Collection Development Practices and Procedures

Approval Room

The Approval Room is located in the Acquisitions Department and all incoming monographic items are staged on shelves for review. These consist of all approval plan books, form selections, some of which are shelf-ready, as well as titles received from other vendors. Volumes are placed on the shelves on Friday and remain for a one-week review period. All Collection Managers are expected to review their titles each week, so we can move new materials into the processing workflow and pay our invoices promptly. During this time, appropriate titles may be flagged for faculty notification or for addition to one of the SSH Cluster’s Reference Collections.

UCSD has a contract with YBP to provide Shelf-Ready service for our approval plan books. Shelf-ready books will come with property stamps and labels; those with no copy will just be stamped and taped. Books going to Music and IR/PS will be flagged. If Collection Managers wish to change a location, designate for “Reference,” or change a fund, they must insert a white streamer and make a clear note of the change. They may also change the fund on the multi-part form that accompanies the volume. These books are automatically bought once they have arrived and been accounted for. Books will remain on the shelf for one week and will then be sent to their location.

If a Collection Manager is away for more than a week, the Head of the Monograph Receiving Unit may be able to accommodate a request to hold titles for more than one week. For leave periods of more than two weeks, the Collection Coordinator should ask the appropriate Collection Coordinator to review incoming materials temporarily.

Should a Collection Manager choose to reject a volume coming on approval, the reasons must be indicated on the reverse of the approval slip accompanying each volume. The slip should be initialed. The Collection Coordinator reviews all rejected volumes and works with the Head of the Monograph Receiving Unit to make any necessary changes to our YBP approval plan. We strive to maintain a low return rate because of the associated costs and labor, and our current return rate is around 3%, which is an acceptable figure.

Transfer and Retention

In addition to acquiring new materials for the collections, Collection Managers are expected to conduct ongoing review of their circulating collections of and identify low-use or outdated materials to transfer to off-site locations or remove from the collection entirely.

In addition to this routine collection review, Collection Managers should be familiar with their areas of responsibility within their library’s Reference collection. In addition to purchasing new titles for Reference, superseded or outdated materials should be removed. With space at a premium in all the Cluster Libraries, Collection Managers should ask themselves the question “How much is enough?” and acquire, update, and remove materials accordingly.

Transfer and deselection activities affect many other staff in units throughout the Libraries. Collection Managers should refer to the document “Library Materials Location Moves, Changes, and Weeding Projects” and always be sure the Collection Coordinator is aware of your collection management activities.

Format Migration and Cancellations

As increasing numbers of journal titles migrate from traditional print to electronic format, UCSD prefers the electronic format, with few minor exceptions. Reasons for maintaining a multiple print format title include: missing text or image content in the electronic version, lack of color, and unacceptable viewing or printing of color charts or other visual material.

As new titles move in and out of UC-wide, CDL-negotiated packages (such as Blackwell, Springer, Elsevier), we have the opportunity to review the title lists during the contract renewal period and provide our preferences to CDL. The Collection Coordinator will work closely with Acquisitions Department staff to communicate this process to the appropriate Collection Managers.

Shared Print Repositories

CDL negotiations with the vendors of electronic journal packages are complex. Occasionally, one desired negotiating point is that one print copy of each title be supplied to UC. These archival copies are housed at one of the Regional Library Facilities, the Northern Regional Library Facility (NRLF) or the Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF).

This allows the individual campuses the flexibility to cancel their print subscriptions and provides reassurance that a print copy is available in the UC System.

This type of repository is a Prospective Print Repository. Titles are collected from one point in time forward; for example, the Sage print archive began in January 2005.

Another type of repository is the Retrospective Print Repository. The JSTOR shared print archive is the prime example. This is a “snapshot” of the JSTOR collection which consists of 515 (363 active) extant titles as of November, 2003, and in a two year period would include some “moving wall” volumes (those that age into the JSTOR during the period) for those titles. Titles added to JSTOR’s digital collection since November 2003 are not a part of the current project.

The project will build one complete run of JSTOR print titles and will store them under optimal environmental conditions as a “dim archive” in order to ensure that faculty and students at the University of California continue to have access to the print collection that serves as the basis for JSTOR electronic texts. All issues will receive, as needed, necessary conservation treatment, thus ensuring their survival over time.

As part of the UC Libraries Shared Print program, JSTOR print titles will be accessible as a “dim archive,” under controlled conditions, to UC Library users for research or for pedagogical purposes. Although articles from JSTOR journals are available in electronic format, the print collection will preserve their context: tables of contents, advertisements, and other front and back matter.

The collection consists of 363 active serial runs comprising 515 bibliographic titles (owing to title changes, mergers, splits, and cessations), with a total of about 93,300 issues (equivalent to 23,300 volumes per JSTOR estimate) or roughly 13 million pages. The collection would be assembled during a two-year period, beginning in the summer of 2004, and be housed in the SRLF.

This provides reassurance to the individual campuses that a complete JSTOR run is available and allows them to free up valuable shelf space for other uses. The estimated total linear feet savings is calculated at 3232 feet.

UC Libraries Shared Print Program

In April 2005, UC Irvine Distinguished Librarian Joan Ariel accepted the position of Shared Print Planning Manager with the Office of Systemwide Library Planning Shared Print Program. She is responsible for leading a collaborative Systemwide effort to develop plans, strategies, and cost models for pilot projects for the UC libraries' shared monographic collection building.

She is working with various UC-wide Bibliographer Groups to develop other types of shared print archives, both retrospective and prospective. Projects range from collections of world literature in English, Anglophone Canadian literature, to discussions of how to best and systematically collect state and federal government information.

Gifts

UCSD accepts gifts to enhance our collection’s depth in particular subject areas and in support of current research and instruction needs. We apply the same criteria to selecting these often older materials for the collection as we do when ordering new materials. In general, we do not accept textbooks or trade publications. Serial volumes or issues may be accepted in order to fill in collection gaps. UCSD Libraries can not provide a monetary appraisal of the gift collection value for tax or other purposes.

UCSD automatically accepts gifts from departing or retiring faculty members. Members of the public or faculty members will contact the Library in a variety of ways. They may call the Information Desk be referred to the Acquisition Department, or they may contact a particular subject specialist. Potential donors should be treated with courtesy and immediately be thanked for thinking of UCSD in this way, and they need to understand that we have the right to dispose of the gift as we see fit. We then need to assess the potential value of the collection in terms of both our time and our space limitations within Geisel. We should determine whether the gift must be accepted complete, as is, or if we can select particular items for the UCSD collection. If the potential gift comes from a local source, we may decide to review the collection in person. If we decide not to accept the gift, we should thank the potential donor for thinking of UCSD in this way and refer the donor to other libraries in the area.

All materials are reviewed by the appropriate Collection Manager, in close consultation with Acquisitions Department staff. All gifts become the property of the UC Regents, and as such, non-selected materials are sent to UCSD Surplus Sales. Should a Collection Manager wish to send materials to another UC, she or he must identify a place to stage the materials and be prepared to box and ship them on their library account. Only very small numbers may be sent via TriCor to other campuses.

Smaller incoming gifts are staged for review by all Collection Managers in the Acquisitions Department Review Room. Gifts generally remain on the shelves for two weeks. Gift volumes that are selected for the collections should be flagged with the appropriate colored “branch” streamer and initialed.

UCSD Gift Procedures