To see the library's current plan for Spring 2021, please see our page Return to Hoover.
Please note that all updates and changes to the library plan will be tracked on the Return to Hoover page. For the overarching plan for McDaniel College, please visit Return to the Hill
Faculty: Please see our page on Teaching in the time of COVID-19
Students: please see our page on Learning in the time of COVID-19
At the Hoover Library, responsibility for collection development is shared by the teaching faculty and by college librarians:
Thus, faculty play a key role in supporting the library's collections in their disciplines. Each department fulfills this responsibility in different ways, and most faculty become aware of important resources in their disciplines through interactions with colleagues, their core journals, and their own research interests.
The library subscribes to key journals in major disciplines, as well as core journals in the education field (such as the Chronicle of Higher Education and Education Week) and major popular titles that promote book reviews (such as the New York Times). All of these can be sources of reviews of new materials.
The Library also subscribes to the following online selection tools that will help you find reviews of new titles in your subject area to add to the library’s collection using your department’s library funds.
You can also use our Library Order Request Form to submit requests for up to 5 items at one time.
Responsibility for collection development is shared by the teaching faculty and by college librarians. The faculty determines the college curriculum and faculty members select appropriate information resources to support present and anticipated courses and programs. College librarians are responsible for the development of the collection as a whole, particularly the selection of general and reference materials that support multiple disciplines and departments.
The library’s most immediate priority is to meet the needs of students and faculty in preparation of their course work. Faculty, graduate, and advanced undergraduate research is supported by strong holdings in bibliography, by subscriptions and site licenses to online indexes, abstracts, and full-text services, and by reciprocal and consortial resource sharing relationships with other institutions. Advanced, highly specialized research materials are provided through interlibrary loan or document delivery rather than by purchase.
The library selects materials in all fields of knowledge reflected in the college curriculum. The collection is intended to include historically established landmark works in each field and to reflect current trends in scholarship, new approaches, interpretations, and interdisciplinary relationships. Major reference works and standard, authoritative treatments are acquired and kept up to date. All information formats and media are within the scope of the library’s collecting activity.
The library supports the full exercise of academic freedom and does not exclude materials from the collection because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.
Some of the items in the collections may be sensitive. McDaniel College and the Hoover Library do not endorse or pass judgment on materials in the collection. Materials contained in the collection do not represent the opinions of McDaniel College or the Hoover Library. While the collection may contain materials that could be considered prejudiced, stereotyped or offensive, it should be remembered that these are important resources in the academic study of contemporary and past cultures.
As McDaniel College is a primarily undergraduate college (offering Masters degree instruction but not the Doctoral level), it is not intended that library collections expand indefinitely or support highly specialized research. As time permits and reflecting changes in the curriculum, it is appropriate for librarians in consultation with the members of the teaching faculty to analyze the collections in whole or in part and to withdraw and discard materials no longer of instructional or informational value. Criteria to be evaluated include relevance to the curriculum, timeliness and accuracy of content, physical condition, media format, demand, and authority.
McDaniel College
2 College Hill, Westminster, MD 21157
Phone 410.857.2281