The Ohio State University

Subject:     Selecting Library Materials for a Remote Storage Facility

Date:     April 1988

From:     William J. Studer, Director of University Libraries
              Henry Leland, Professor, Psychology and Chairperson, Library Council

To:     All Faculty**
          (** The Health Sciences Library and the Law Library, which are administered apart from the University Library System, will be establishing criteria specific to their respective collections.)

The University is planning to begin construction next year of a Library Depository to house infrequently used books, journals, and other library materials. It is essential that guidelines be in place for the selection of items that are potential candidates for transfer to that facility. A copy of those guidelines, developed by the Libraries in conjunction with Library Council, is enclosed.

We cannot emphasize too strongly, as noted in the body of the guidelines, that decisions about individual titles actually to transferred depend on close cooperation between faculty relevant to various disciplines and librarians responsible for related parts of the collections. We expect the new Library Depository to open during latter 1989/90 and therefore must begin in earnest to select volumes during 1988/89. During the next few months, the Libraries will be assembling data (primarily evidence of patterns of use, including, but not limited to, past circulation) to assist in these reviews.

Should you wish to discuss the guidelines and/or participate in reviews, please call on the librarian responsible for your subject area(s). A list of these librarians is appended to the guidelines.

The security and preservation environment inherent in the depository's nature as a closed stack facility, equipped with state-of-the-art temperature and humidity controls, will help significantly to preserve many volumes that would otherwise be vulnerable to accelerated deterioration. Also, we ask you to look on the unavoidable prospect of transferring many volumes to the new depository in light of the following:

• Retrieval of volumes from the depository will be frequent (at least twice each day), with provision that most items could be made available as quickly as those now sent by campus mail to a borrower's campus address or held for pickup, if requested -- as is currently the case when faculty and students ask staff to "page" books from libraries across campus.

• If it is demonstrated that a title which has been transferred to the depository should be returned to a campus library because of curricular or research needs, that transfer can and will be effected quite promptly, thanks to the flexibility of LCS.

• If a scholar or student needs to consult a large number of volumes housed at the depository (e.g., to review many volumes of an older journal), s/he will be able to use a comfortable reading room at the depository, which will be monitored by staff of the adjacent University Archives.

The University Libraries provides four types of housing ( in book stacks, cabinets, etc) for library materials in its care:

• Open - Materials for general circulation

• Limited/noncirculating - Materials for reference use, reserve, or limited (e.g., 2-hour or overnight) circulation.

• Protected - Materials that require special protection because of their cost, fragility, or rarity; e.g., all special collections and materials housed in library locked cases. (Items in this category typically are restricted to use in a supervised reading room.)

• Depository - Materials that are expected to have infrequent use. Requested titles will be retrieved at least twice each day, or, as need dictates, on a more frequent basis. On-demand retrieval will be available in exceptional circumstances. Access to a monitored reading space adjacent to the depository will be provided for use when a scholar or student needs to consult large numbers of volumes (e.g., extensive backruns of older journals) that are housed at the depository.

The following criteria will be used to identify library materials that may be appropriate for transfer to the Library Depository. Decisions about transfer must be on a title-by-title basis and be related to the differing needs of faculty and students in many disciplines. Librarians will work closely and carefully with faculty in departments, centers, and other academic program and interdisciplinary areas to identify materials that are infrequently used and therefore appropriate to consider for deposit. Close cooperation between faculty from throughout the University and library faculty will be the key to a successful review of library holdings.

The guidelines below are meant only to help identify groups of items within which there are likely to be candidate titles. Clearly, even within these categories there are titles that are regularly used and therefore not appropriate for a closed stack depository. Patterns of use, curricular needs, and the nature of research programs must be all taken into account as decisions are made.

The following categories of monographs will be reviewed for potential housing in the depository. Each title will be reviewed individually.

• Titles published before 1850.

• Titles with no record of circulation or other evidence that they have been consulted in the last 10 years.

• Titles with multiple editions.

(Note: The latest edition and any earlier editions deemed significant would not be transferred to the depository.)

With few exceptions, newly acquired titles, regardless of date of publication, will not be transferred to the depository for at least five years following their addition to the collections. They may be included in subsequent reviews for transfer if they show no evidence of use.

The following categories of serials (journals, annuals, etc.) will be reviewed for potential transfer to the depository. Each title will be reviewed individually and evidence of patterns of use must be taken into account.

• Volumes of serials that are on current subscription will be considered for transfer to the depository based on their subject focus and the dates of publication of volumes held.

  Subject area Science and Technology Social Sciences Humanities

  Date pre-1960 pre-1940 pre-1900

• Serial volumes that have already been transferred, over many years to the Thompson (Main) Library from department libraries lacking shelving space.

• Serials that have ceased publication or, if still published, are no longer received on a current subscription in the Libraries.

• Backruns of volumes of serials that are held by two or more libraries on campus will be reviewed by a group of several librarians in conjunction with faculty from relevant disciplines.

• Paper issues of serial backrun titles that are also held in other formats (such as a microfilm or microfiche) will be reviewed, taking special care to retain paper issues that are of artifactual value or essential to meet research needs.