Library Policies

General Library Policies

Computer Use in the Library

The Munday Library supports the University’s teaching, educational, and research functions. The library provides computer equipment for academic uses such as accessing the library collections and other information resources, facilitating academic communication. The following rules apply to use of computer equipment with the library and supplement St. Edward’s University’s Technology and Information Policy.

1. Electronic resources available through the Munday Library are licensed for noncommercial use by SEU faculty, staff, students and on-site users. The terms and conditions of the library’s agreements with the vendors and publishers of these electronic resources regulate the use of these resources. These conditions include, but are not limited to, restrictions on copying, republishing, altering, redistributing and reselling the information contained therein.
2. The library does not monitor or control the information accessed through the Internet, and cannot be held responsible for its content. As with other library materials, any restriction of a minor’s access to and use of the Internet is the responsibility of the parent or legal guardian.

Confidentiality of Library Records

The Munday Library protects the rights of library users to view and read materials without fear of intrusion, intimidation, or reprisal as stated in the American Library Association’s Code of Ethics, Item 3:

We protect each library user’s right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired, or transmitted.

To safeguard our patrons in their use of library materials, Munday Library specifically recognizes that its circulation records and other records identifying the name of library users are confidential in nature.

Such records are accessible only to appropriate library staff members and, according to the Texas Open Records Act and Federal privacy law, may only be disclosed as follows:

1. to members of the library staff in the ordinary course of business;
2. upon written consent of the user of the library materials;
3. upon appropriate court order or subpoena or search warrant as determined by the Library Director and/or the Academic Vice President.
This policy applies to all library records, including, but not limited to, the circulation of library materials, computer database searches, interlibrary loan transactions, information requests, requests for photocopies of library materials, title reserve request, or any in-house use of materials.

Additional Resource Regarding Library Confidentiality
Texas Library Association Intellectual Freedom Statement

Student Conduct

Patrons using the Munday Library must abide by the St. Edward’s University expectations for student conduct.

Smoking Policy

The library is a designated nonsmoking area. This includes e-cigarettes, or electronic cigarettes, or any battery-operated devices that mimic cigarettes.

Assistive Technologies in the Library

The Munday Library houses technologies to facilitate academic research and alternate format access to academic materials for users with a variety of vision, hearing, and/or mobility related disabilities. There are wheelchair accessible computers located on the first floor of the library.

Screen Reading Software

  • Kurzweil 3000 – be sure to log in as “student1” in the pull down menu after the login prompt.

(Patrons are welcome to use any computer in the Library Commons in order to listen to a .pdf using the Kurzweil 3000 software (there is an icon for this specialized software on every desktop). For detailed instructions, go to page 8 of the Kurzweil 3000 instruction manual and read the section called Opening Documents Created With Another Program.

Scanning Equipment 

  • Kurzweil 3000

Magnification Equipment

  • Aladdin – a black and white video magnifier designed for use by people who have visual impairments (including “legal blindness”) which make it difficult or impossible to read ordinary printed materials

Staff
Staff at the Library Information Desk are able to provide assistance in the use of equipment and can help in selecting and using academic resources. Library users who do not know how to independently operate the assistive technology in the Munday Library (particularly first-time users) should call in advance to schedule an appointment with a member of the library staff (512) 416-5869 for an orientation to the equipment.

Hours of Operation
The Munday Library’s assistive technology resources are available whenever the Munday Library is open, and no appointment is required.

Physical Assistance
Library staff will remove physical barriers whenever possible. If barriers exist, please notify library staff and staff will provide necessary assistance whenever possible.

Personalized Services
The Munday Library will provide equal access, but individuals are responsible for independently using library resources. Library staff cannot provide personal reading, photocopying, typing, or note-taking services.  Please plan to bring your own assistant if you require support for these services.

Faculty Services
Faculty needing assistance in making course materials accessible should consult the Instructional Technology Hub in Holy Cross Hall 101, or contact OIT at support@stedwards.edu or 512-464-8804. OIT also maintains information about web accessibility.

Privacy
To protect an individual’s privacy, library personnel may not retrieve items from backpacks, personal clothing, or other personal effects. Please have items such as pen drives or Hilltopper card readily available.

If you need a service not mentioned in this article, please ask at the Library Information Desk or phone the library at (512) 416-5869.

