Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2025
Abstract
The College of DuPage (COD) Library is large for a community college, closer to a four- year college library in some respects, with 250,000 print volumes, 125,000 ebooks, over sixty staff members, and ten full-time faculty librarians. The library has a subject liaison arrangement in which the librarian has the responsibility to curate the collection for their subject areas. Librarians can take a broader view of the collection composition, discipline relationships, and student usage, as they have been professionally trained for this activity. The collections budget at COD is allocated to the liaison librarians to spend as they see fit, whereas other institutions may have a more centralized budget and materials selection process. Since the college curriculum drives the collections budget strategy, the librarians pay close attention to what is happening with this process. While the ideal situation has a faculty member consulting with a subject liaison librarian at the beginning of the assign- ment, course, or program development process, this is not always the case. As a result, librarians benefit from participating in curriculum development conversations beyond the library to get information that can aid the collection development process. Librarians should have a recognized, stated role in the college’s curriculum approval process and should also seek informal opportunities to engage with students and faculty to gain a better understanding of curricular needs.
Recommended Citation
Daniel Blewett. “Curriculum Support: From the Beginning.” The Community College Library: Collections and Technical Services, Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, 2025, pp. 33–38.
