Deaccession Materials Held in Print and Electronic Form

Research libraries face a revolutionary challenge in transitioning from a world where end users start their research at the library, using mostly print materials, to a predominantly digital world where researchers begin their quests on the Internet. Managing the middle period, when libraries are struggling to transform themselves from print warehouses to collaborative learning, research, and knowledge creation centers, must be done on a network scale in order to be effective.

Effective disposition of print e-journal back files across the network promises the greatest potential benefit in terms of shelf space cleared and money saved. E-journals would also seem to be the category of materials for which the most reliable print and electronic safeguards are already in place or being put into place. Collaborative action is extremely time-critical as libraries continue to build and fill up new storage facilities, most often without any reference to what other institutions are doing.

OCLC Research is working with partner libraries and other institutions interested in the management of print resources to establish best collaborative approaches.

At the RLG Programs Shared Print Collections Summit in November 2007, attendees discussed the desirability of clearing shelf space by divesting our libraries of print back runs of journals available electronically. The group wondered if there was any low-hanging fruit that could be harvested that would provide a significant impact with a modest amount of effort.

Earlier in JSTOR's history, clearing shelf space was mentioned as one of the primary goals of the project. Anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that this goal has not been achieved on a broad scale by research libraries. Yet the titles covered by the JSTOR collections would seem to offer up the kind of low-hanging fruit discussed by Collections Summit attendees. The titles are available electronically. Back-up copies exist in both electronic form (LOCKSS, PORTICO) and in print form (CRL, CDL and Harvard archives, among others). If conditions are not favorable for discarding such titles now, when will they be favorable?

Shared Print Collections Summit attendees suggested that a working group be formed to explore these questions

Libraries acting in concert when deciding what to do with print e-journal back files will result in considerable space and cost savings and also help ensure that the appropriate number of print copies are preserved.

Details

In April 2008, attendees of the November 2007 Shared Print Collections Summit were invited to participate in a new Deaccessioning Print Journal Backfiles Working Group (DAP-J), focusing initially on discarding print back runs of JSTOR titles. Surprisingly, few who volunteered indicated a readiness to deaccession any print back files at that time. Their interest lay in determining what specific pressures would compel them to remove items from the shelves, what economic factors would make it worthwhile, and what guarantees would have to be in place before they could deaccession with confidence. Thus much of the group’s work in the first year involved documenting the various obstacles to deaccessioning and prioritizing the importance of various key factors in the decision-making process.

In May 2009, the group reported to the RLG Programs Council that libraries of different categories, fulfilling different missions for different audiences, and operating under different funding models, will by necessity have varying approaches to the question of deaccessioning print back files of e-journals. The RLG Programs Council charged the group with creating a decision tree that will help guide research libraries through the best avenues of action for the various scenarios.

This work will be accomplished by combining the best of current practice with trends noted by analyzing system-wide collections data, with advice and support from staff at JSTOR, Ithaka, and other organizations engaged in managing and studying the transition from print to electronic.

A completed decision tree and final report are anticipated by the end of calendar 2009.

• RLG Shared Print Update Session at ALA Midwinter 2009
• 2009 RLG Programs Annual Partnership Meeting, session on Shared Print
• RLG Shared Print Update Session at ALA Annual 2009

• Dennis Massie (lead)

Working Group

• Steve Bosch, University of Arizona
• Angela Carreno, NYU
• Jeff Carroll, Columbia
• Margaret Flood, Trinity College Dublin
• Milan Hughston, Museum of Modern Art
• Deborah Kempe, Frick Art Reference Center
• Deirdre Lawrence, Brooklyn Museum
• Amy McColl, Swarthmore College
• Bryan Skib, University of Michigan
• Ken Soehner, Metropolitan Museum
• Merle Slyhoff, University of Pennsylvania Law
• Carolyn Walters, Indiana
• Bob Wolven, Columbia

Project lead: Dennis Massie

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