Materials are selected to support B.A. and M.A degrees and a postbaccalaureate program to prepare students lacking speech pathology majors for graduate work. Library resources also support a Deaf and Hard of Hearing credential program in the Special Education Department of the College of Education.
The University Library serves as the main resource for this subject. Instructional media purchased with library funds are housed in the campus Media Services Department. King Library houses the Educational Resource Center, sponsored by the California Department of Education (currently housed on the 7th floor and Lower Level of the King Library). It contains K-8 print and non-print instructional materials adopted by the State of California.
The Communicative Disorders & Sciences Librarian coordinates selection with other librarians as needed, especially in education and the health sciences. A librarian serves as a member of the College of Education Curriculum Committee. Membership on this committee allows library participation in curricular changes which may require purchasing new resources.
Prior to the move to the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, a San Jose Public Library/San Jose State University Library collection analysis was performed to determine the extent of overlap between the two collections. The analysis revealed no overlap for the subject area of Communicative Disorders and Sciences.
Materials are purchased in the format that most effectively delivers the information needed by the discipline in both undergraduate and graduate coursework. Materials will generally be in the English language and will reflect current topics and updated evidence-based information. These aspects of communicative disorders are included: professional, clinical, diagnostic, treatment/intervention, and research and assessment methodology.
The strength of the communicative disorders and sciences collection is the growing number of electronic resources, including the ComDisDome database acquired in 2007. Other useful databases for the department’s faculty and students include PsycINFO and CINAHL. The rising cost of journals remains a challenge for the communicative disorders library materials allocation. Periodical cuts to the Communicative Disorders and Sciences journal collection were necessary in 2002 because of cost inflation. Students in this major can use interlibrary loan services to request articles from expensive journals that the library does not subscribe to. Journal subscriptions are purchased in electronic format only. For more details about the collection, please refer to the Communication Disorders & Sciences research guide: https://libguides.sjsu.edu/CDS.
According to Academic Senate Library Policy S15-10, periodic evaluations of the print collection are required to maintain the high quality of the academic collection, with the primary goals of improving the effectiveness of browsing and providing space for new acquisitions. Resources for the Communicative Disorders & Diseases collection are selected after consulting with the faculty and from recommendations garnered from book reviews in databases such as Book Review Digest Plus, Choice Reviews, GOBI, and Doody's Core Titles.
The College of Education is developing a Doctorate of Audiology program, which the university library will support with books, journals, and databases that most effectively deliver the information needed.