Selection Policy In September 1996 Scott Bennett asked the library's Collection Development Council to appoint a task force to formulate a policy to provide guidance to selectors charged with identifying materials for an off-campus shelving facility. Task force members included: Mary LaFogg Chief Collections Management Archivist, Manuscripts and Archives Max Marmor Head, Art and Architecture Library Ann Okerson Associate University Librarian, Collection Development and Management Kimberly Parker (chair) Chemistry/KSL Librarian & Science Bibliographer, Sterling Chemistry Library/Kline Science Library Sandra K. Peterson Documents Librarian/Librarian for Sociology/Librarian for Policy Studies, Government Documents and Information Center Susanne Roberts Librarian for European History/Coordinator of Humanities Collections, Research Services and Collections Paul Stuehrenberg Divinity Librarian, Divinity School Library Background Statement The Yale University Library has one of the richest and most comprehensive collections of books, manuscripts and other research materials in the world. In 1994 the Library Space Planning Task Force surveyed these collections and indicated a critical need for adequate shelving to effectively address the long-term use and preservation of Yale's research collections. Subsequently in April 1996, Provost Alison F. Richard and Vice-President Joseph P. Mullinix appointed the Working Group for an Off-Campus High-Efficiency Shelving Facility to plan for such a facility for use by the library system. The acute shelving situation identified in 1994 has intensified with the range of campus facilities initiatives currently underway. The Sterling Memorial Library renovation and addition of the Music Library to its complex will reduce available shelving equivalent to one current stack floor. The planning for the new Music and Arts Libraries assumes the existence of an off-site shelving facility to ameliorate present shelving needs. In its April letter to the members of the Working Group, the Provost and Vice President stated that such a facility would "accommodate future collection growth as cost effectively as possible, provide sound environmental conditions for collections, provide excellent on-line bibliographic access to all of the library collection, and maintain browsable shelving on campus of the most frequently-used parts of the collections." The Working Group concluded that an off-campus shelving facility can afford ideal environmental conditions for the long-term preservation of appropriate collection material at a fraction (10%) of the cost of conventional on-campus shelving. It can significantly advance the institution's commitment to the preservation of jeopardized library materials. The arrangement also directly benefits readers by relieving the overcrowding of campus collections and rendering them genuinely browsable again. Conversely, the principal disadvantage of off-campus shelving is that readers may not directly browse materials shelved in the facility so that first-hand exploration and serendipitous discovery are impeded for a portion of the total collection. The disadvantage of not offering browsing at the facility, though not completely eliminated, will be minimized by provision of reliable delivery services. As the Working Group's Report asserts, the facility's success will be dependent on an unwavering commitment to maintain excellent delivery services and the ability to deliver to readers or bring to campus items needed for browsing, research, new courses, or seminars. The overall success of a program that uses off-site shelving is dependent upon a number of factors. Not the least of these is the ability of the library to develop guidelines for the selection of materials for the facility. The careful selection of infrequently-used materials can be accomplished at Yale as it has at many other universities, including Harvard. Minimizing the disadvantages of such a facility may be accomplished by close consultation with faculty, discipline-specific selection criteria, and flexibility in returning material to campus. The selection policy is critical to the successful ongoing operations of the library and to the teaching and research mission of the University. In its report to the Provost and Vice President, the Working Group recommended that selection of material for the new facility be the responsibility of the library staff who already have selection and other collection-development assignments. These librarians have established connections with faculty, students and the research community. They are well informed about the University's teaching and research programs and can ensure close consultation and open, flexible decisions about materials to be shelved off-campus. The Report further recommended that the policy guidelines developed for selecting material for shelving at the new facility be reviewed by the University's Advisory Committee on Library Policy and discussed widely within the University and library community. Informed decision-making will contribute to the success of the facility and the protection of the University's research resources for many years to come. Additional background material including various reports, papers, and a video about the Harvard Depository is available from the office of the University Librarian. Selection Principles The Collection Development Council recommends that the following criteria guide the nature and growth of collections