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Assembling a "best copy" archival journal collection: Case study of the University of California IEEE Project

Abstract

As the IEEE digitizes its journals, librarians at two University of California (UC) campuses undertook a project to identify a single best possible copy to preserve in a regional shared storage facility. They describe the process: identifying who owned the most complete runs of each title, the standards they developed to validate completeness and acceptable condition, coordination among all the parties involved, communication with additional campuses as issues arose, cataloging challenges, cost determination, staffing used, space saved, and lessons learned. The methods developed for this pilot project will serve as a model for future endeavors involving multiple institutions that want to collaborate efficiently.

Genesis

When IEEE announced in 2003 that it was digitizing its journals back to the first volume, both Camille Wanat, Head of the UC Berkeley Engineering Library, and Karen Andrews, Head of the UC Davis Physical Sciences & Engineering Library, had the same thought. With both libraries having storage quotas to fulfill, there was always competition to be first to send items to the Northern Regional Library Facility (NRLF), where the five northern UC campus libraries store older and low-use materials. Guidelines for storing a title were that no duplicate items were allowed, and there was no requirement for a quality or completeness check. The UC Berkeley and UC Davis engineering librarians thus proposed a joint cooperative effort to preserve the best, most complete set of each IEEE journal title. This would benefit other UC libraries because they could potentially withdraw their IEEE back volumes knowing that a validated “best” set had been stored on behalf of all.

Background and Literature Review

The University of California (UC) is comprised of ten universities located in Berkeley (N), Davis (N), Irvine (S), Los Angeles (S), Merced (N), Riverside (S), San Diego (S), San Francisco (N), Santa Barbara (S) and Santa Cruz (N), nicely divided into five Northern (N) and Southern (S) campuses. Two Regional Storage Facilities (RLFs), north and south, located near Berkeley and in Los Angeles, have provided storage space for older and lesser-used materials for about three decades. For a conceptual description of the roles of the RLFs, see Schottlaender1. Recent policy changes have led to them being managed as persistent shared collections. This change guarantees that deposited volumes will remain available for all campuses, no longer under the control of the original depositing library. Details of UC shared print goals and objectives are described by Anderson2 and give the context for this pilot project.

The importance of sharing responsibilities for collaboratively storing, preserving and managing print collections is attested to by the number of places that have taken steps in that direction. Recent articles describe the experiences of five libraries in Colorado3, the Five College consortium of Massachusetts4, and the Australian Academic Libraries5. A list6 from 2006

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Heyer-Gray, R., & McKenzie, J., & Ngo, L., & Andrews, K., & Stambaugh, E. (2009, June), Assembling A "Best Copy" Archival Journal Collection: A Case Study Of The University Of California Ieee Project Paper presented at 2009 Annual Conference & Exposition, Austin, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--5727