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Our Policies
The Leslie J. Savage Library fosters an inclusive educational and social environment for Western’s faculty, staff, and students to advance discovery, scholarship, engagement, and connection.
To achieve this mission, the library has adopted the following policies governing use of the facility.
We are committed to providing an exceptional library experience. Here's what you can expect from us:
Our staff is here to assist you with a friendly attitude and professional expertise. We are dedicated to making your library visit productive and enjoyable.
We maintain a clean and functional space for all patrons. Regular cleaning protocols are followed, and safety measures are in place to ensure your well-being.
We strive to respond to your inquiries and requests promptly. Whether it's finding a resource or resolving an issue, our goal is to assist you efficiently.
We are committed to continuously improving our services based on your feedback. Your suggestions help us enhance the library experience for everyone.
We welcome patrons from all backgrounds and strive to create an inclusive environment where everyone is respected and valued.
Thank you for being a valued patron of our library. We are here to support your academic success and look forward to assisting you with your information needs.
As an integral part of Western Colorado University and its surrounding community, Leslie J. Savage Library strives to create an environment conducive to studying, reading, and scholarship. Out of respect for all library users, please:
Posters, flyers, and pamphlets require staff approval and may only be left in designated areas within the library. Unapproved materials will be discarded by library staff.
In accordance with the LIBRARY RECORDS CONFIDENTIALITY ACT OF THE STATE OF COLORADO, all library circulation records are considered confidential information. Colorado Revised Statutes, Section 24-90-119.
Library study rooms are available on a first come, first serve basis without reservation. Priority is given to students during peak studying times (such as around Midterms and Finals). Contact library staff to inquire about reserving a space for a Western group or an event.
Equitable access for all members of Western’s community is integral to the Leslie J. Savage Library’s mission. As such, all library users are expected to:
All library users are expected to act in accordance with our mission and policies. Younger visitors may need additional help from their caregivers to use the library respectfully and safely. We ask caregivers to supervise children at all times while using the library.
The library welcomes community members and visitors (individuals without a current Western login) to use the library. The public is allowed to use computers and printers designated for public use. Computer use is free. Printing fees are calculated on a per page basis. Members of the public are expected to comply with all library and campus-wide policies, including policies governing acceptable use of computers.
With the exception of service animals, animals are not permitted in the library.
To ensure the safety of all, library users must:
The library is not responsible for unattended personal belongings. The library reserves the right to dispose of any personal property that is left in the Lost and Found at the end of each semester.
The consumption of alcohol, marijuana, tobacco (including vaping), and illegal substances, along with overt signs of intoxication, is prohibited in the library. Smoking is not permitted within 25 feet of the library building.
Any behavior which may damage library equipment, collections, or facilities is strictly prohibited. Protection of Library materials is defined under Colorado Revised Statutes, Section 24-90-117 THEFT OR MUTILATION and Section 18-4-509 DEFACING PROPERTY.
Law enforcement will be notified of all criminal behavior that occurs in the library. The library staff is authorized to ask any user who abuses the above policies to leave the library. If the user refuses, Campus Security or law enforcement authorities will be contacted.
This policy supplements any campus-wide policies on conduct and use and does not replace any existing campus policies.
If you see something out of place in the library, please communicate with a staff member to ensure prompt responses to safety concerns.
The following circulation policies govern materials owned by Leslie J. Savage Library. Materials requested from other libraries via Prospector or interlibrary loan are governed by their own libraries' policies and agreements.