at the new Library Shelving Facility. The ongoing activity of identifying suitable materials for shelving in the new facility will be part of a larger process of intelligently shaping the Library's many browsable, on-campus collections in a manner responsive to the needs of readers across all disciplines. In addition to being overcrowded and subject to inadequate security and environmental conditions, many of the Library's collections are dispersed across several library facilities. Over time, selectors will employ the new Library Shelving Facility to shape the array of existing on-campus collections in a manner responsive to readers' evolving needs. Materials selected for the new facility will be thoughtfully identified by selectors representing all library departments, collections, formats and media, in close consultation with faculty, staff and students. The application of selection criteria will appropriately vary across disciplines, departments, collections, formats and media, but every discipline or collection has appropriate candidate materials. Selectors will enlist the participation of readers in judiciously applying these criteria to those portions of the collections within their scope of responsibility. The new facility will be devoted principally to shelving infrequently-used library materials. The on-campus collections will afford ready browsability and direct access to those portions of the library's collections that are, or are likely to be, most frequently consulted by readers. This kind of access can best be sustained by relieving chronic overcrowding and relocating infrequently-used materials to the new facility. The new facility will accommodate those library materials that will most benefit from the facility's singularly optimal environmental and security conditions. The new facility will provide optimal environmental conditions and security provisions surpassing even those provided by Yale's renovated on-campus facilities. The Yale Library open stacks are rich in early (17th and 18th-century) imprints that warrant both preservation conditions and enhanced security against theft and mutilation. And like all major research libraries, the Yale Library owns countless later imprints that are self-destructing in the open stacks due to the brittle and acidic paper on which they are printed. Finally, many of the archival resources in the Library's several special collections are also shelved in environmentally sub-optimal conditions. The new facility will save these rich collections from further deterioration and directly advance the Library's commitment to preservation of its collections. Only materials represented in Orbis, the Yale Library on-line public access catalog, will be shelved in the new facility. All materials shelved (temporarily or permanently) in the new facility must be appropriately represented in Orbis. Faculty and students will not be able to browse the shelves in the new facility, but the existence of Orbis catalog records will mitigate the loss of direct physical access. The increasingly powerful searching capabilities of Orbis, including keyword searching, provide a variety of ways to identify relevant materials that are not possible using the card catalog or even by physically browsing the shelves. Library instructional programs can assist readers in maximizing their ability to locate library materials wherever they are shelved. Selection for the Library Shelving Facility will be done at levels of specificity appropriate to the materials being reviewed. Wherever appropriate and possible, selection of materials for the Library Shelving Facility will be done for groups of materials (for example, little used journal backfiles, discontinued journal titles, infrequently used, coherent subsets of a given library classification scheme). Nonetheless, when appropriate, such selections may be done at the level of individual titles. The relationship of the new facility's collection to on-campus collections will be dynamic, responding to the changing needs of individual readers and researchers and to evolving curricula and research initiatives. The new facility will be employed as a flexible and responsive shelving location within the Yale Library--not as a storage facility. Selectors are attuned to changes in curriculum and research interests for the disciplines and readers they serve. The infrequent-use criterion will be employed flexibly for ensuring that on-campus collections evolve in a manner most supportive of readers' needs. On-campus shelving capacity will remain constant; therefore, selection of appropriate materials for the new facility will be an ongoing responsibility of library selectors. Selectors are continually engaged in shaping the Library's collections to sustain a stable shelving configuration on campus. This effort will require continuing attention to the identification of appropriate materials for off-campus shelving, both throughout existing collections and among new and recent acquisitions. Errors will be corrected. Even with the best intentions and efforts on the part of selectors and readers, some selection decisions may result in the assignment of library materials more appropriately shelved on campus. Such assignments will be corrected whenever they are identified. December 1997 LSF HOME PAGE © 2000 Yale University Library Last modified: 20 March 2001 Comments: danuta.nitecki@yale.edu This file is located at http://www.library.yale.edu/lsf/selection.html