Guiding Principles and General Plan

Rev. April 2005

I. Background

Our campus collections space, including space in SAL 1&2, is saturated and beyond effective and efficient shelving capacity. Fortunately, enough space to accommodate the growth of our collections for the next 10-15 years became available in September 2003. This new collection space, which we refer to as SAL3, is a state-of-the-art high-density storage facility located in Livermore, 50 miles from campus.

II. General Principles

The overall success of a program that uses remote storage for a growing portion of its library materials is dependent upon a number of factors, most important among these being
1. Careful decisions on where to shelve materials, which will include close consultation with faculty, and will take into consideration discipline-specific needs for what must be browsable and readily available versus what may be stored efficiently and recalled when needed;
2. Reliable and timely delivery services from the remote storage facility;
3. Flexibility in relocating materials back to campus locations when it becomes necessary;
4. The ready availability of digitization facilities to deliver shorter works by network.

III. Assumptions and Programmatic Resolutions

The work of developing a plan for the long-term housing and management of library materials must be viewed in the broader context of a vision of the overall role the Libraries will play in the University community and the programs it expects to deliver in the next decades. This involves determining not just how we fill the remote storage facility and what materials will be relocated remotely, but rather how all collection spaces, on campus and off, will be used for maximum responsiveness to the University’s teaching and research programs and minimum inconvenience possible to our constituency. In this broader context, we make the following basic assumptions and programmatic resolutions:
1. On campus collection space will be used for materials that need to be browsed or that are more frequently used.
a. For the maximum efficiency of collection management with open shelves and growing collections on campus we will maintain a fill rate of 80-85% of shelving capacity. This fill rate will be a must for the Green Library but may vary in the branches.
2. Lowest use materials will be candidates for SAL3.
a. Qualitative judgment based on discipline-specific needs will be the primary factor in selecting where titles are to be shelved, but statistics on usage and other factors will provide significant direction.
3. All materials housed in SAL3 will have records in Socrates.
4. We will strive to enhance bibliographic and table of content access to materials in SAL3 (e.g., journals, if not indexed or otherwise available electronically, will have a Table of Contents online).
5. Our effort will be to maximize desktop access to content. We will thus seek to add electronic content to SUL collections whenever possible.
6. To the extent possible, there will be no duplication of material on campus. Print versions of materials also available in electronic form, as well as print duplicates, will be candidates for SAL3.
7. Materials in SAL3 will be paged, with a goal of 24-hour turnaround and direct delivery to the Green Library and the branches.
8. Selection decisions will be reversible. Materials relocated to SAL3 may be brought back if circulation or programmatic needs warrant it.
9. Non-circulating materials housed in SAL3 may be recalled for use in the Special Collections reading room or for in-house use only.
10. Candidates for SAL3 may also be identified at point of acquisition or receipt.

IV. Definitions

SU/LAIR collection space will be available at three types of locations for the foreseeable future:
1. Browsable core locations (Green and branch Libraries);
2. Browsable on campus periphery (SAL1&2). Selectors may choose to shelve titles here that need to be browsable but are not as heavily used as materials in core locations;
3. Remote, non-browsable shelving (SAL3) which will provide housing for
materials that do not require browsing and have low or no use.

In order to guide towards a better understanding of the types of spaces, the following definitions, with specific examples are being provided:

1. Browsable core locations
(Green Library and the branches) are dedicated to housing moderate to high use research materials, especially those of the types listed below:
· Newly-published items (although not all new items are necessarily core and may, on the judgment of the selector, be designated for remote shelving).
· Monographs and monographic series with moderate to high use (circulation and in-house).
· Monographs (and monographic series) judged to be significant or important for a field of study (regardless of use or circulation statistics).
· The “classics” in a field regardless of age or circulation.
· The last ten years of periodicals (and more when usage necessitates it).
· Complete or substantial runs of heavily used or significantly important periodicals.
· Reference works in the Information Center, Humanities and Area Studies Resource Center, Social Sciences Resource Center or branches.
· Reference works that are difficult to page from remote shelving (e.g.
the National Union Catalogue).
· Materials that have been on Course Reserves within the last five years.
· Reference works that serve as indexes to works stored remotely.

