collections under stress: developing a coordinated response to ensuring future access to print...

Collections Under Stress: Developing a Coordinated Response to Ensuring Future Access to Print Holdings in New Jersey

VALE 2005 Users Conference Panel Session with

Mary Mallery, Montclair State U.Judy Cohn, UMDNJ

Robert Sewell , Rutgers U. andJohn Cohn, County College of Morris

Last Copy/Repository Issues Panel Session VALE Users Conference, Jan. 6, 2005

Statement of the Problem

As information delivered electronically assumes greater and greater importance—even though published materials continue to burgeon— the library’s ability to dedicate adequate monetary resources and physical space to print collections is diminishing.


Collaborative Print Resource Conservation Issues

Question 1:

What set of criteria, defining the scope and depth of “uniqueness” in collections, will guide the development of policies designed to preserve endangered print materials?



Question 2:

Should librarians and archivists ensure that the last copy of anything that is deemed unique—based on these criteria—is not discarded and hence lost forever?



Question 3:

Have we lost access to unique or near-unique material because of the crisis in print preservation?



Question 4:

Should librarians and archivists encourage and promote the development of print repositories that will enable individual libraries to relieve the pressure of storing—onsite and forever—vast amounts of print material?


VALE Last Copy/Repository Issues Group

Formed in December, 2003 by VALE, the NJ academic library consortium.

Charge: To explore these collaborative print resource conservation issues in the context of preserving New Jersey’s academic and research collections and present them in a white paper.

Posted draft of white paper on VALE Web site for discussion, December, 2004: http://www.valenj.org/conf2005/VALELastCopyDec04.pdf

http://www.valenj.org/conf2005/VALELastCopyDec04.pdf


Jane Bryan, Princeton U. LibrariesJohn Cohn, County College of Morris

Judith Cohn, UMDNJColleen Daze, NJ State Library

Eileen Henthorne, ReCAPMary Mallery (Chair), Montclair State U.

Andrew Scrimgeour, Drew U.Robert Sewell, Rutgers U. Libraries

Richard Sweeney, NJIT

VALE Last Copy Repository Issues Group Members


Repository Issues in NJ

VALE participating libraries could target preservation of:

journal print holdings; or

unique New Jersey historical materials, or

unique monographs, or

New Jersey Government Documents.


Last Copy Policy Issues in NJShrinking budgets at all libraries means the loss of redundancy for subscriptions, leading inevitably to more and more instances of just one library holding a copy of a title;Digitization efforts are being funded as preservation initiatives, but print resources are still fundamental to scholarship; Deaccessioning both journal and book acquisitions to eliminate duplication between the print and electronic resources and to make room in the stacks for new books does not include checking to see if the book or periodical may be the last copy in the State; Creating the necessary policies and procedures to retain last copy print on a statewide level is critical to New Jersey’s long term access to research level resources;


Last Copy Policy Issues in NJRetaining last copies of materials is a good idea, but what will it cost? What is the business model for this? Libraries would benefit from a regional repository for such material as older runs of science journals and older tertiary books and monographs currently clogging the circulating collections.Last copy repositories do not need to be comprehensive, but can work with digital repository efforts on a regional and national level (e.g., PubMedCentral at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/ ) to target material that is omitted from these repositories.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/


Collaborative Print Collection Preservation National Efforts

Center for Research Libraries (CRL) conference in July 2003 on “Preserving America’s Print Resources: Toward a National Strategic Effort” (PAPR) . See: http://www.crl.edu/content/PAPRreportdraft.pdf ) The Library of Congress Heritage Copy Preservation Repository program, described by Nancy Davenport in a paper online at: www.crl.edu/PAPR/Davenport.pdf ; The GPO Collection of Last Resort Plan http://www.gpoaccess.gov/about/reports/clr0604draft.pdf ; andThe distributed print archive project at the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), to establish a retrospective 'light' archive of humanities and social science journal titles available in electronic format through JSTOR. See: http://www.crl.edu/FocusArticles/sum03CVM.htm

http://www.crl.edu/content/PAPRreportdraft.pdf

http://www.crl.edu/PAPR/Davenport.pdf

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/about/reports/clr0604draft.pdf

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/about/reports/clr0604draft.pdf

http://www.crl.edu/FocusArticles/sum03CVM.htm


Selected Last Copy Policy Models

U. of Wisconsin Last Copy Policy: http://www.uwsa.edu/olit/cuwlweb/cdc/cdclcr89.htm New Hampshire Last Copy Center Depository (LCC) Policy:http://www.state.nh.us/nhsl/lcc/ CONSORT (Ohio) Colleges Cooperative Collection Development Last Copy Policy:http://www.wooster.edu/library/OH5/CCCD/CCCD_LastCopy.html

http://www.uwsa.edu/olit/cuwlweb/cdc/cdclcr89.htm

http://www.uwsa.edu/olit/cuwlweb/cdc/cdclcr89.htm

http://www.state.nh.us/nhsl/lcc/

http://www.wooster.edu/library/OH5/CCCD/CCCD_LastCopy.html

http://www.wooster.edu/library/OH5/CCCD/CCCD_LastCopy.html


VALE Recommended Next Steps

Form a VALE Last Copy/Repository Policies Committee with the charge:This Committee will investigate last copy retention and physical storage options and recommend a coordinated response for ensuring long-term access to the print collections in member libraries of VALE.


VALE Last Copy/Repository Policies Committee Activities

1) Investigate and assemble listing of current last copy practice in VALE member libraries.

2) Assess collections held in VALE member libraries and subject disciplines covered for targeting possible last policy collections.

3) Construct a last copy policy statement for VALE member libraries.



4) Conduct a survey of VALE member libraries’ repository plans and policies.

5) Raise awareness by: *Engaging Cooperative Collection Management keynote speaker for annual VALE Users Conference ; and *Conducting VALE member Focus Groups on "Collections Under Stress".



6) Develop resources for VALE Cooperative Collection Management: *Build tools for automated cooperative collection evaluation (e.g., using VALE Virtual Catalog and NJULS); and*Compile "Who do you call" Listing for working together on Collection Management issues;* Conduct workshops to raise awareness about standards to address preservation issues as well as retention issues of print resources.


Thank you!For further information, contact:

Mary Mallery, Ph.D.

Harry A. Sprague Library

Montclair State University

Email: [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]