George A. Smathers Libraries

Collection Management Bulletin 6.19

November 20, 1992

Storage Collections: Policy and Procedures

The Smathers Libraries maintain collections in several storage locations to augment active shelving space in campus libraries. Materials located in storage are publications not frequently accessed by library users. Stored items may be inactive serial titles, older portions of active serial titles, or monographs. Criteria for placing items in storage are established and administered by collection managers. Because of increasingly severe space limitations, many materials that would not normally be considered as storage candidates will, no doubt, be placed in storage in the future.

Collection Managers are responsible for determining which materials within their assigned collections are most appropriately located on the open shelves in the libraries and which are placed in storage. These decisions must take into consideration the realities of available space and recognize the resources required to make LUIS record changes.

The Access Services Department is responsible for organizing, managing, and providing access to the storage collections, regardless of which library unit originally housed the item. Access Services maintains a detailed record of specific locations for materials held in storage. It is also responsible for monitoring collection growth and use, alerting Collection Management staff when additional materials must be selected for storage, and requesting a decision on whether a serial title frequently requested from storage should be returned to the active collection.

When materials are placed in storage, the LUIS public catalog is altered to reflect this location information. In the event that items not yet having a LUIS record are placed in storage, it will be a high priority for the Catalog Department to create one.

Currently, items located in the various storage areas are organized in different ways. Some collections remain in call number order, held as distinct collections within the larger storage collection. For example, the AFA and Music storage materials are shelved in sequence apart from HSSL storage materials. Some HSSL titles are stored partially according to size and are no longer in call number order. In these cases, items are physically accessible only through records maintained by the Access Services Department. It is anticipated that increasingly severe space problems will mandate that the entire storage collection will eventually be shelved by size and in accession number order.

Requests for items located in storage may be made whenever the Library West Circulation Desk is open. Retrieval requests are currently gathered by staff each morning, Monday-Friday, and items are normally available by noon. As the storage collection grows and contains more items that would not normally be stored, the frequency of retrieval may be increased. Currently, browsing of some parts of the collection that are still in call number order is possible on an appointment basis. Staff and library users should contact a storage manager in Library West to arrange access.

Most storage items may be checked out for a minimum of three weeks, even if their loan periods might have been shorter (e.g., bound periodicals) if they were in the active collection.

Generally Access Services initiates the return of materials to the active collection based on use -- automatically with two circulations/year for monographs and with the recommendation of a Collection Manager for serials. However, Collection Managers may also arrange for returning storage materials to the active collection if they believe proven or anticipated use warrants this action. Generally such a decision will mandate that other items be moved to storage in order to provide adequate space in the active collection. These substitutions must be made from materials in close proximity in the collection to minimize collection shifts.

1. As storage items are checked out, Access Services staff stamp the due date on a slip in the back of the book.
2. As storage items are discharged after circulation Access Services staff determine whether the item is a monograph and has circulated twice within the past year. If it has, it will be processed for the active collection from which it was transferred.
3. Access Services staff will change bibliographic records to represent the new location.

1. Single volumes of serials or multi-volume sets will not normally be returned to the active collection. Instead a decision must be made for an entire title or a logical portion of the title.
2. As items are retrieved from storage, Access Services staff will maintain a database of call numbers and volumes used, as well as dates used and borrower category.
3. The volumes used list will be printed periodically, and sections will be forwarded to the appropriate Collection Manager.
4. Collection Managers will review the list in order to recommend the return of serial runs or portions of runs to the active collection. They will select an equivalent amount of materials (in proximity) to offset items recommended for return.

Occasionally, titles located in storage need to be readily available to users for a limited period of time. In these cases, the materials will generally be temporarily relocated at the reserve desk, and library records updated to reflect the temporary location. In cases of longer runs, appropriate shelving should be negotiated with Access Services staff and the records changed accordingly.

Because of the severe space shortage in many parts of the libraries, Collection Management will be called upon, as necessary, to identify materials that can be moved to storage. Because the collection grows unevenly and unpredictably, all Collection Managers should anticipate being called upon to make these decisions as problems arise. In addition, projects to review the collections systematically and in collaboration with primary users should be conducted in anticipation of impending space problems.

