Requests are also received via Learning Resources or Document Delivery services to meet the teaching and research needs of UQ staff and students. Librarians will select material that supplements client-driven acquisition.
• Purchase of library material directly by academic staff. With the University’s Procurement Policy in mind, the Library requests academics provide the Library with the title/s of items before they purchase materials to be housed in the Library.  It is possible items may be available via established purchasing channels and reimbursement for items is a complex process.
• Gifts and exchanges are selected for inclusion in accordance with the Collection Principles. In general, a gift or exchange is not accepted if the donor wishes to place any limitations on its use or disposal. Gifts and exchanges are accepted on the understanding that items which are no selected for inclusion in the collections are offered to the Alumni Friends or discarded as appropriate.
• Materials received on deposit. Electronic copies of UQ higher degree theses for research Masters and PhD degrees are lodged with UQ eSpace.

The Library recognises that diverse collections contribute to an inclusive and respectful study and work environment. We will seek to acquire resources authored by, or created in collaboration and consultation with, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and resources that support UQ’s areas of focus, including but not limited to people with disability, people with cultural and linguistic diversities, and people with gender, sex and sexual diversities.

The Library is committed to providing electronic resources, such as ebooks, in formats that are accessible to users with print disabilities. We gather information about the accessibility of new products, as part of the purchasing process, and give preference to more accessible platforms, except where there is no alternative or where a product would be fundamentally altered.

The Library has an e-preferred collection principle. The Library acquires resources in electronic format, where possible. The principle recognises advantages gained through digital formats, which include:

• 24/7 access
• remote access
• simultaneous multi-user access
• download to portable devices
• citation export management
• enhanced searchability
• multimedia
• online note keeping
• accessibility enhancements for screen impaired clients
• fast acquisition and availability response times
• no wear and tear
• minimised incidence of content loss (pages, whole book).

The Library acknowledges that some subject areas publish predominantly in print and that not all subject areas are suited to electronic formats. Clients may continue to request the purchase of materials in print.

If a title is available in both print and electronic format, the Library will purchase the online version. The Library preferences the following types of ebooks:

• web-based
• those covered by a site licence
• purchased rather than subscription

Subscriptions to ebooks will not be purchased, preferencing one-off purchases and open access resources. The Library will purchase a small number of subscription etextbooks where no other option is available, the access is suitable for the course and the cost is reasonable.  (See Collection Management: Learning Resources Guidelines).

Print will be purchased where print is preferred for quality, usability, accessibility, or content reasons by the requestor.

The Library’s principles give preference to online access to journals over print format where an electronic equivalent is available. 

Where possible, electronic journals are obtained under a site licence to allow access regardless of the user’s location. Only one format is purchased; print titles are not duplicated across campuses or duplicated by format.  Approval of new journals follows the application of the Collection Principles and is subject to the availability of funds.

Cancellation of print subscriptions is actively pursued. Print back runs of titles will be replaced by electronic format when ownership of the electronic version or perpetual access can be guaranteed and when an equivalent digital version is available. Consideration should be given to the usability of the online version, as well as the quality and completeness of the replication.

Usage and increases in subscription costs are regularly reviewed. When usage shows a downward trend or subscription costs rise higher than expected, Librarians will review such resources in conjunction with academics, for retention or cancellation.

Since 2020, the Library has participated in the CAUL Read and Publish/Transformative Agreements for Journal. These agreements combine subscription costs with prepaid Article Processing Charges (APCs). These agreements are reviewed annually.

Open access resources provided by the Library include digitised and born-digital materials to support educational and research goals of The University. Committed to the concept of open access as a critical enabler for scientific research that underpins the cOAlition S initiative, the Library supports a variety of open access (OA) models, primarily via Gold and Green open access pathways in alignment with the Plan S Principles to enable as much as possible full and immediate open access to research publications.

