General Collection development

General Collection development

The Library follows the digital-first principle to maximise the availability of online resources in our General Collection. We are guided by the requirements listed in the RMIT Legislative Obligations Register, which include the following:

We work with RMIT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander academics, teachers and students to expand representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities in our Collections. Our goal is to collect a wider range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander materials. The Library will continue to align with Responsible Practice Principles for RMIT University Library, noting that items within our Collections may not represent RMIT’s views. We are aware that Indigenous materials may need to be acquired via alternative methods.

Our selection and purchasing strategies ensure that RMIT community has access to required resources and a greater breadth and depth of additional resources through cost-effective material provision when the user needs it. It is not possible to own all the resources that are needed to support teaching, learning and research. Items that are not purchased for the collection may be available via the resource sharing services.

We acquire resources through a balance of OER, open access, ownership, subscription, Evidence Based Acquisition (EBA), and Patron/Demand Driven Acquisition (PDA/DDA) methods to achieve the best return on investment from the Library Collections Budget.

The Library participates in the Council of Australasian University Libraries (CAUL) Consortium to achieve favourable pricing and terms.

RMIT Library Vietnam acquisition of physical materials is bound by suppliers signing a Master Service Agreement (MSA) and completed via a tender process with procurement department. Physical materials can only be purchased from other suppliers if no MSA supplier provides an option.

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The Library recognises that RMIT diverse community requirements are changeable. We follow evidence-based practice and collaborate with stakeholders to identify what is needed to meet their learning, teaching and research needs.

Collaborative practices include:

  • direct feedback to the Library
  • suggestions and feedback made via the purchase request form
  • identifying requirements through the learning resources request process
  • reading list development
  • program/course reviews
  • curriculum architecture and skills immersion
  • accreditation reviews.

RMIT’s community members, including Alumni, can make purchase requests. Requests for new resources for the General Collection are evaluated using the selection criteria and considering current holdings and availability of funds. Requests for individual books, videos or standards that meet selection criteria are purchased immediately, subject to budget availability. Requests for journal or database subscriptions (or other one-time purchases of value), are added to a list of resources to be considered for purchase throughout the year. We prioritise these requests based on how well they meet the selection criteria and what other recent purchases we’ve made for that discipline.

Evidence-based selection practices include the use of analytics from Library systems and publisher/vendor data, including COUNTER-compliant usage data and data from resource-sharing consortia. Evidence-based practices may not apply to the acquisition of learning resources or Indigenous materials.

The Collection Development Team regularly evaluates offers for new resources received from vendors and uses collection-related data, such as usage and turnaway statistics, to identify additional resources for purchase. These offers are evaluated based on the selection criteria and added to the list of resources for purchase consideration throughout the year.

We use vendor purchase profiles to automatically identify titles for purchase based on a range of criteria, such as subject, publisher or price.

Learning resources: considerations

We encourage teaching staff to suggest new learning resources. Requests are evaluated based on our selection criteria and we apply the digital-first principle where possible.

We do not purchase class-sets or resources that are restricted to a specific cohort (e.g. College, School or course).

Resources may come with licensing conditions restricting concurrent usage, downloads, copying, printing and access to supplementary resources. Restrictive licensing conditions could affect student access – especially during peak usage periods, such as in the lead-up to an assignment deadline or open-book exam.

The Library support for teachers website provides advice on how Library staff can assist in the early stages of curriculum planning towards equitable outcomes.

The RMIT University Self-Authored Learning Resources: Conflict of Interest - Disclosure Guidance Materials provides guidance on good governance and RMIT values.

Our selection criteria are guided by our Collection principles.

The selection criteria consider:

  • relevance to RMIT community
  • format
  • currency
  • authority
  • evidence of demand
  • price
  • licensing conditions, including user privacy
  • accessibility
  • discoverability
  • alignment with RMIT's strategic priorities.

For a a detailed list, see Selection criteria.

The digital-first principle and the high cost of adding and maintaining print donations in the General Collection prevent us from accepting donations of physical material, except for exhibition catalogues and Indigenous or hard to acquire materials.

We will also evaluate offers of significant donations of material that is highly relevant to RMIT’s learning, teaching and research programs, or strategic priorities.

RMIT Library Vietnam may choose a different approach to ours when evaluating donations of physical material.

Donations of digital material, including open access resources, that are required for a course or align with the University’s strategic priorities will be considered. We will assess copyright, licensing provisions, and the costs of processing and maintaining the material over time before accepting digital material.

Donors must complete a Deed of Gift agreement for the Library to consider their donation. Once we accept donated item/s, the Library becomes their owner and has the right to manage, discard or otherwise deal with the item at its discretion.

We also reserve the right to dispose of unsolicited donations without notifying donors.

How we allocate the funds

The University provides an annual allocation for the Library Collections Budget to support learning, teaching and research needs for the University.

The Collections Budget is managed by the Collections Unit of the University Library and priority is given to the ongoing recurrent commitments, which are reviewed annually (see the Review and analysis section of the General Collection management. The remaining non-recurrent budget is allocated based on the previous year’s spend and publishing trends. It may be necessary for the Library to cancel existing subscriptions to fund requests for new journals or databases.

The Collections Budget contains two separate budget lines:

  1. Operating budget pays annually for access to resources only while they are paid/renewed.
  2. Capital budget pays annually for access to resources that the University maintains perpetually as an asset.

The Library requests an annual allocation for both budget lines, which is reviewed and results in variations each year. We allocate a higher proportion of funds to digital resources to align with a digital first principle. Due to vendor and publisher pricing models, the Library faces budget constraints with the allocation of operating and capital funds.

External factors impacting the budget

  • Foreign currency exposure: approximately 80% of our resources are paid in foreign currency.
  • Annual publisher increases: this amount currently ranges on average between 5% and 7%.

Internal factors impacting the budget

  • University Budget: student numbers, capital works, University priorities, etc.
  • Annual review: our robust annual review process ensures that the Collections expenditure returns value for money for the University.

Financial sustainability

There are multiple pressures on the Library Collections Budget. These include a large exposure to volatile currency markets (~80% of expenditure is in foreign currency), annual increases in the cost of resources above CPI, and the need to provide greater access to new and existing resources online. The Library’s technical sustainability is impacted by financial constraints, limiting access to affordable but not always fit for purpose technology options to access and manage collection materials.

To further ensure financial sustainability, we continuously review our collections to ensure that we maintain its value to our user community as well as the best use of the library budget.

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

Learn more about our commitment to Indigenous cultures