Student, Staff, and Community Members: 4 Weeks, 2 Renewals (Pending availability)
Faculty: 90 Days, 2 Renewals (Pending availability)
Overdue Policy:
1st notice: 2 weeks past due date
2nd notice: 4 weeks past due date (30 days)
Block: 2-3 days past 2nd notice
Student, Staff, and Community Members: 7 days, 2 Renewals (Pending availability)
Faculty: 1 month for DVDs, 2 Renewals (Pending availability)
Overdue Policy:
1st notice: 24 hours past due date
2nd notice: 1 week past due date
Block: 2-3 days past 2nd notice
Loan periods vary per item, 2 renewals (pending availability)
Overdue Policy:
1st notice: 24 hours past due date
2nd notice: 1 week past 1st notice
Block: 2-3 days past 2nd notice
*Bicycle checkouts require a valid Mountaineer ID Card
3 Day Checkouts, 2 renewals (pending availability)
Overdue Policy:
1st notice: 24 hours past due date
2nd notice: 1 week past due
Block: 1 week past 2nd notice; charge $200 replacement fee
*Reserve material checkouts require a valid Mountaineer ID Card
Loan periods vary per item, no renewals
Overdue Policy:
Only notice: 24 hours past due date/time
Block: 2 days past notice; charge full amount for replacement fee
No fines are charged for items returned past due date in good condition.
After the specified overdue period, a replacement fee will be put on the borrower’s account. The fee will be removed if the item is returned undamaged or the borrower pays the fee**. Borrowers with unpaid fees on their accounts may be prevented from checking out other materials, registering for classes, etc.
**Users may contribute a replacement copy, in new condition, rather than paying the replacement fee, with prior approval from library staff member.
Computers are made available to Leslie J. Savage Library patrons for purposes of research, instruction, and public service. The Library is also committed to serving the research needs of the Gunnison community and the general public. However, the Library also reserves the right to give priority to current Western students, faculty, and staff, through restricting the number of computers available for public computing, setting time limits on public-use computers, and limiting what content may be accessed on public-use computers.
The use of library computers is governed by federal, state, and local laws, as well as compliance with Western Colorado University policies.
Certain conduct by users may prevent the library from being freely and readily accessible to our students and employees. The following is intended to clarify what behaviors may be considered unacceptable use of Leslie J. Savage Library computers. The examples below include, but are not limited to:
Failure to comply with governing laws and Library policies may result in penalties up to and including temporary or permanent loss of computing and/or library privileges.
Thank you for your cooperation and consideration.
Leslie J. Savage Library selects and maintains a collection of library materials to support the instructional, research, intellectual, and artistic needs and interests of undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and staff. Library materials represent appropriate formats that are carefully selected, acquired, and cataloged, whether physically on campus or available online.
The library collection must:
To strive for consistency in making decisions about the collection, the Library has developed guidelines on selection of new materials, spending priorities, disposition of gifts, and periodic collection review to weed outdated materials and redirect resources to meet changing needs.
Effective immediately, the Leslie J. Savage Library of Western Colorado University will not enter into contracts containing confidentiality clauses of any kind or require the nondisclosure of license terms. If the Library and vendor are unable to come to an agreement regarding the removal of such clauses or terms from the license, then the Library will not license that content. The Leslie J. Savage Library, at its sole discretion, will openly share information contained within its licenses and agreements with interested parties. The Library Director, Faculty Senate, and Provost must approve any exemption
Adopted by Faculty Senate, Provost, and Library Director on October 7, 2019.
Although selection of new materials added to the collection is primarily the responsibility of librarians following their professional judgment and the guidelines below, all faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to request materials they feel will be of value to the collection. In particular, new tenure track faculty are encouraged to evaluate their needs in order to enhance our collection. The Library has a special responsibility for selecting interdisciplinary materials and other materials necessary to maintain a well-rounded collection focused on the undergraduate and graduate curricula.
Generally, the Library does not purchase textbooks. Books that are used as class texts and meet the criteria described in “Spending Priorities” below may be acquired.
The Library maintains overall responsibility for shaping the collection and has final authority in all collection decisions.
A systematic analysis of the collection is performed regularly to ensure that there are no large gaps in certain subject areas.
