a. Explanation

The Collection Development Policy of the UNI Curriculum Laboratory is intended to serve as an instrument for identifying needs of the teacher education program for curriculum materials and determining the lab’s response to these needs in terms of selection of items for the various collections. It is essential to have consistent policies that are flexible enough to respond to the dynamic needs of UNI’s teacher education program.

b. Lab’s Mission Statement

The mission of the University of Northern Iowa Curriculum Laboratory (within Instructional Resources and Technology Services) is to provide student, faculty, and in-service teachers and administrators with a facility in which to examine and evaluate current curriculum materials. In addition, the Curriculum Laboratory provides selected support services to the teacher education program at UNI.

c. Lab’s Clientele

1. The primary clientele are students, faculty, and staff within the teacher education program at UNI.

2. Teachers, administrators, and other N/K-12 educational personnel from areas in Iowa are also clientele. Their requests for loans of materials or other services are honored whenever they do not interfere with needs of above clientele.

3. The general public, who are adult residents of Iowa, are served also. Their requests for loan of materials or other services are honored whenever they do not interfere with needs of the above clientele.

4. N/K-12 students are not direct patrons of the UNI Curriculum Lab. They may utilize only lab resources that are loaned to one of the above groups.

d. Collection Priorities

1. The Curriculum Laboratory collects selected, curriculum materials currently used in N/K-12 grade classrooms, mainly in Iowa but elsewhere in the United States as well. These materials will include textbooks, enrichment materials, curriculum guides, units, activities, standardized tests, catalogs, and software.

2. The lab will also collect selected, current materials for research about N/K-12 curriculum. These items will include research file resources, graduate research papers, periodicals, and references.

3. The lab is committed to developing a balanced collection of current materials of various formats on various subjects. These materials will reflect multicultural, nonsexist values and will be geared to learners of various abilities and learning styles.

4. The lab will provide examples of new and emerging instructional technologies to the clientele.

e. Major Services

1. The lab will be open a substantial number of hours for clients to access materials and equipment, including evening and weekend hours.

2. Lab staff will provide reference assistance to individual users and to groups and classes.

3. The lab will issue publications to provide information about materials and services.

4. The lab will maintain and operate a reserve desk.

5. The lab will maintain and operate microcomputer/technology laboratories so clientele may utilize software.

f. Lab Personnel Roles and Responsibilities

1. Professional staff is directly responsible for the development, staffing, and operation of the Curriculum Laboratory including ultimate responsibility for collection development. The professional staff needs:

- an awareness of the informational and curricular needs of the lab’s clientele

- resources for staff, facilities, equipment and materials

- a clear and open relationship with the College of Education administration so needs and concerns may be adequately addressed

2. Support staff is involved with the daily operations of the lab and need adequate training to perform their duties.

3. Student workers are involved with the daily operations of the lab and need adequate training to perform their duties.