Gold OA titles can be sourced directly from the publishers where they provide unrestricted, free-to-read access to their online journals with content published under Creative Commons licenses (mainly CC-BY or CC-BY-NC). This is usually under an author-pays model but it is sometimes entirely free for authors as well as readers, often referred to as ‘Diamond’ OA. Open access journals that fall within the scope of the Collection Management Principles are discoverable and accessible through Library Search. Additional access points for open access journal are provided via UQ eSpace (the University’s institutional repository) and Library Guides. The Library’s support of Gold OA does not include payment of APCs (Article Processing Charges), but some titles may fall under a Read and Publish agreement where the publisher includes options for bundling subscription products with conditional opportunities to fully cover or discount publishing fees for authors.

Green OA is enabled via UQ eSpace where authors publish in subscription-based or hybrid journals and deposit an approved, open access full-text manuscript of their research articles in the repository. In accordance with the Open Access for Research Publications Guideline, authors are encouraged to submit their works to UQ eSpace for secure storage, funder compliance, and greater visibility and impact of their research outputs. This makes The University’s publications freely available (where possible) via UQ eSpace.

The Library is a supporter of open access eBook publishing, including HathiTrust, Knowledge Unlatched, and Open Book Publishers. It also actively supports academics in the use and development of UQ-created Open Educational Resources.

Open educational resources (OER) are online objects that can be accessed free of charge and that are openly licensed for others to use, adapt, and share to support teaching, learning, and research. 

The Library acknowledges that providing free learning materials is important to the student experience and UQ’s overall goal of widening participation and reducing barriers to education.

The Library actively supports the creation of open educational resources, including open textbooks, to use in UQ courses. The Library also supports academics to adopt or adapt non-UQ-produced open educational resources based on their quality, authoritativeness, objectivity, currency, and functionality.

The Library accesses selected databases of aggregated electronic resources such as abstracting and indexing services (A&Is), full text journals, books and other resources. Usage is monitored on a regular basis. When usage shows a downward trend, Librarians will regularly review such resources in conjunction with academics, for retention or cancellation.

Access is provided, upon request, to datasets supporting University requirements such as numerical, statistical and geospatial resources, as well as to standards and patents

The Library collects and provides access to a wide-range of multimedia, for teaching and research purposes. Online access is the preferred format.

The Library preferences the use of commercial service providers such as EduTv and TV News for access to television programs and video format content.  The Library is unable to provide access to content on commercial streaming platforms such as Netflix due to licencing and costs.

Commercially produced items cannot be streamed without a streaming licence. Where specific licensing conditions apply, items are considered on an individual basis due to costs and licensing conditions.

The availability of suitable equipment, both within libraries and by the Library's clients, is an important consideration.  Audio cassettes, and video cassettes have become obsolete and DVDs are becoming less mainstream and are only purchased to support teaching and learning when no suitable streaming format is available.

The Library makes past exam papers electronically available upon selective release by UQ Examinations.

The following materials are not sent to Warehouse:

• Fryer valuable, rare books, and manuscripts
• copies in the following locations or collections: Fryer Library, Otto Hirschfeld, Heron Island and Stradbroke Island Library.

An article processing charge (APC) is a fee paid to the publisher to make an article immediately available and openly accessible.  Under the Gold open access model (see Section 1), article processing charges are paid to cover publishing costs. APCs support the publisher's business model where the cost of publication is moved from the reader (via subscriptions) to the author (via the APC).

Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) undertakes consortia purchasing of online resources, primarily journals and transformative agreements.

The regular removal of material from a collection in order to maintain the collection as active, relevant and up-to-date, to best meet the needs of the University. Deselection decisions take into account: use, the intended scope of the collection and financial and space constraints.

Redundant material is discarded.

Books, journals, multimedia, maps in electronic and print formats.

A collection of material that meets UQ’s strategic and current teaching, learning and research needs.  The material has recent online use and recent item loan statistics. This collection is available to UQ clients on a self-service basis.

This material is deselected for disposal and not re-housing.

The identification of physical material to be relocated either to Warehouse or another Library as circumstances require e.g. to meet teaching and learning demands or space requirements.

Audio and video cassette are technologically obsolete and are disposed.  DVDs are becoming technologically obsolete and as use decreases will be reviewed for disposal.    

A collection of material not integral to supporting UQ’s strategic and current teaching, learning and research needs. The material has non-recent, low or non-existent use or item loan statistics. This material is deselected from the Onsite collection and re-housed in the Library’s offsite warehouse and is available on demand.