In addition to requests, the Library reviews the following sources in building the collection:
Spending priorities serve as guidelines for library staff. The priorities are designed to accommodate fluctuating resources and changing directions of the curriculum. In addition to guiding decisions for spending, priorities also serve a communication function by informing faculty, staff, students, and others about the method and reasoning of adding materials to the collection.
The Library has identified five priorities for purchasing learning materials:
• Undergraduate Curriculum. The Library spends learning materials funds in order to support the major and minor programs of the undergraduate curriculum. An effort is made to balance the needs of first and second year students (more basic, easy to understand materials) with those of upper level students (more research- oriented materials). Members of the faculty are encouraged to assist librarians in the selection of materials.
• Graduate Curriculum. The Library supports graduate programs, which are limited at present. Since these programs are primarily delivered online, the focus for the Library is on acquiring relevant electronic resources such as databases, journal collections, reference titles, and monographs. Since all graduate programs are self-funded through Extended Studies, a portion of the revenue in the form of overhead will support campus operations. Members of the graduate faculty are encouraged to assist librarians in the selection of materials.
• Research Tools. The Library spends learning materials funds in order to support the daily research needs of the university students, faculty, and staff. Daily research activity requires expenditures for reference sources, monograph series, and multidisciplinary databases.
• General Education. The Library spends learning materials funds in order to support the general education of its community. General education is a process of self-directed learning in a broad range of subject areas.
• Regional, State, and Local Subjects. The Library spends learning materials funds for resources that are relevant to the life and times of the western region of the United States, the state of Colorado, and the greater Gunnison area.
These priorities serve as guidelines for allocating funds.
The Library selectively purchases books and other materials written or created by local authors. Local authors are defined as full or part time Gunnison County residents and Western faculty, staff, and students. Purchased works by local authors should fit with one of the Library’s four spending priorities.
If the Library anticipates a sustained interest in the author or his/her works, the Library purchases works by visiting authors who provide lectures or talks to the campus community. Purchased works by visiting authors should fit with one of the Library’s four spending priorities.
The Library selectively collects federal government publications through participation in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). As more government information shifts from paper to electronic formats, the Library provides access to this information through the catalog and website. The Library collects or provides access to the Federal Depository Basic Collection. The Library’s collection of government publications focuses on geology and science-related information, educational resources, and health materials from FDLP. Additional selections of materials not currently included can be requested once a year from the FDLP program and are reviewed according to the spending priorities previously described. The Library also collects Colorado State Government information from the Colorado State Library. The government documents section is regularly inventoried to ensure that the records in the online catalog accurately reflect the items on the shelves.
Electronic resources include subject databases and indexes, large multidisciplinary aggregators, journal collections from publishers, subscriptions to individual online journals, electronic books, and websites on the free web. The Library prefers to subscribe to resources that cover many subjects to ensure widespread use and relevance to the curriculum. However, in some cases, it may be necessary to acquire access to more specialized resources. The following criteria are used to inform selection decisions:
The Library may experiment with patron-driven acquisition, short-term loans, and streaming audio/video.
In an effort to maximize its acquisitions budget and acquire as much unique content as possible, the Library will not purchase a work in multiple formats unless necessary to support the needs of the curriculum. Every attempt possible will be made to further transition from print to electronic serials with the following exceptions:
- Popular magazines for leisure reading and browsing
- Journals that are not included in aggregators and are too costly to subscribe to digitally on an individual basis
- Serials of local and regional interest that are useful for archival purposes
The Library welcomes the donation of gifts as a way to enrich the Library’s collection and to support the scholarly, artistic, and informational interests of the campus community. Current selection and university copyright policies apply to gifts received. The Library also recognizes the investment of time by librarians and staff in cataloging and processing resources and the other expenses involved with the addition of any item to the collection. Judicious decisions about adding gifts must be made in accordance with existing collection development and university copyright policies.
The Library does not supply appraisals of donations indicating monetary value. If contact information is supplied, a donor will receive a letter of acknowledgement from the Director of Library Services.
