Quinnipiac Libraries Collections: Use, Costs, Policies

The library collection is a carefully curated representation of past and present scholarship, built to support teaching, study, and research in the disciplines of the Quinnipiac University curriculum. As scholarship changes and grows to reflect a more interdisciplinary and diverse world, so does the collection. It offers both historical depth in established fields of knowledge as well as current scholarship in new areas of research, and provides a wealth of information in formats ranging from print to digital to new streaming media. Graduate program in Law and the Health Sciences are supported by the Law and Netter Libraries. 

The library is committed to improving the diversity of viewpoints and voices represented in its collection, and is actively working to ensure that new purchases encompass a wide-range of the human experience. 

Collection Goals

• Support the Quinnipiac University curriculum (primary)
• Support research at Quinnipiac (secondary)
• Foster a love and habit of reading through the collection (tertiary)

If you have suggestions for resources to add to the library's collection, please reach out to us.

Digital Collections

The library provides research databases, ebooks and ejournals, accessible from anywhere in the world to the Quinnipiac community. Major resources include Academic Search Complete, Cinahl, JSTOR Journals, PsycInfo, and ScienceDirect among others (see a full list). 

Specialized Physical Collections

• Faculty Scholarship: all monographs written by Quinnipiac faculty. Faculty are encouraged to alert the library when they are published.
• Leisure: books for enjoyment, novels, and graphic novels, emphasizing books requested by students.
• Wellness: mental and physical health of young people, sexuality, and healthy lifestyle.
• Careers and Adulting: choosing and excelling in a profession, developing skills for living independently after college.
• Albert Schweitzer Collection: ABL has a small collection donated by Albert Schweitzer and the Albert Schweitzer Institute. The library will add all books published about Albert Schweitzer, and selectively books on world peace, major health issues in central Africa, and universal ethical philosophy.
• Ireland: the Great Hunger, Irish migration to the United States, including juvenile literature. Any English language books in these areas will be added to the collection.
• Curriculum Collection: fiction and non-fiction aimed at pre-readers through high school. 
• Anatomy Models Collection: the library has a collection of physical models used in support of introductory anatomy courses.
• Reference: ABL houses a legacy print collection, but Reference Purchases are now digital only. Exceptions to digital only are citation, style and writing guides.

Video

Streaming only, individual titles purchased by request. Major resources include PBS Video and Kanopy Films.

Reserve Textbooks

The library accepts faculty requests to purchase required textbooks as the budget allows: preference will be given to expensive texts used for large introductory courses. Digital is the preferred format. No workbooks will be purchased. In general, the library does not purchase textbooks for the collection.

ABL collects material for all disciplines taught at the undergraduate level at Quinnipiac University. At this time, priority areas include books or other material about:

• disparity in health outcomes
• climate change
• indigenous people, especially those from the northeastern United States
• migration 
• materials that add to the diversity of viewpoints in the collection

The library staff carefully considers the following when purchasing for the collection:

• Immediate need for the material for course use.
• Recommendations from faculty and students.
• Accuracy: the library will attempt to provide only materials that meet the highest standards of current scholarly thought.
• Authoritativeness or reputation of the author and quality of the work. Librarians will consult reviews from Doody's, Choice, Gobi and others.
• Appropriateness for support of the curriculum.
• Fills a need in a priority area in building the collection.
• Uniqueness and lack of equivalent coverage in the existing collection.
• Balance: viewpoints which balance others in the collection.
• Currency. Most materials considered for purchase will be published within the past three years.
• Improve the diversity of the collection, including racial, socioeconomic and gender viewpoints.

To recommend a book or database be purchased for the collection, please contact Kathleen.Bauer@quinnipiac.edu.

The library recognizes that our collection represents many facets of the history of scholarly publication, and as such individual items may contain offensive language and imagery. These materials are kept in the collection as resources for the study of contemporary and past cultures. Selection of library resources does not equal endorsement; rather the existence of a particular viewpoint in the collection represents the library’s commitment to intellectual freedom. Where material may now be viewed as controversial or offensive, the library will attempt to provide resources which critique the original work, but in general will not remove these materials. Material which is out of date or inaccurate according to current research may be removed from the collection or reclassified to reflect the material as discredited.

Challenges: Any Quinnipiac faculty member, student, or staff may ask for a review of a book for offensive or inaccurate information. A review will be done with the person making the complaint, the Associate Director for Collections and Management, and the University Librarian. In the rare case that we cannot come to a consensus decision the library will consult with the Library Senate Committee. The University Librarian will make a decision to either take no action, keep the book but reclassify it so that it is kept with books containing discredited research, or remove the book from the circulating collection and house it with Special Collections. To request such a review, please complete a Challenge Form. 

In the following instances books or other material will be removed from the ABL collection:

• Occasionally multiple copies are purchased for very popular material. Once the book is no longer in demand, only one copy will be retained.
• The physical book has deteriorated, and the book is not rare. If the book is still used it will be replaced. If the book is rare it will be placed in an archival box and sent to storage.
• Information in a book is no longer considered accurate or is out of date. This is especially true for medical and scientific works.
• The format is obsolete and is available in another format.

Material may be selected for storage in North Haven facility when:

• It has not circulated for the past 10 years.
• It is in fragile condition but is either valuable or otherwise not available.
• Its format is obsolete, and ABL wishes to digitize it.

When an item goes to storage, faculty, staff and students may request it for use. When the patron returns the item, it will be housed at ABL (not returned to storage).