Given the Library’s primary goal of supporting the curriculum and Little Big Horn College, the main factor when selecting materials should be how well they do or do not support the College’s courses of study.
Once curriculum needs have been met, the Library selects materials to fulfill its obligations to the community: to provide informational and general interest materials to the Crow Community and maintain strong collections of Crow and Native American materials.
To best serve the various education levels of its college community, the Library includes materials from high school to lower-division undergraduate levels. The exception to this is the Crow and Native American collections, which may include materials at the graduate or professional level. The Library collects materials in all appropriate formats: print, microforms, audiovisual, and computer-mediated materials (see format-specific criteria for more information). The library also houses materials typical of a public library, including a children’s section, light fiction, and large print, as well as a general collection across community interest.
Selection is based on:
- Relevance to the college curriculum
- Relevance to the current subject coverage (see subject-specific criteria for more information)
- Anticipated demand and interest
- Recommendations from faculty, students, and community members
- Review sources on the material
- Appropriateness of specific media to the content
- Accuracy, currency, and permanence of the information
- Organization and ease of use
- Reputation of author, publisher, or producer
- Format durability
- Availability of materials in neighboring or OMNI consortium (Outreach Montana: Networked Information) libraries
- Cost (compared to anticipated use)
Languages
Because the curriculum of Little Big Horn College does not provide courses taught in languages other than English and Crow, the Library collects materials only in these two languages.
Geographical Areas
The geographical focus of the collection is Montana, the Northern Rocky Mountains, the Northern Plains, and the Pacific Northwest. Materials dealing with the United States in general and various other parts of the world as required or demonstrated by interest.