The Library reserves the right to make all final decisions on what is added to the collection given the needs of the students, faculty, and staff and the capacities of the Library.
Most materials are purchased with consideration of their long-term value to the collection. The value of a work, however, changes overtime. While many materials retain their value when considered against the whole of a subject or area of knowledge, the content of some materials will age and need to be replaced with materials that reflect advances in a subject area. As the university's curriculum evolves, the need to maintain materials in some subject areas may be reduced or disappear. This may require discarding materials that are no longer of use or interest to the campus community.
Savage Library strives to provide users with access to relevant, quality, current, and high use materials. To ensure this, weeding is performed on a regular basis. Librarians use
their professional judgment, including the criteria below, and consult faculty as needed.
Materials, which may be weeded, are:
In addition to the above, the following criteria may apply to periodical titles in print. Back issues, which may be weeded, are:
Withdrawn materials are discarded in compliance with State of Colorado regulations.
This policy and spending priorities serve as guidelines for allocating funds and building the collection of library materials. Because the curriculum is dynamic and needs and priorities change, the Library has established a Collection Development Committee that:
The committee consists of the library director, acquisitions technician, and librarians.
Art Vault Collection Policy
The Savage Library Art Vault focuses on paintings, prints and other 2D forms of art, but smaller 3D objects may be considered based on space available and their connection to Western. The Art Vault is for the storage and preservation of artwork created by the art faculty and alumni of Western Colorado University, from the school’s founding to the present day.
Donated works must fall within that scope and may only be added after review and approval by the designated librarian. Access to the Art Vault is available by appointment and/or accompaniment of a library staff member.
Archives and Special Collections Policy
University Archives Policy
The University Archives are focused on the history of Western Colorado University, with items related to its creation and ongoing activities. It includes collections from the various academic departments on campus, and the works of its students, faculty and staff.
For the Archives, the library will accept items related to the history of Western Colorado University going back to its start as The Colorado State Normal School. The accepting of an item/collection will be determined on a case-by-case basis. This can include donations from alumni and current/former faculty. Items relating to the history of the Gunnison Valley will also be considered and may be accepted based on the resources of the library and their connection to the university, though WCU-related items will be given priority.
Special Collections Policy
Special Collections will accept items primarily about the history of the Gunnison Valley and Colorado in general. This is in accordance with the library goal to “Collect and provide published and unpublished materials that reflect the College’s history and that support research in history, prehistory, cultural, and natural resources of the western region of the United States”. Donations focused on the Gunnison Valley and geographic Western Colorado will be prioritized. Examples of items that can be donated are books, manuscripts, and research files.
Donating Items to the Library
Donation
Depending on the item and the resources of the library, the donation may be refused and directed to a more suitable repository. Examples of refusal may include storage size, lack of connection to Western, and better suitability for another institutional repository.
All donations require a completed and signed Deed of Gift Form, detailing the contents and history of their donation, and signing it over to the library. Once a donation is gifted, it becomes the property of the library and is subject to our discretion. If relevant the form should also detail any copyright agreements related to the items (especially if they are not the person who owns the copyright), and any necessary storage requirements/considerations. By donating the materials, the donor acknowledges that the items/collections can be viewed by anyone upon request, unless otherwise stated in the deed of gift.
The library does not supply appraisals of donations to indicate monetary value.
The selection of library materials is made in accordance with the library’s mission and in support of Western Colorado University’s mission. Leslie J. Savage Library believes in intellectual freedom for all and is guided in part by the Library Bill of Rights and the Freedom to Read. While the library embraces its responsibility to provide information representing multiple points of view, Leslie J. Savage Library does not advocate or endorse ideas or statements found within these resources.
Library staff recognizes that given our collection of diverse materials, there may be objections to items in the collection. Procedure has been developed to assure that concerns with collection materials are conducted in a consistent and thoughtful manner. Challenged material will not be automatically withdrawn from the collection. Items shall remain on shelf during the review process and will be handled once a decision has been made. Challenged material may be removed from the collection, reclassified or have the status changed to “limited access.” Material may also see no change and remain on the shelf as is.