2. Browsable on-campus periphery (SAL1/2).
Materials appropriate for this facility are those of low or moderate use for which browsing is required or which makes research significantly more efficient for the user. Materials are shelved here because core or remote shelving is not feasible for space, efficiency or public access reasons. Quite often, these materials, compared to those in core locations, may be older, slightly outdated, bulky, and/or have not circulated much in recent years. They may be composed of sets that researchers wish to peruse or materials that lack sufficient access to their contents. Typical examples are:
· Relatively long runs of series or multi-volume monographs for which consultation requires scanning the broader set (e.g., national censuses, encyclopedias) and for which the cost of retrieval from SAL3 would be high.
· Runs of older periodicals for which there are no indexes or other access to contents, until such time as it is possible to make the Table of Contents available online.
· Monographs and other materials that circulate less than core but that are still considered important.
· Non-core materials whose value cannot be discerned through online indexes or other finding aids (e.g. books useful for illustrations or periodicals for advertising matter).
· Slightly outdated reference works that still have value.
· Uncatalogued materials.
· Materials we feel are important to have browsable on campus.

3. Remote non-browsable (SAL3)
Items shelved here typically have experienced recent low or no usage and their shelving here is feasible because they have good bibliographic access and their projected future use remains low. While they may not be critical to current scholarship at Stanford University, they nevertheless are worthy of retention in a research collection. Materials that should be sent to SAL3 would include:
· Duplicates. As a general rule, where it is necessary to retain duplicates, additional copies of a title held in a core collection should be housed in SAL3.
· Texts that may reliably be found completely online (especially journals and indexes) with some possible exceptions for “core” journals.
· Runs of rarely-used serials, with the indexes kept or moved to Green or other on-campus location.
· Earlier portions of runs of active monographic series.
· Selected materials from Special Collections and University Archives.
· Selected materials from government document collections, especially materials not in the Library of Congress classification system.
· Stack items judged as likely candidates for theft.
· Outdated textbooks.
· Microfiche, microfilm and map collections as designated.

V. Selection Principles

The following criteria should guide the nature of use of the three collection shelving locations:
1. The ongoing activity of identifying suitable materials for SAL3 will be part of a larger process of intelligently shaping the Libraries’ browsable, on-campus collections in a manner responsive to the evolving needs of readers across all disciplines.
2. Materials selected for SAL1, 2, and 3 will be thoughtfully identified by subject specialists in close consultation with faculty, students and staff. It is expected that selection criteria will vary from discipline to discipline as well as special program- or format-driven circumstances. Bibliographers are expected to weigh these criteria judiciously and to deviate from them as necessary.
3. The high-density, remote facility will be devoted primarily to infrequently used materials and to materials that do not require browsable access.
4. Materials that can benefit from the optimal environmental and tighter security conditions should be considered for SAL3.
5. Only materials with bibliographic access through Socrates may be considered for SAL3. The aim will be to create bibliographic access for low-use materials designated as suitable for SAL3.
6. Selection for remote storage will require varying levels of review depending on the material. Whereas entire categories of materials may be designated for storage in SAL3, other types may need a more in-depth and individual title review. This decision will be left up to the pertinent subject specialist.
7. The order of shelving and location of SU/LAIR research resources will be dynamic and responsive. There will be a commitment to relocate materials back to on-campus locations whenever research and curricular programs, as well as discovery of errors require it.

Collection policies for the engineering and science disciplines differ somewhat from those in the arts, humanities and social sciences. A strong preference for digital access by the faculty and students in these disciplines, coupled with competing demands for space in our science and engineering branch libraries has resulted in an emphasis on digital collections and a re-examination of policies pertaining to moving paper collections to the SAL3 facility. In the case of the Engineering Library, a new facility is being built which will be primarily "paperless." In anticipation of this, the majority of the contents of the current Engineering Library are being scanned and sent to SAL3. We are currently consulting with the faculty and students in various scientific departments as to the correct balance of paper and digital collections to maintain on campus.