For other services on campus:
Student Disability Services

Unattended Children in the Library

The collections and facilities of the Munday Library are intended primarily for the students, faculty, and staff of St.Edward’s University. We strive to provide an environment that is pleasant and conducive to study and research. For their safety, all children under the age of 16 must be under the direct and appropriate supervision of a parent at all times, or an adult who has assumed responsibility for the child’s care while in the Munday Library. If a child is found unattended or unaccompanied, the staff will attempt to locate the parent, caregiver, or guardian in the library. If the parent, caregiver, or guardian cannot be located, the library staff will call the St. Edward’s University Police to pick up the child. Under no circumstances will library staff transport any child from the library to another location.

Collection Development Policy

The collection development policy is intended to communicate the library’s collection goals and policies for the collection to the library community. Policies for the primary collection, archives, and special collections are available separately. The library serves the students, professors and staff of a teaching university. The guiding principle of the library’s collection is the support of the academic curriculum. Collection development – providing the best, most relevant information – is part of that mission.

Resources Collected

The primary goal of the resources to be collected is to support the curriculum. Other resources may be added to the collection after this goal has been met. The library currently collects electronic copies of books and journals depending upon availability and cost. When possible, the library selects concurrent, multi user licenses for ebooks. Some items may be purchased as single user ebooks due to publisher availability, cost, and currency of the content to meet curricular needs. The resources that the library collects are complementary to the resources used for classroom instruction. Textbooks, instructional non-book media, workbooks, and consumable materials are outside the scope of the library’s collection. The library cannot assume administrative or departmental responsibilities for providing classroom instructional resources for the teaching faculty because such demands would preempt funds meant to develop the library’s collection. Such equipment and resources are most appropriately requested of department chairs, academic dean, or campus administrators.

Selection Criteria for Ebooks

Selection criteria vary across disciplines. Subject-specific criteria can be found in the collection development policy statement by discipline. General considerations for the selection of ebooks include:

  • Appropriateness – Should support the curricular needs of the students and faculty
  • Level – Should be written primarily for an undergraduate community and additional resources written to support graduate programs
  • Currency and accuracy of the information
  • Scope and depth of coverage
  • Availability of other resources on the subject in the library and in other area libraries
  • Suitability of content to form
  • Critical Reviews – Choice, Chronicle of Higher Education, Library Journal, and Books in Print among others are consulted when considering new library materials for the collection.
  • Language – English will predominate within nearly all areas except where foreign language instruction is part of the curriculum. Resources in languages currently taught at the University will be considered; resources collected in these languages will be at a basic reading level.

Selection Criteria for Journal Subscriptions

As costs associated with journal subscriptions rise every year, all electronic journal subscriptions that are not part of aggregated databases are subject to annual review. A limited number of general interest and popular magazines and newspapers are purchased for recreational reading while in the library. All scholarly journals are provided electronically.
Factors used to determine the selection, continuation, or cancellation of journal titles include:

  • Use
  • Importance of the title to the discipline, as determined by metrics like the number of times a journal is cited and requirements for accreditation
  • Relevance of the content to the library’s collection and university’s curriculum
  • Accessibility of the content via indexing
  • Cost and cost-history of a title

Journals are available electronically through aggregated databases, which is subject to change according to the terms governing the library’s access to the content licenses. Access to some individual journal titles may change depending on the contractual agreements between the publishers and aggregators, thus individual libraries do not always have control over access to some electronic publications. If a journal title becomes unavailable through an aggregated database, the library will consider purchasing online access directly from the publisher. New journal titles are considered ‘on probation’ for a period of two subscription years. At the end of that time the title will be evaluated and either continued or cancelled on the basis of use.

Evaluation Criteria for Electronic Databases

Access to databases may be leased on an individual basis by the library, received as part of state grants or funding, or arranged through a consortial agreement.

Criteria used to determine the library’s licensing, continuation, or cancellation of a database include:

  • Usage
  • Scope of the library’s collection
  • Type and method of access to the intellectual content of the database
  • Reliability and usability of the database’s functionality
  • Cost to the library for access
  • Availability of usage statistics for evaluation purposes

Gifts and Donations

Since the primary collection consists of all electronic resources, gifts of physical items are currently not accepted. Gifts of rare or valuable materials or special collections of scholarly importance that are in keeping with the scope of the library’s special collections are welcomed. If physical items are appropriate for donation to the University Archives and Special Collections, please consult with the archivist. The archives donation policy can be found here.The acceptance of such special gifts is at the discretion of the archivist and the library director.
Gifts of money to be used for the purchase of library resources are welcomed. Donors considering such gifts should consult with the library director.

Collection Management

As a small college library, it is not part of our mission to keep resources in perpetuity. Instead, we support current curriculum and limited research needs. As part of this mission, the library staff engages in collection management. This includes the withdrawal of outdated or infrequently used resources, and the addition of additional copies or expanded licensing of highly-used resources.

