Shared Print Collections Program

Total current projects: 2

Problem Statement: As the availability of online scholarly resources grows, research institutions face increasing pressure to optimize management of their print collections. Consolidation and rationalization of holdings within and across institutions creates economies of scale that benefit individual institutions and the community as a whole by reducing costs and eliminating redundancies in system-wide holdings. While there is broad interest in achieving such economies, essential infrastructure for enabling inter-institutional cooperation in print management is lacking.

Impact: Projects within the Shared Print program will collectively enable research institutions to enact cooperative print management schemes by (1) creating a venue in which shared policy can be formulated, (2) establishing best practices that will guide institutions in implementing shared print solutions, (3) contributing to the development of tools that will support institutions in integrating shared print solutions within existing workflows, and (4) demonstrating the value and feasibility of inter-institutional print management in a pilot implementation among program partners.

Projects

• Deaccession Materials Held in Print and Electronic Form
• Define Policy and Infrastructure Requirements for Building and Managing Shared Print Collections
• Analyze Current Shared Print Policy Frameworks (Complete)
• Commission a Report Synthesizing the Existing State of the Art in Offsite Storage Provision and Organizational Structures (.pdf: 227K/ 35pp.) (Complete)
• North American Storage Trust (NAST) (Complete)

Committees and Working Groups

• RLG Programs Shared Print Coordinating Committee
• Deaccessioning E-Journal Print Backfiles Working Group
• Shared Print Collections Working Group (Dissolved in July 2008)
• SHARES Program

Resources

• RLG Partnership Shared Print Collections Working Group Shared Print Policy Review Report. (.pdf: 161K/23 pp.)
• Shared Print Policies: Sample Single-, Last- and Shared-copy Policy Documents
• Shared Print Policy Review: Summary Findings (.pdf: 92KB/12pp.)
• Payne, Lizanne. November 2007. Library Storage Facilities and the Future of Print Collections in North America (.pdf: 227K/ 35pp.).
• Meeting Summary: When the Print Hits the Fan: Collaborative Approaches to Managing Print Collections in the Digital Era (November, 2007)