Persons wishing to challenge library materials or resources will be asked to submit a written request for reconsideration to the Library Director, who will acknowledge receipt of the request.
The Director will review the request and may bring the manner before library staff for discussion. The request will be considered with the challenged item’s circulation statistics in mind, along with the Library and University missions and the principles of intellectual freedom. The final decision will be made by the Library Director, who will notify the complainant, in writing, of the decision. A copy of the reconsideration request and the subsequent assessment may be provided to the Provost.
Appeal to the process will be brought to the Leslie J. Savage Library Director and Western Colorado University’s Provost.
The Leslie J. Savage Library, Western Colorado University, provides access to subscription-based electronic resources to university students, staff, and faculty for non-commercial, academic, educational and research purposes. Guests may use most licensed electronic resources on-site. Copyright law, individual license agreements, the University’s Information Technology Services Acceptable Use Policy, as well as other applicable laws and regulations apply. Users of library-licensed resources must comply with the terms of the agreement(s). Western Colorado University will not be held liable for any unauthorized use of electronic resources. The University, at its discretion, will act upon unauthorized use as it sees fit.
An authorized user is a current student, faculty or staff member of Western Colorado University. Many, but not all, electronic resources allow guest access on networked University library public use terminals and secure Wi-Fi access.
Persons using a computer on the University campus network are considered authorized users for many, but not all, electronic resources.
Off-campus, authenticated use is available for many, but not all, electronic resources for authorized users of Western Colorado University. Remote access requires the user to log-in with his or her network ID and password.
An authorized user may copy reasonable amounts of the electronic use for personal or private academic purposes.
Authorized users may also search, view, or browse the online content of electronic resources, and download, save, and print limited data for personal, academic use only, in support of the university’s educational mission.
Violate any copyright, trademark, patent, or other intellectual property right associated with the resource
Use the electronic resource for any purpose other than stated educational purposes
Use the electronic resource for commercial purposes
Systematically download or copy the licensed content
Use the electronic resource in course packs or e-reserves without the appropriate permissions
Distribute the electronic resource to others in any format (including sharing passwords)
Use the electronic resource in an illegal or otherwise unauthorized manner
Violation of license terms jeopardizes access for the entire University. Consequences for misuse of these resources may include referral to appropriate campus disciplinary bodies, suspension of access privileges, and suspension of library privileges for non-campus users. All other University policies pertaining to computer use and conduct are applicable in the use of Library computer terminals and electronic resources. These may include:
Information Technology Services Acceptable Use Policy
Western Colorado University Student Handbook
Western Colorado University Handbook for Professional Personnel
Western Colorado University Trustee Policy Manual
U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C.) allows the reproduction of protected works. Section 107 permits fair use copying for certain purposes, including instances of non-profit personal, educational use. Making reproductions of copyright-protected electronic resources, even those not covered by a license agreement, requires permission from the copyright owner unless the copying qualifies as a fair use.
Reproductions of licensed content made by the University library for its users are made in compliance with the resource's license agreement and/or under the provisions of copyright law, Section 108. Reproductions made by University library under copyright law are provided to users with the understanding that copies will be used only for private study, scholarship, or research; and that said copies become the property of the user and may not be duplicated for additional distribution.
February 3, 2016
Updated December 6, 2018
The library instruction classroom is located on the first floor of Leslie J. Savage Library (room 102). This room is available by reservation only due to increased use and demand for instruction workshops. The primary use of this classroom is to support academic instruction across campus.
Please note, there is high-demand for the classroom in the first four weeks of fall and spring semesters.
Instructors are limited to a maximum of four (4) individual non-librarian led sessions per course section in the library classroom per semester.
For questions or to request to use the room, please contact us.
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