Selection for this discipline is designed to support the doctoral degree program in audiology (AuD). Audiology is an allied health profession concerned with: 1) the science of the hearing and balance mechanisms; 2) the clinical identification, diagnosis, and treatment of individuals with hearing and balance disorders. The doctoral degree is required for new audiologists applying to practice in California. The AuD program at SJSU is a four year program, emphasizing clinical proficiency informed by scholarly research and evidence-based practice. Accordingly, the AuD program curriculum is comprised of: academic courses, clinical rotations (served on-campus, as well as off-campus in public or private clinical settings), and a final doctoral research project.
The accrediting bodies for the AuD program are: the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CAA) and the Accreditation Commission for Audiology Education (ACAE).
The University Library serves as the University’s main resource for this subject. Students and faculty may have access to the libraries at their place of work, e.g. Kaiser and Valley Medical Center Library. The SJSU collection is enhanced by access to materials held the 23 CSU campuses as well as through Interlibrary Loan Services.
Coordination might be needed with: Health Sciences, Education (particularly Communicative Disorders and Sciences), Psychology, and Government Documents. Academic courses such as Acoustics and Anatomy & Physiology form the didactic foundation of this program.
The University collection does not generally overlap with the San Jose Public Library collection to a great extent due to the nature of the program. However, the public library has materials in areas that may complement the collection in terms of: medical dictionaries, health professions' career books, and general information on health topics.
Materials are purchased in the format that most effectively delivers the information needed by the discipline for doctoral students in audiology. Materials will generally be in the English language and will reflect the current information in all areas of Audiology.
The strength of the AuD collection lies in the number of electronic journals available as full-text via the library's subscriptions. In 2018, liaison librarians at four CSU campuses developing AuD programs analyzed their pooled resources against the holdings at SDSU, whose AuD program was well-established. They determined 85-90% of the identified books and journals were available through one or more of the four participating libraries.
The book collection needs continued development in the areas of culturally-sensitive clinical skills. At the same time, materials on audiology basics such as hearing disorders prevention and interventions, assistive technologies, and special topics must be kept scrupulously current. Bibliographic access to the journal literature is provided through many online bibliographic databases, including CINAHL, PubMed, ComDisDome, and more. SJSU students, faculty, and staff can use interlibrary loans services to request materials not held by the SJSU library. They also have access to over 29 million books across the entire CSU system, which can be requested via OneSearch and delivered to the SJSU Library within 2-5 days.
Future objectives for evaluation of the Audiology collection include the acquisition or replacement of essential works missing from the collection. However, newer editions of titles, if available, are preferred for adding to the collection. The liaison librarian selects materials in consultation with the Audiology faculty, as well as by monitoring the professional resources and reviews of materials in the field.