Collection Management Principles and Strategies

• • The Libraries recognizes that the availability of and preference for electronic publication formats differs across subject areas within and across the fine and performing arts, humanities, social sciences, sciences, and other communities of practice. For example, in some disciplines, print publications remain primary and critical to supporting the work of students and faculty; and in many areas of the world, print may be the most reliable and potentially the only available format.
    • The Libraries monitors change with the intention of being responsive to evolving needs and preferences by users.
    • E-only access may be considered when the acquisition is sustainable, affordable, accessible, and persistent by preservation standards.
    • The Libraries may consider maintaining print format when
      • there are demonstrable and substantive differences in content,
      • canceling the print would negatively impact scholarship and/or stewardship, or
      • faculty have expressed important reasons for the Libraries to continue to support acquisition and/or retention of the print (or other tangible, physical formats, including microfilm) in certain disciplines.
  • Constraints of facilities and financial resources will also be important factors in determining which formats to acquire and/or retain from existing collections over time.

• • Unique or rarely-held by other libraries or cultural/scientific organizations;
  • Artifactual interest, such that the item in its original published format, or marks of former use/ownership it carries, enables distinct opportunities for scholarship and teaching;
  • Quality of the physical condition of the item by UW Libraries Preservation Services.

UW Libraries Strategic Plan – Strategies and Goals

Enhance Equitable Environments for Research, Learning, and Working

Considerations for Collection Management

• • Accessibility
    • UW Libraries is committed to providing equal access to library collections, services, and facilities for all library users. We strive to select and acquire, whenever possible, resources and technologies that are accessible and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Libraries conducts testing to ensure e-resources procured for use at the Libraries are accessible to individuals with disabilities, see Library E-Resource Accessibility Testing and Accessibility Progress at the Libraries.
• • Diverse Collections
    • UW Libraries values aligning our services and programs with the needs of our communities and strive to create shared ownership of the Libraries, in sustaining diversity, and confronting institutional bias and structural racism. It is our intention to develop strategies that go beyond normative structures, collections types, and established canons.
    • Collection management decisions are evaluated against criteria that reflect the varied, evolving, and increasingly interdisciplinary curricula and research.
    • Decisions balance quantitative and qualitative measures by librarians in order to promote preservation of and access to the widest range of cultural, scientific, and historical resources possible
• • Support for intellectual freedom
    • UW Libraries supports the free exchange of ideas with collections that provide access to a selection of material on all subjects that support the university’s mission. We have a historical and ethical obligation to support intellectual freedom and encourage debate and discourse. The Libraries strives to balance access to, and ownership of, information resources that offer the widest possible range of viewpoints. Material will not be excluded because of frankness of language or controversial approach, because of the political, moral or religious, sexual, social, economic, or scientific views expressed or because of the race or national origin, politics, or religion of the author or source of content.

Accelerate Scholarship and Learning through Responsive Collections

Develop scalable, strategic and sustainable models of collection development, preservation and stewardship.

Considerations for Collection Management

Our most limited resource in the UW Libraries is space. Like academic libraries across the country must continually relocate or remove items from the collection to make space for new material and to maintain a healthy browsable collection in our most valuable publicly accessible spaces on campus. These relocation and withdrawal decision are a collaborative effort among UW Libraries staff to consider access, use, and preservation considerations.

Subject librarians rely on their understanding of the discipline and patterns of use of the literature, knowledge of the corpus of works in the Libraries collection, and consultation with faculty when making these collection management decisions.

• • Location of physical collections
    • As of February 2021 – Currently, existing shelving capacity for Libraries collections at the Seattle campus are approaching or have reached their operational capacity and many are more than 100% full, see Libraries Strategic Space Plan Update.
  • • The Libraries recognizes that preferences for physical formats differ across subject areas and communities of practices. Location decisions involve a variety of criteria, and careful balance between space management and fulfilling the needs of research and teaching. Some common considerations:
      • for locating items on campus include:
        • high use;
        • newly-acquired / newly published;
        • used in current research or teaching;
        • canonical/core titles;
        • critical editions;
        • major authors;
        • current (or high use) reference materials.
    • • for locating items off-campus include:
        • the condition or nature of the item requires it be housed in a secure, long-term preservation environment;
        • low use (as defined in each subject area);
        • specific languages in a given subject area;
        • highly specialized subjects;
        • not actively used in current research or teaching;
        • older imprints where variation in edition is not of scholarly interest;
        • print books and print journal runs that are available online;
        • minor presses;
        • minor authors.

• • Deselection/Deaccessioning from the collection
    • Similar to acquiring new titles for the collection, decisions to deselect/ deaccession items from the Libraries collections, are made within the context of the Collection Development Guiding Principles. All decisions are made with care, and placed in the context of practices in the field. Some factors that influence decisions to remove items are also factors that may, inversely, influence a decision to instead retain or replace them, and may include:
      • Prioritize unique and regionally important works, and items with evidence of use or demand in the discipline/subject area for retention in the collection;
      • Consider low-use and high availability in Summit and across our network of ILL partners when identifying items to withdraw;
      • Consider preservation commitments in shared print programs (e.g.,  WEST) when identifying items to withdraw.

• • Replacement of physical item
    • We will consider purchasing a similar or exact copy or preservation replacement when physical materials that are declared lost or missing, or in poor/unusable condition, at the discretion of the appropriate Subject Librarian, in accordance with the Collection Development guiding principles.
    • We may consider to de-select or withdraw items from the collection due to factors described previously.