Collection Development Policy
About NC LIVE
As a public-private partnership among North Carolina’s public, community college, university system and independent/private college libraries, NC LIVE licenses electronic research and learning resources that support education, enhance economic development, and improve the quality of life of all North Carolinians. Any North Carolinian with a student ID in one of the participating academic institutions, or a public library card, can access NC LIVE resources at no cost from any computer or device with an Internet connection.
About NC LIVE's Collection
NC LIVE’s collection consists of e-resource databases which include full-text articles, eBooks, streaming videos, digitized newspapers, language learning tools, and more. NC LIVE licenses these e-resource databases as aggregated collections, which means that a single database can include hundreds of millions of individual works (e.g. articles, eBooks, streaming videos, newspaper articles, etc.). The resources selected by NC LIVE generally are developed by library or education industry publishers and are commonly offered by libraries throughout the United States and the world. Licensing these resources on a statewide basis dramatically reduces the cost of providing them to all North Carolinians than if libraries attempted to do so individually, and provides individual libraries with resources they would not be able to offer otherwise.
How NC LIVE decides what to include in its collection
Every 3 years NC LIVE’s Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) — made up of 12 librarians representing NC LIVE’s four communities of interest (COIs) — selects e-resources that fulfill NC LIVE’s mission of supporting education, enhancing economic development and improving the quality of life of all North Carolinians. RAC members gather feedback from library staff and community members who use these collections daily to determine their value, relevance and appropriateness to North Carolina’s library patrons. Selection decisions are made based on usefulness of content; relevance of resources to all COIs; ease of access and use; cost in relation to value; ability to be accessed remotely as well as in libraries; and availability of funds. Because it is impossible to review every individual item in NC LIVE’s combined collection of 1.6 billion items, the Resource Advisory Committee assesses the value of each e-resource database as a whole based on the above criteria. Decisions are not made on the basis of the presence or content of individual items. Selected resources are recommended to NC LIVE’s governing authority, the Librarians’ Council, for final approval.
Intellectual Freedom Statement
NC LIVE has a responsibility to serve all segments of the community. Materials useful to some may be objectionable to others. Selections are based solely on the merits of the work in relation to building the collections and to serving the interests of users. The function of NC LIVE is to provide research and learning resources, not to advocate for, or limit access to, specific points of view. Responsibility for what children access rests with the children’s parents and/or legal guardians. NC LIVE resources are categorized to direct users to the databases most relevant to them, including by age-appropriateness. Selections will not be inhibited by the possibility that controversial material may come into the children’s possession though items are categorized appropriately according to content. Staff in libraries among all COIs are always available to suggest appropriate resources to meet the needs of individual users. In its selection of materials, NC LIVE subscribes to the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read Statement and to the Library Bill of Rights.
Reconsideration Policy
No challenged items which have been duly selected shall be removed from the NC LIVE collection except upon the recommendation of the Resource Advisory Committee or upon formal action of the Librarians’ Council when the recommendation of the RAC is appealed.
Should any cardholding library patron of any of NC LIVE’s member libraries want NC LIVE to reconsider the inclusion of an item in one of its collections, that individual must complete an online reconsideration request form citing their objection. NC LIVE’s Resource Advisory Committee will review the reconsideration request and make a determination within 90 days. The decision reached will be shared in writing via email with the individual who filed the reconsideration request. If the individual is not satisfied with the decision, a written appeal may be submitted within 10 business days to the NC LIVE Librarians’ Council. The Librarians’ Council will review the written communication, the RAC recommendation and the issues raised, and will respond to the individual when the review process is complete. The decision of the Librarians’ Council is final. The Librarians’ Council has the legal responsibility for the NC LIVE collection under the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution.
Technical Limitations
NC LIVE neither publishes nor aggregates e-resources and therefore cannot alter the makeup of a collection. Should a reconsideration request be approved, NC LIVE will request that the e-resource vendor providing the item in question remove it from NC LIVE’s collection. However, NC LIVE has no legal authority to compel the vendor to do so.