1. As new materials are added to the collection, Access Services staff will inform the appropriate Collection Manager about space problems in specific shelving areas that require identification of materials for transfer to storage.
2. Collection Managers will select monographs and sets in the area using their established criteria.
3. Access Services staff, informed of storage decisions, gather and process materials, create and change the necessary records, deliver the materials to storage, and carry out the necessary shifts in the active collection.

I. Assignment

POLICY

The Smathers Libraries maintains collections in one primary and other secondary storage locations to augment shelving space in campus libraries. Materials located in storage are publications not frequently accessed by library users. Stored items may be inactive serial titles, older portions of active serial titles, or monographs. Criteria for placing items in storage are establish and administered by collection managers. They are responsible for determining which materials within their assigned collections are most appropriately located on the open shelves in the libraries and which are place in storage. However, all collection managers should anticipate Access Services calling upon them to make storage selection decisions as problems arise. Likewise, in organizing, managing, and providing access to the storage collections, Access Services bears responsibility for the non-selection details, including when an how transfers to storage are to take place.

PROCEDURE

Those boxed storage collections that were transferred to the libraries' primary storage facility, Yon Hall, fall 1995 and spring 1996, constitute "dead" storage entities. Due to materials put in call number order and boxed in numeric sequence, there cannot be added materials either interfiled or placed at the end of any one collection. All new storage materials that are not oversized will have to form new yon boxed collections. Rather than add small storage collections through the year, complicating the internal storage record-keeping and physical layouts, once a year in mid-summer the Storage Coordinator in Access Services will consolidate the lists that have been forwarded through the year from Collection Managers and/or Reference Staff. The list of materials going to storage may include portions of serial runs with earlier volumes in one of the "dead" storage collections. These lists will include titles, call numbers, linear feet and size. The materials will then be pulled, put in call number order, boxed and transferred to Yon as a separate single collection in available Yon space. If CM or Reference Staff recommend materials be physically transferred to storage outside this annual cycle, due to emergency space or other constraints, then exceptions can be made by the Chairperson, Access Services.

II. Monitoring

POLICY

Generally, Access Services initiates the return of materials to the active colection based on use - automatically with two circulations/year for monographs and with the recommendation of a Collection Manager for serials. However, Collection Managers may also arrange for returning storage materials to the active collection if they believe proven or anticipated use warrants this action. Generally such a decision will mandate that other items be moved to storage in order to provide adequate space in the active collection. These substitutions must be made from materials in close proximity in the collection to minimize collection shifts.

PROCEDURE

Once storage requests are retrieved and processed, including statistics marked in the Collection Access Services Storage Log, the Yon Periodicals (YP) forms in particular will be filed in the office of the Chair of Access Services for management review.

1. If just one volume of a YP serial run is retrieved twice within a year: (a) it is always returned to storage; (b) the Collection Manager (CM) determines if it is worth bringing part or all of the volumes in the run back to the active collection (the Access Services Storage Coordinator reports the call number, volume used, date(s) used and borrower category to the appropriate Collection Manager); (c) if a "logical portion" of the title is recommended for reinstatement, the decision is made whether to place MAIN.PER in the temporary location field of the item record, or to change MAIN,PSTO to MAIN.PER in the holdings record (permanent location).

2. For certain selective years of a serial ("logical portion"), which end up being retrieved twice; e.g., Moody's for an entire decade, Access Services will recommend to the CM to return that portion to the active collection and leave the prior and subsequent years in storage. The decision is made whether to place MAIN.PER in the temporary location, or to change MAIN.PSTO to MAIN.PER in the permanent location.

3. If the decision is to place MAIN.PER in the temporary location, the title is reviewed periodically - after 12 months if the selective years reinstated to the Library West shelves have not circulated. CM will determine whether they can be put back into the same place in storage. Storage staff can simply remove the temporary location in the item record.

4. If a faculty member requests a volume or group of volumes be put on course reserves, the Reserves staff will process accordingly for the semester use. The material is returned to storage when the use for the course or project finishes.

5. For full runs that are retrieved twice, (a) Access Services brings them back to the active collection, (b) the holdings record for the title is changed from MAIN.PSTO to MAIN.PER, (c) CM is notified as soon as possible. CM determines if the full run or a portion of it is warranted to return, then notifies the Storage Coordinator as soon as possible if a portion of the title is to be returned to Yon Storage.

6. Collection Access staff in Access Services will measure the linear fee (lf) of new material as received, and keep a running tally of this and any if transferred into LW from other sources: