Library Materials Withdrawal Project

September 7, 2018

Rationale for a Remote Storage Consolidation Project

This summer University Libraries learned that we were receiving compact shelving to allow for the consolidation of our two offsite remote storage facilities (RS1 and RS2) into a single building. This is good news for the library because it makes management of our offsite print holdings easier.  As a result, we will need to withdraw and relocate some material in order to get the highest priority books, journals and documents to fit. We don’t have a lot of time to make adjustments to these collections before the compact shelving installation begins in February of 2019.  This is why we’re launching a collection consolidation project for remote storage.

Background

In anticipation of current and future space consolidation projects, FSU is now a participating member in the Eastern Academic Scholars’ Trust (EAST) https://eastlibraries.org/, along with many academic libraries. With EAST’s help, low use print books in the circulating collections of member libraries have been identified. Because there are typically more copies in a multi-institution shared collection than are needed to meet the anticipated demand, selected institutions have agreed to retain copies long-term while other institutions are free to withdraw copies because they can easily be borrowed from where they are being retained.  This is the model being used for 9 million print books held under EAST long-term retention commitments.

FSU is also a member of the Hathi Trust Digital Library https://www.hathitrust.org/. The online repository provides cover to cover full-text access to over 8 million digitized books in the public domain and within copyright. The most accessible materials to FSU are in the public domain but access to in copyright books is permitted for preservation purposes and for persons with disabilities.

Project scope and withdrawal criteria

In the early planning stages of a multiyear space reclamation project we must start by considering the withdrawal of select print books so that our remaining collections will fit into our available space.  The project will start with the withdrawal consideration of print books in offsite storage and Strozier’s subbasement. The following withdrawal criteria will be used:

1) Books that are duplicated online in the Hathi Trust, have retention commitments within EAST membership, and are available at a minimum of two public universities within the State University System (SUS). If immediate online access to the Hathi Trust copy isn’t adequate, faculty and students will have access to the physical books via EAST and Florida UBorrow

2) Science books that are at least 10 years old, have not circulated in 10 years (for Mathematics 14 years), have EAST retention commitments, and multiple copies in Florida accessible via UBorrow.

Project Timeline

Items that match the above criteria are listed on two different spreadsheets on the next page for your review.  The deadline for the completion of faculty and librarian review is October 3. The withdrawal and relocation of books will start on October 4.  This timeline is necessary due to the timeline for vacating RS2 and installing compact shelving in RS1. 

Items that are withdrawn will be transferred upon request to faculty members or departmental reading rooms.  All withdrawn print content will be available from other convenient sources, such as the State University System’s UBorrow service, Rapid ILL, and Interlibrary Loan.

An academic department that wishes to make a case either to keep the print copy in the library or to take possession for its own collection, may comment directly to Roy Ziegler or the department's subject librarian no later than October 3. 

We look forward to your cooperation in the coming weeks as we work through the project. If you have specific questions, the departmental subject librarian is the best place to start. If there are more general questions about the project, I would appreciate hearing from you (rziegler@fsu.edu). 

Roy Ziegler
Associate Dean of Libraries for Collections and Access

Guidelines for Withdrawing Print Materials was vetted by various University Libraries working groups and approved by the Dean of Libraries and the Faculty Senate Library Committee in 2009.

The 2018 Monograph Withdrawal Criteria gives specific parameters for withdrawing print monographs while following the Guidelines.