ICT developments have increased demand and expectations of users beyond what used to be the traditional Library services. Today information resources appear in both print and non-print formats, which was not possible in the past. At the same time libraries have continued to struggle to cope up with challenges such as economic constraints in terms of financial allocation, lack of enough space, curriculum changes, and information explosions in different formats and media. Libraries stock books, journals and magazines, CD-ROMs and DVDs, tapes and other electronic materials. Thus, collection and development have become exciting and challenging tasks for libraries in today’s environment, as they encompass a process of bringing a variety of information resources to meet user needs in a timely and cost effective manner, by selecting and acquiring information resources produced locally, nationally and internationally. It is therefore important to formulate a collection and development policy that would set a framework and the parameters intended to guide the process of collection and development in libraries.
A collection and development policy serves many functions which include:
Description of current collections.
Guidance for staff involved in collection and development to reconsider the aims and objectives of the organization.
Assistance in budgeting.
Communication channel between the library and outside users.
Supports cooperative collection and development.
Assistance in overall collection management activities, including the handling of gifts, selection and deselecting of materials; weeding, retention; preservation and discard of library.
materials with reference to specified levels of collection depth and breadth.
The Library serves only the university community i.e. students, staff and researchers. However, people coming from outside the university or country and wishing to use the library must do so in adherence to the MWECAU Library rules and regulations, upon obtaining the approval of the University Administration to use the Library.
Objectives of Mwenge Catholic Library
The main objective of MWECAU Library is to develop and maintain library and information services in the relevant disciplines so as to support core functions of the university in teaching, research and outreach including consultancy services as well as provide information to other categories of users. The specific objectives are to:-
Serve library and information needs of any individual or any group in need of such information.
Supervise, coordinate, advice and offer consultancy and liaison services to cooperating libraries in Tanzania.
Be a repository of published and unpublished materials on relevant subject fields.
Establish and maintain catalogue for easy location of materials available in the system.
Establish and promote cooperation with professional bodies such as Tanzania Library Association (TLA), Kenya Library Association (KLA), Uganda Library and Information. Association (ULIA) and International Federation of Library Association (IFLA).
Establish and promote cooperation with similar libraries and information centers at national and international levels.
Collect and maintain records of relevant research and development projects in progress or completed.
Finance, organize and conduct or facilitate the conduct of in-service and professional training of its staff in order for the library to render efficient and effective services.
Provide literature services for current awareness and delivery of documents.
The scope of coverage of information resources includes the basic, applied and social sciences, etc. Access to the library holdings is made possible through card catalogue and Online Public Access Catalogue.
The Library has a diversity of information resources collected on various specialized disciplines as provided for by the University curricula and University community needs in particular. It has both print and non-print formats of information. The print information resources include books, journals, research reports, theses/dissertations, newspapers and grey literature materials of different kinds. The print book collection then stood at 10,000 volumes acquired from St. Joseph’s Teachers’ College. Although there has been a comprehensive stocktaking, weeding out of obsolete literature or archiving of rare publications has not been done. The library had also a number of electronic information resources in CD-ROMs, DVDs, and online databases.
The current status of MWECAU library collection is as follows; Physical Books 42,546, E-books 6,720, Reference collection 1,297, Special Reserves 1,294, Videos on varios subjects 758 and Hard Copy Journals 3,260.
