Main Content
For questions, please contact Megan Watson, Head of Collections and Scholarship, megawat@uw.edu
Collection priorities, values, and partnership
UW Tacoma is an urban-serving institution that seeks to expand access to higher education and to foster scholarship, research, and creativity to address the challenges and opportunities of our time and place. With over 5,000 students, the campus draws primarily from local high schools and transfer students from many of the nearby surrounding community colleges. On a campus originally envisioned as a regional resource for otherwise underserved students, it is imperative that our collections reflect the history, perspectives, and experiences of our diverse student body. Our collection -- in alignment with the mission of urban-serving institutions and in collaboration with community and campus partners -- strives to be antiracist, accessible, sustainable, interdisciplinary and open to diverse ways of knowing. We support the principle of intellectual freedom for the users of the library in accordance with the American Library Association and the Association of College & Research Libraries Library Bill of Rights and Freedom to Read Statement, and we maintain a curriculum-focused collection, acquiring material that supports a range of content, tools, and formats needed to address the learning goals of our students.
The UW Tacoma Library, part of the University of Washington Libraries system, is governed by the principles outlined in One Library, Three Campuses. We contribute to and benefit from shared centralized services such as e-resource licensing and access, technical processing, resource sharing (e.g. interlibrary loans), and integrated library systems. We also actively collaborate on the evaluation and cost sharing of tri-campus e-resources, thereby supporting UW and regional information needs in accordance with the University Libraries Collection Development Guiding Principles.
Selection criteria (formats, content level, etc.) are documented within subject specific collection development profiles. These profiles identify priorities and needs of disciplines, courses, and assignments. They are written and updated by subject librarians to provide guidance for any librarian making collection development decisions.
The default format for most collections will be electronic when and where possible, including books, scholarly journals, databases, and media. Whenever financially and technically possible, the library strives to purchase electronic materials that are fully accessible and free of digital rights management. We prioritize electronic collections because they support 24/7 access regardless of location, a necessity for a campus with a large majority of commuter and working students. Electronic content also augments the overall University collections, reduces unnecessary duplication, and helps us to prioritize library spaces for student study, activities and instruction. For more documentation used to guide cooperative, tri-campus acquisition and management of e-resources, please see Licensing Principles and Expectations for Vendors, Library E-resource Accessibility Testing, and the UW Libraries Privacy Statement.
Our library exists to support its community and our physical collections should reflect that community. We purchase physical formats with a purpose. The UW Tacoma Library’s circulating book and media collections primarily support our current academic programs and students. To best support student success, the circulating collection focuses on critical courses in the curricula and aims to reflect the identities and research interests of the student body. In order to make this collection as useful as possible for our students and patrons, it is regularly maintained so that as UW Tacoma evolves, our physical collections will continue to shift in response to curricular changes, student population, and learning needs.
Requests and Duplicates. We welcome requests for purchase of materials directly related to the curriculum of UW Tacoma coursework, as well as books authored by UW Tacoma faculty, staff, and students. We generally do not purchase duplicate copies of an item. Exceptions are sometimes made when an item has a short circulation time. We may also purchase a duplicate copy of a book when we see a specific connection to our most active curriculum areas.
Requests to withdraw materials from the UW Tacoma Library collections are handled according to the UW Libraries Policy on Requests to Withdraw Materials.
Deselection. The library acts as both a repository for books and a space for study and collaboration among students, faculty, and staff. Library space is a finite resource, and the collection is largely focused on materials supporting current campus courses and assignments. In order to maintain a useful, current, collection of physical materials and to maximize study and collaboration space for the campus community, librarians will engage in periodic review of materials for deselection. Librarians will look at titles in their subject areas for items that:
- Contain out-of-date or inaccurate content
- Have little or no use over the past several years and
- Contain content that no longer relates to the UW Tacoma curriculum
- Have duplicate titles in Seattle or Orbis Cascade Alliance locations
Upon review, items slated for deselection but deemed of potential value will be offered to other UW libraries, then to Orbis Cascade Alliance institutions in keeping with Alliance last copy guidelines and collection development best practices.
The University of Washington Tacoma Library reserves the right to determine retention, location, cataloging treatment, and other considerations relating to the use and disposition of gifts. Materials not selected for addition to our collection may be donated to other institutions, sold, recycled, discarded, or otherwise disposed of. They will not become the personal gain of any individual. For more information, please visit the University of Washington Libraries Gifts website.
Gifts of library materials (e.g. books, journals, media, etc.)
Due to space and budget constraints, we do not accept gifts of books or other materials unless they support our current curricula and are in excellent condition. Examples of materials we do not typically accept include textbooks, older media formats (e.g. VHS, audio cassettes), and items that are marked up or in poor condition, outdated, unrelated to Tacoma coursework or assignments, and/or have existing copies in the UW Libraries system. The library does not accept donated materials in our book drops or dropped off at our service desks unless arrangements have been made with the appropriate librarian in advance.
If you are interested in donating library materials, please contact the subject librarian for that area or Megan Watson, Head of Collections and Scholarship, with a description of your donation and a title list. A gift of materials to the library transfers ownership to the library, including permission to retain or discard the materials.
Gifts of craft supplies and related materials to the Makerspace
The Makerspace welcomes donations of consumable craft supplies and related materials that support our teaching and learning mission. All other donations are subject to approval. Please contact D’Andre Williams or Tim Bostelle with questions or visit us during our open hours.
Other ways to support the library
We welcome you to consider supporting the UW Tacoma Library through a monetary gift! Such donations are essential to maintaining and growing our programs and collections. Please contact taclib@uw.edu with any questions.
