The UC-SUL Libraries are committed to coordinating development and management of their collections—including acquisition, cataloging, access, storage, and preservation—wherever feasible. Collaborative collection development and management are essential means for coping with shrinking acquisitions budgets and enhancing the library resources available to all UC-SUL scholars. They are consistent with the "one library" concept articulated in the University of California Libraries: A Plan for Development of 1976.

While no comprehensive program for coordinating collections has been developed, we have found it fruitful instead to develop discrete programs, such as the Shared Acquisitions program and the pilot projects which resulted in such programs as the sharing of science translation journals, Pacific Rim trade journals, and East Asian newspaper back files.

These guidelines arc meant both to stimulate and to guide further development of such collaborative programs among the campuses so that formal resource-sharing arrangements within the UC-SUL system—and between UC libraries and other appropriate libraries—will become routine.

1. An important key to collaborative collection development is the- formal commitment to responsibilities by individual libraries within the system. Formal commitments might include any of the following, or any combination of two or more:

 a. to maintain subscriptions to specific serial titles (e.g., science translation journals)-,

 b. to acquire current library materials in specific subjects and areas (e.g., Melanesian art)
at specific collecting levels (e.g., NCIP level four);

 c. to maintain retrospective collections in particular subject areas at specific collections levels;

 d. to build and/or maintain specific format collections (e.g., newspaper back files);

 e. to assure that specific collections are preserved;

 f. to share responsibilities for storing materials in specific subjects or formats;

 g. to enhance access to online resources (e.g., Wilson indexes);

The foregoing is meant to be suggestive, not exhaustive.

2. Not all library collections are suitable for collaborative projects. Core collections needed to support campus instructional and research programs are not suitable for formal collaborative programs.

3. Formal agreements may be developed among any libraries for whom they are feasible and useful. Agreements do not have to involve all UC libraries—or even all the libraries in a region. Some of the most effective programs will involve only two or three libraries.

4. The Center for Research Libraries is a consortial partner and its holdings must be considered in any collaborative project.

5. Agreements should be positive, not negative. Libraries that commit, e.g., to a certain level of collecting are not forbidden to develop collections at any level they deem appropriate.

6. The UC-SUL Libraries should provide appropriate incentives to encourage collaborative collections programs. These may include funding, but may take other forms as well. In some cases the incentive will be resultant improvement in services and better management of resources. Recognizing the importance of collaboration, as well as the accomplishments of selectors, should become a key pan of each Library's collections program.

7. Administrative expenses (e.g., travel) should be kept to a minimum in the development of collaborative agreements. Electronic mail, conference calls, etc., have proven effective in past endeavors.

8. In drafting written agreements, the following will generally need to be considered:

 a. a clear statement of what the participating libraries are committing to: levels of collecting responsibilities, language coverage, etc., expressed as much as possible in the language and concepts of the North American Collections Inventory (NCIP).

 b. a minimum commitment (e.g., five years) should be established for agreements.

 c. a commitment to notify all participants in the agreement if a library is unable to sustain its commitment along with a specific time between notification and implementation (e.g., one year).

 d. clear statements of commitments to responsibilities such as:

• processing in a timely fashion, including expected standard and level of cataloging appropriate for the materials,
• listing all acquired materials on Melvyl,
• providing expedited interlibrary lending, including expected standards for
  turnaround time, in accordance with the established university-wide standard
  (see ILL Policy)
• coordinating submissions to the regional library facilities,
• determining formats most suitable for lending (e.g., microfilm in the case of newspapers).

 e. any other stipulations that will serve to insure the success of the agreement.

 f. a brief plan for monitoring and evaluating the agreement.

 g. the endorsement and signature of authorized administrators of the participating libraries.

 h. timely evaluation

9. The Collection Development Committee (CDC) of Library Council should be responsible, as needed, for the system-wide administration of the Collaborative Collection Development and Management Program. Teams developing collaborative agreements should include at least one member of the CDC as liaison.

Copies of existing agreements that can be used as examples should be requested from the collection development officers in the campus libraries.

by Ryan Max Steinberg & Adán Griego.