Texas A&M University-Commerce is one of the larger institutions in the Texas A&M University System. It is a comprehensive university which hopes to become the University of choice for all those seeking a higher education in the Northeast Texas region and beyond. It provides traditional and non-traditional learning opportunities through existing and new programs that set high expectations and goals for students, faculty and staff, whether in Commerce, the Dallas Metroplex including the University Center at Dallas (UCD), and Navarro College. The University promotes a sense of community through a nurturing environment for all individuals to maximize learning, career and personal development. A&M-Commerce wishes to be a place where students, faculty, staff, and community are engaged in the pursuit of excellence.

Gee Library materials and services are primarily intended for use by enrolled undergraduate and graduate students without regard to whether they are attending classes on- or off- campus, and by faculty and staff. Adults and children from Commerce and surrounding communities may use materials and avail themselves of services of Gee Library as allowed by Circulation policy. Specialized equipment is available to accommodate visually impaired campus and community persons.

Since the University’s founding in 1889 as East Texas Normal College, a primary focus of the University, and the library collection, has been teacher preparation. In 1957 the Legislature, recognizing that the purpose of the institution had broadened beyond teacher education, changed the name to East Texas State College. Following the inauguration of the first doctoral program in 1962, the name was changed to East Texas State University. The development of the library collection would follow suit by adding collection emphases in the area of business and would begin to collect in greater depth to accommodate degrees offered at the doctoral level. As additional programs sought accreditation, such as Psychology, Counseling, Chemistry, Music, Agricultural Sciences, Social Work and Computer Science, the library has provided extensive collection support in those areas as well. A&M-Commerce is currently moving toward a regional emphasis for Mathematics and Science Education which is also reflected in the library collection.

The primary location for the Gee Library collection is on the Commerce campus, but there is a separate and appropriate collection in the library at the Metroplex Commuter Facility; and materials are being delivered to the UCD as well as Navarro College to accommodate our students enrolled at those locations. Interlibrary Loans are shipped to all these locations. Electronic access and delivery of materials are readily available to all A&M-Commerce students both on- and off- campus.

The materials budget supports the purchase of all formats designated in the collection development policy. The budget supports expenditures for the following:

•   firm and standing orders, subscriptions, databases;
•   membership in consortia, and cooperative agreements with other libraries;
•   OCLC cataloging, searching and access charges;
•   local and contracted bindery services and preservation.

Subject librarians and the Acquisitions/Collection Development Librarian have primary responsibility for maintaining appropriate balance of the library collection and compliance with the collection development policy. Final decision for the purchase of all library materials rests with the Library Director.

There are five subject librarians in Gee Library who provide oversight in the areas of Business, Education, Humanities, Science, and Social Sciences. These subject librarians work closely with faculty in order to ensure compliance with discipline and sub-discipline collection development policies. Subject librarians also track departmental budget balances for their assigned areas.

Faculty representatives who are appointed by their respective academic departments should have a good overview of their department’s aims and emphases as well as a strong knowledge of the library collection in that subject area. Frequent communication between subject librarians and faculty representatives is imperative to ensure that collection development is balanced and meets the needs identified by the collection development policies governing the various disciplines and sub-disciplines. In addition to suggesting books for purchase the role of your faculty representative is as follows:

1. Serve as the contact person for the subject librarian about library concerns, including departmental monograph budget, serial and database purchases.
2. Inform subject librarian of any upcoming departmental initiatives and/or program additions or changes.
3. Assist department faculty in the event they have problems ordering books.
4. Receive and familiarize themselves with the department's collection development policy in order to facilitate focused book ordering.

  In order to allow sufficient time for appropriate ordering strategies there are three deadlines for submitting orders:

• December 1 – twenty five percent (25%) of each department’s funds expended
• February 1 – fifty percent (50%) of each departments’ funds expended
• May 1 – all department funds expended.

These deadlines enalbe librarians to avoid ordering backlogs and to allocate funds as set out by the basic guidelines and priorities of the Core Policy

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Gee Library participates in several resource sharing programs. The most important cooperative agreement is with TexShare. TexShare, a Texas initiative begun in 1995, has made possible many services that would have been too expensive for any one library to afford. Some of the services provided by TexShare include provision of access to a growing number of databases, either free or at substantially discounted cost; the TexShare Borrowing Card service; and TexPress, a courier service.

While Amigos Library Services cannot be precisely defined as a consortium, our membership in this agency has provided discounted access to databases, as well as acting on our behalf with OCLC, a large national consortium that provides library support in the areas of cataloging and interlibrary loans.

Another important cooperative arrangement occurred when, in 1996, East Texas State University (now Texas A&M University-Commerce) merged with the Texas A&M University System. The library directors of the sister institutions in the A&M System work together on cooperative purchase of databases

Gee Library is also a member of The Phoenix Group, originally under the aegis of Amigos Library Services. Cooperative projects undertaken at the outset with the Phoenix Group have largely been taken over by other agencies, notably TexShare and Amigos Library Services. The Phoenix Group directors have one ongoing preservation agreement which will assure retention in the region of at least one copy in print of a complete run of journal titles important to the group.