The PCC Library provides information resources for Portland Community College students, faculty, and staff.

The Library provides a full set of practices and procedures for its staff. It is available on request at each campus library and “published” in wiki form. The Library also publishes on its website the practices and procedures for using its services.

Library Responsibilities

Access to Information

The Library works to help students and staff discover, gain access to, and use the widest possible range of information resources.

Activities

The Library purchases and organizes a multi-media collection of resources and promotes its use. To further its aim of gaining ready access to the greatest amount of information resources possible, it partners with libraries throughout the country and invests in new technology. To make resources easily available to all students at all times, the PCC Library closely evaluates any electronic equivalent to a physical resource so as to choose the most suitable format. To encourage use of the collection, charges to students and staff are minimal.

Limitations

The Library limits full service to the four comprehensive campuses; Sylvania has the larger collection of physical materials. The PCC Library will only purchase physical materials to be housed in the Cascade, Rock Creek, Southeast, and Sylvania libraries; it will not purchase office or laboratory collections. To maximize the variety of materials available on each campus, the Library limits spending for multiple copies and lesser-used items.

Curriculum Focus

The primary mission of PCC Libraries is to support the instructional process by providing and promoting use of materials relevant to PCC's curriculum.

Activities

The Library encourages faculty and patron requests for materials. Reference librarians have liaison responsibilities to all departments, and faculty are encouraged to contact their library representative. Reference librarians often will recommend materials to faculty.

The Library provides database searching, inter-library loans, and extended loan periods to faculty involved in class preparation.

The Librarians provide information literacy skills training through in-class instruction and via electronic means. They are more than willing to collaborate with and support teaching faculty to develop learning outcomes, learning experiences, and research assignments that use library resources.

Limitations

The Libraries restrict use of some expensive equipment and resources and some high-demand resources to in-library and faculty use. It also limits the access of outside agencies and the public to materials needed for classes. It reserves the right to refuse the purchase of materials that are too expensive and/or tangential to the curriculum.

Community Service

The PCC Library is part of a public institution which encourages use by the public. The Library, therefore, welcomes the public.

Activities

The Library registers community members and extends borrowing privileges to these members.

Limitations

Non-PCC users and pre-college (non-credit) students are limited in the number of items they can check out and they are not able to borrow materials through the shared Summit catalog.

Collection Security

The Library has an obligation to protect, guard, and retrieve public property.

Activities

Each Library uses an electronic-security system to control unauthorized removal of material. The Library maintains a database of people using materials, sets timelines for return of materials, and charges fines for delinquent users. It will bill patrons for lost or damaged materials and the college will hold transcripts until bills are paid. Video surveillance cameras are in place to record unauthorized activities in public areas, as well as entrances to and egresses from Library facilities.

Limitations

The Library will not fine faculty, but it will bill them for materials held over one academic year.

Legal Responsibilities

The Library follows laws relevant to copyright and privacy issues.

Library staff are aware of copyright restrictions. The staff will post the restrictions and limit services accordingly. A file of licenses for classroom and public display of media is maintained.

Patron information is not publicly available. Patron’s use of Library items is routinely purged. Law enforcement personnel will only receive access to patron information when authorized by warrants and properly executed subpoenas.