1
YES, AS A MATTER OF FACT, WE ARE THROWING THOSE
AWAYA SMALL, PUBLIC UNIVERSITY LIBRARY DEALS
WITH DE-SELECTION

• G. Randall Watts
• Assistant Librarian/Technical Services
• Gregg-Graniteville Library
• University of South Carolina Aiken
• randallw_at_usca.edu

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SOME BACKGROUND

• ABOUT USC AIKEN GREGG-GRANITEVILLE LIBRARY
• Small, public, regional, primarily
  non-residential
• Approximately 3200 students / 2750 FTE
• Two graduate programs (Education Psychology)
• Materials budget 345,000 (excludes special
  funding for Psychology Masters)
• ABOUT THE USC SYSTEM
• A true system
• Comprised of 1 large research university, three
  regional 4-year universities, and four 2-year
  campuses

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OTHER FACTORS

• Increased availability of new full-text resources
• Emergence of Carolina Consortium
• Emergence of PASCALs Collegiate DISCUS
• Expansion of JSTOR packages
• Implementation of new ILS statewide
• USC System and others migrate from NOTIS to
  Innovative Interfaces Millennium
• Growing preference for e-journals
• Reference and instruction librarians report
  increased preference for e-journals and increased
  resistance by both students and faculty
• Class assignments increasingly demand use of
  full-text databases and e-journals

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THE PROBLEM

• BOUND VOLUMES EVERYWHERE
• Technical Services work area is filled with bound
  periodicals unable to be shelved in areas
  designated for public use
• A severe space crunch in the periodicals area
  makes it difficult for patrons to find bound
  periodicals and difficult for serials assistants
  to maintain an orderly collection
• BUILDING RENOVATIONS OFFER NO RELIEF
• Hopes for a simple, painless solution are
  squashed when the administration approves a
  renovation without the addition of any square
  footage
• 1970s era décor is, mercifully, retired. Space
  shortage will remain indefinitely.

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CONTRIBUTING TO THE PROBLEM

• Technical Service Librarian position vacant
• Position open for 2 years after Technical
  Services Librarian promoted to Director
• Capable paraprofessionals maintain status quo
• Allocation formula
• Library saddled with antiquated materials
  allocation formula which demands funds be spent
  on departments which do not generate library use
• Changing curriculum / changing faculty
• Additions and deletions of concentrations
• New faculty often have different needs than those
  theyve replaced
• Irrational Exuberance
• Occasional budget windfalls (mid 1980s, mid
  1990s) lead to subscription decisions that stray
  from the mission of an undergraduate library

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THE BIG CONTRIBUTOR

• Budget stagnation combined with price inflation
• Library budget has tended to flat-line for long
  periods. Current budget has remained static
  since 1999-2000
• Cost of serials has been anything but static
• The result a rash of cancellations a few years
  after the latest budget increase

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GOALS FOR THE PROCESS

• Leave smallest footprint possible
• Minimize impact on collection
• Alleviate space concerns and straighten up
• Create more pleasant work environment for
  Technical Services workers
• Make it possible for users to browse entire
  collection of bound periodicals
• Assure bound periodicals are neatly shelved,
  shifted, and in order

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ESTABLISHING CRITERIA

• First target cancelled subscriptions
• Find titles whose subscription has not been
  active for several years
• Titles cancelled for years are
• More likely to have been easier choices for
  cancellation to begin with
• Less likely to be missed by users
• Less likely to be reinstated in the event of
  budget windfall
• Our criteria cancelled for at least 5 years
• Second target short runs
• Value of subscription lies in completeness
• Eliminate false positives
• Our criteria initially holdings less than or
  equal to 10 volumes, later less than or equal to
  15

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THE PROCESS

• Serial assistant / students instructed to locate
  periodicals which met both criteria
• Produced a list of titles with holdings
• Titles divided into smaller lists by academic
  unit
• Bound volumes left on shelves in place
• Seek faculty input for decisions
• Cultivate faculty involvement for collection
  development
• Sent each department chair a list of titles
  associated with their academic unit
• In preparation for remodeling of the library
  and because the number of volumes has exceeded
  the space available for shelving, the library has
  found it necessary to withdraw several periodical
  titles associated with your department. The
  titles in question appear on the attached list.
  None of these titles are ones to which the
  library currently subscribes, most were only
  active subscriptions for a short period, and none
  were active in the last few years. That being
  said, if you have a compelling reason the library
  should not withdraw a particular title, please
  let me know by April 16. Thanks for your
  help.Randall Watts

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THE RESULTS

• of faculty input
• Mostly silence. Most departments made no
  recommendations with regards to proposed
  withdrawals. Silence was interpreted as consent.
• Some departments asked to retain titles. These
  requests were generally honored.
• Three departments asked to add some withdrawn
  titles to departmental libraries or their
  personal collections
• Requests refusedlibrary does not want to
  encourage the use of departmental libraries
• Departments asked to reconsider lists to
  determine if the titles in question should be
  retained
• Total titles withdrawn 428
• Total volumes withdrawn 2,707

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TOTAL TITLES WITHDRAWNBY DEPARTMENT
12
TOTAL VOLUMES WITHDRAWNBY DEPARTMENT
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FINDING A HOME FOR THE CHAFF

• Options investigated
• Offering up volumes to other USC campuses
• Student assistants checked holdings
• Most titles were either duplicated in their
  holdings or not held at all
• No interest from within USC system
• Only 1 title, Soviet Life, claimed by another
  campus
• Offering up volumes to others
• Not pursued because of experience within
• Utilizing remote storage
• USC Annex in Columbia (60 miles away)
• Cost prohibitive to send
• Duplication
• Lack of use by users

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Is your proposal that these will be thrown
out, literally or figuratively?Biology
Professor

• Most cost effective solution
• Volumes actually recycled rather than thrown out
• In some cases, one mans trash is another mans
  trash, too

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LESSONS LEARNED

• Needs to be done on a regular basis
• Need to meet user expectations
• Full-text e-journals
• Curriculum support
• Best usage of library building
• Gregg-Graniteville Library needs to operate
  within the framework of our mission
• Not a preserver of documents (in general)
• Not a resource for faculty research (in general)
• Support undergraduate curriculum