The library's print collection is divided into the reference and reserve collections on the 2nd floor, the circulating collection on the 3rd floor, and the special collections on the 4th floor. The reference area contains 16,300+ items, and these books are for in-house use only. Photocopiers are available if users need to copy portions of the book. Reserve items, also located on level 2, consist of textbooks and course materials brought to the library by faculty and departments. Generally these materials check out for 2 hours, and cannot be taken out of the reserve area. One thousand four hundred plus items are located on reserve. Books, government documents, CDs, and DVDs comprise our circulating collection and are located on the 3rd floor. The 3rd floor houses 139,000+ items. Students may check out up to 7 items at a time, and may renew these items up to two additional times for a total circulating period of 6 weeks. Alamo Colleges faculty and administrators may check out up to 15 items for 30 days, and staff may check out up to 10 items for two weeks. Items may be renewed online at https://https://saclib.on.worldcat.org/discovery/patroninfo . Special collections are on the 4th floor of MLC, and consist of 16,000+ items.
Electronic collections are available through the library's web page. Ebooks are available online through the Discovery and are accessible 24/7. SAC provides access to nearly 45,000 ebooks. Newspaper, magazine, and journal articles are available through our subscription databases, and provide full-text access to approximately 59,000+ unique titles.
Each librarian is responsible for specific collection development subject areas. Librarians research books, CDs, DVDs, and ebook titles in their specific subject areas to determine if the item is deemed fitting for our collection and for our library users. Librarians welcome input from students, faculty and staff, for recommendations of items to purchase. An individual may contact the subject librarian directly and recommend the purchase of a book, send the subject librarian an email, or the Recommend Items for Purchase link on our homepage http://sacguide.libguides.com/recommend .
Librarians purchase items for the collection that support the curriculum. Funds for purchasing library materials are allocated to us by our college administrators, and this amount is then divided among the subject librarians in an equitable fashion. Librarians are responsible for spending all of their funds each fiscal year. Collection development guidelines for subject area are created by each subject librarian, and updated as the curriculum and classes change. The complete list collection development areas and the librarians responsible are below:
Collection Development Subject Areas A - G: http://sacguide.libguides.com/content.php?pid=238104&sid=1965057
Collection Development Subject Areas H - Z: http://sacguide.libguides.com/content.php?pid=238104&sid=1965294
Below are three documents that further describe our collection development system. The documents are updated as librarians retire,or if collection development areas are assigned to different librarians. The first document explains our collection development areas by Library of Congress call number, the second lists the collection development areas by fund code, and the third lists collection development codes by librarian.