General Criteria for De-Selection

In order to maintain a relevant and useful collection, resources will be reviewed annually for possible withdrawal from the collection. If an item is 20 years old or older and has not been used in the past 5 years, it may be removed from the collection unless a compelling reason to keep it is presented. Additionally, items may be removed from the collection for one or more of the following reasons:

Titles outside the collecting scope of the library

Titles no longer relevant to current curricular or research needs and therefore not within the scope of the library’s current collection development policies may be removed from the collections or (in the case of subscriptions) canceled.

Redundancy

Copies or editions of titles may be deselected to minimize redundancy of holdings. Individual titles containing information found elsewhere in the collection may also be deselected for this purpose.

Considerations for Journals

Incomplete and short runs of a title will be withdrawn, unless the title is received currently. A title may also be withdrawn if its low use warrants it, even with a current subscription. Factors to consider prior to withdrawal include sources of online access (publisher or database vendor), perpetuity rights, and/or extent of online holdings. Access via database vendor alone does not ensure access.

Review Process for Items Proposed for De-Selection

Except for resources superseded by later editions, all items chosen for deselection will be reviewed by library staff and the relevant faculty members. Lists of resources identified for possible removal from the collection will be made available electronically to the faculty. Faculty and staff will be asked to comment within a set period of time on the items chosen for deselection. The Collection Management Librarian will compile the responses and make final decisions on the disposition of items.

Interlibrary Loan Policy

What is Interlibrary Loan (ILL)?

If the library does not own the book or have access to the full text of a journal article which you need,  you can request the item through Interlibrary Loan.

Libraries all over the world participate in Interlibrary Loan (ILL) in a cooperative effort to provide articles, books, and other materials to researchers, students, and others.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

Almost all types of materials may be requested through ILL.  However, certain materials are restricted or not readily available. These include:

  • Books published in the current year
  • Dissertations
  • Video & Audio materials
  • Periodicals (entire volumes or issues)
  • Rare books & manuscripts
  • Expensive materials or fragile items
  • Special Collections
  • Genealogical materials
  • Textbook requests are not accepted.

An item owned by the Munday library may not be requested through interlibrary loan.  Requests cannot be made for items that are currently checked out or on-order. No user may have more than twenty active requests.

Placing an Interlibrary Loan Request

Place a request using requests are placed using this  ILL portal.  Log in with your St. Edward’s University username and password.  To create a new request, click on the Create button, and then choose from  Article, Book, or Other (Thesis, Report). For each request, supply full & accurate bibliographic information.  Requests are processed in the order in which they are received. If your interlibrary loan request form lacks complete or correct information, the request may be delayed or cancelled. If you request more than 10 items in one day, we will process them over a period of days so that all interlibrary users are served in a timely manner.

Loan Periods

Check the due date printed on the label of your borrowed item or check your Library account.

Because ILL books are owned by other libraries, the lending library determines the due date. This date will vary according to the policy of the lending library. We can sometimes request one single renewal of no more than two weeks. The lending library decides whether or not to allow the renewal.

You may request a renewal by logging into your Interlibrary Loan account and clicking “Checked Out Items” or by emailing library@stedwards.edu at least three days in advance of the due date. You will be notified of the lending library’s response either by phone or email. Some items may not be renewed: items marked “No Renewal”; items that have already been renewed once; and overdue items.

When will the material arrive?

In general, a journal article in 4-10 days or a book in 5-14 days.  Most books usually arrive within ten working days. Items requested from Texas libraries and delivered via the TexPress courier service may arrive in less than ten working days. Articles may take even fewer days to arrive. However, factors beyond our control (availability of the item, efficiency of the lending loan department, speed of transit) ultimately determine when/if the material arrives to our library. In addition, items that are very recently published, unusual, or in a format other than a book or article may take longer or may be unavailable. Be sure to include your deadline on the request forms. ILL staff will try to meet your deadline and will keep you informed of any delays. You may check the status of your request by logging into your interlibrary loan account and clicking on “Interlibrary Loan Requests.” You will receive an email when your requested item is ready for pickup.

Where do I pick up my interlibrary loan items when they arrive?

Books may be picked up in person at the Munday Library any time the library is open. Check the library’s Web site for hours.

Most journal articles are delivered electronically to your interlibrary loan account. Please contact the Interlibrary Loan office via e-mail at library@stedwards.edu if you have any questions regarding book orders or electronic delivery of articles.

Copyright Restrictions

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction.

One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research”. If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of “fair use”, that user may be liable for copyright infringement.

This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law.

The Munday Library follows guidelines set forth in the following documents: