The collections of Rutgers University Libraries support the research, teaching, and service missions of the university. Guided by the Libraries’ own values and principles and informed by the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights and Intellectual Freedom Principles for Academic Libraries, the Libraries strive to provide equitable access to materials that reflect a range of ideas, backgrounds, and perspectives.
Academic libraries have limited resources to collect comprehensively in all subject areas and therefore supplement their collections through interlibrary borrowing and lending programs. Rutgers University Libraries participate in several consortia and seek collaborations with other libraries, publishers, commercial and open access enterprises, open-source communities, and digital initiatives, to maximize access to and ensure preservation of the cultural, historical, academic, and scientific record.
The Libraries have collected material that by current standards may be considered outdated, biased, and harmful in its content and the way in which it has been described by subject headings and other contextual data. The Libraries are aware of this and are contributing to national conversations on how to update the way we describe collections.
This philosophy drives the vision and strategies described in our collection development policy.