Library Policies

This information will have a more permanent home on the Carroll homepage, and is still a document under development. It is adapted from the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute Library's Policy and Procedure Manual, compiled with reference to the Association for Biblical Higher Education's Library Guidelines for ABHE Institutions (2006), John Moorman’s Running a Small Library: A How-to-do-it Manual (2006) and OCLC’s WebJunction Learning Community (2008). Subject to revision

Who may use library facilities?
As the library exists to further the educational goals of the Institute, so the primary recipients of library services are intended to be the students, faculty, staff, and other significant stakeholders of the Institute. These primary recipients include Fellows, Instructors (full and part time), Staff (full and part time), Governors, Campaign partners, and most prominently, Institute students of all types (local and remote, doctoral, masters, diploma, readers, full or part time). Excepting limitations due to legality (including copyright and contracts) and budget (including purchase of resources and license restrictions), library resources acquired shall be made available to these primary recipients as widely as possible; further, these barriers due specifically to budget are targeted for reduction or removal over time, as available funds develop and increase.

As a member of OCLC, the library also participates in and contributes to shared group access to appropriate elements of its resources (including, but not necessarily limited to, interlibrary loan).

Where these additional services do not detract or distract from the statements above, the library welcomes the serious and purposeful academic pursuits of visiting scholars of adult age.

Hours of service:
It is intended that the electronic component of the Carroll Library be available to primary users 24 hours a day. Gaps in access to this aspect of the library should be brought to the attention of library staff.

Circulation:
The Carroll Library does not yet circulate any materials in physical format. Data to facilitate future circulation is being produced and coordinated.

Within the ability of the library, with respect to the mission of the Carroll Institute, the library will seek to supply the legitimate information needs of primary users, consortia partners, and others; as contracts, licenses, law, and budget permit.

As descriptive data about the collection and its physical location is coordinated, a resource list of materials that can be physically accessed by visitors to the Arlington hub during regular business hours will be maintained. This resource list (and the MARC and other records on which it will be based) will become the basis of an emerging electronic shelflist and library catalog.

Library Services:
It will be the policy of the library to meet the information needs of its users (particularly its primary users) with a variety of services. These services include (but are not necessarily limited to): user services (reference, library instruction, and technology support) and technical services (cataloging and processing; and interlibrary loan).

Library Organization:
Within the scope of the mission of the Institute, and under the authority of its Board of Governors, and its President, the Library is placed within, and is accountable to, the Institute’s Senior Fellows and Academic Directors. The Library exists to support the academic mission of the Institute, and the Library staff shall be responsible for the fulfillment of its function, under the leadership of its director.

Confidentiality:
Library records are considered confidential, and personally identifiable information about library usage is not available.

Does the library consider the donation of materials as gifts?
Carroll appreciates the generosity of others in consideration of the Institute and its library as potential recipients of individual gifts of books and collection. Within our academic goals and needs, the library is happy to consider gifts. As with the John Newport Collection, we have acquired research materials of broad extent and significance through donation. While we may ask permission to retain or decline some donations in whole or in part based on our collection needs, it remains a fact that we value and appreciate the interest of individuals and groups in considering donation to the Institute, and hope for consideration now and in future.

Does the Library have any special collections?
The materials of John Newport, covering particularly the areas of missions and philosophy, are the first major gift and special collection of the Institute.

=
What is the Library’s statement on Intellectual Freedom?=====

Understanding, and being able to formulate a response, to strains of thought alien to one’s own culture and heritage, is a vital part of the academic training enjoined on Carroll students. With this in mind, and in consideration of the collecting priorities and needs of the Institute, the library subscribes to the American Library Association’s ‘Bill of Rights.' It is understood that Carroll’s service community consists of those users discussed under the heading ‘access’ above.

=
What is the library’s statement on censorship?=====

The library is intended an instrument of access and not curtailment of the capacity to learn, it may still come to pass that requests for clarification of the principles for inclusion of, or for the removal of, selected materials come before the library. The library director will review such written requests for reconsideration as received.

=
What is the library’s statement on deselection?=====

Deselection (also called weeding) happens when materials brought before the library for consideration for removal. Library staff will inspect the collection on a regular basis for determination of the condition of materials. Such items as may be found to be brittle, worn, damaged, upgradable to an electronic format, duplicative, or outdated may become candidates for removal from the collection; however, hard-to-replace materials may be retained and preserved even though these items may suffer from such conditions.