Off-Site Shelving Guidelines

The University of Maryland Libraries' collections, surpassing 3 million volumes, exceed the space available in campus libraries. In order to accommodate ongoing collection growth without sacrificing past acquisitions, since 2001 the Libraries have relied on off-site shelving (OSS) to provide the space needed to house materials from our various campus libraries.

The Libraries have designated off-site shelving for books and journals that are

• low use (i.e. have not circulated in many years)
• superseded by more recent editions
• available on campus in other copies
• available on campus in other format(s)
• available online

These categories of materials have been identified since moving such items off campus is least likely to inconvenience our researchers. For journals available online, library patrons can access the same content anywhere and any time that they have Internet access, for example. Sending less frequently used and superseded books off campus allows us to reserve campus space for materials consulted most often and that contain the most current published information.

Targeting these types of items for transfer also produces fewer strains on staff and keeps costs low since these materials are not likely to need regular retrieval, delivery and reshelving. Instead, staff time can be devoted to processing our unique, current and high-use materials.

Thresholds that have been used to define "low use" for circulating collections in McKeldin have included:

• Published 20 or more years ago and not circulated in 20 years.
• Published 15 or more years ago and not circulated in 15 years.

Different subject disciplines may have different thresholds, however, so that other collections may set the bar elsewhere. The key factor, however, is low use. Transfer thresholds should be based on research behaviors and historical depth needed in various subjects and not be based on where space is needed or on how much space is needed.

When a library's space needs are so severe that materials that have circulated or been published within the past 10 years are being considered for transfer, alternative measures may need to be considered. Selectors should consult with Collection Management and Technical Services before sending recently-published or high-use materials either off-campus or to any closed stacks location.

Exceptions to low-use thresholds, resulting in retention on campus, have included:

• Older imprints that came into the circulating collection recently, by gift or by transfer from reference, for example
• Multi-volume sets are not separated even if only selected volumes from the set are high use
• Oversized materials are not good candidates for transfer, since housing such items off-campus is not cost-effective.

In the following instances, the low-use item should be withdrawn rather than sent to OSS:

• There is already a copy in OSS
• The low use item in question is the third (or more) copy of a dissertation available in UM Libraries.
• The title to be transferred is the fourth or fifth (or more) copy available among library collections.

Please Note:

1. Any periodicals in off-site shelving will be non-circulating. Patrons can request articles from journals in OSS and these will be photocopied and sent directly to the patron. Researchers can also request full volumes from storage and these will be delivered to McKeldin.
2. Non-circulating materials in OSS are not sent to any library other than McKeldin. Patrons consult the material in McKeldin.
3. In order to take advantage of the efficiencies of patron-placed holds and for items to be delivered to the requesting library, the status of all monographs in off-site shelving will be circulating. For rare or fragile materials, the circulation status can be limited to 24 hours.
4. OSS is not the preferred location for new acquisitions, including gifts.
5. Gathering in-house use data for non-circulating collections began in the fall of 2006. We will therefore be building data to help identify low-use non-circulating materials in campus collections.
6. Refer to Preservation's Condition Criteria for Weeding to inform transfer or withdrawal decisions. Keep the best copy in the Libraries or on campus.
7. Rebound books will not have date due slips in them. Look at the bindery's sticker in the front or back end sheets to determine when the volume was rebound. Because Circulation identifies books for repair, rebinding is an indication of high or recent use.
8. A white dot on the spine of a volume and a sticker inside indicates that a book has been deacidified. Given a choice of multiple copies, the copy that has been deacidified should not be withdrawn. Libraries that have circulating deacidified books are McKeldin and EPSL.
9. Transferring an item out of off-site shelving back into a campus collection is done rarely and only when certain criteria are met. Namely,
• A faculty member needs to use an item repeatedly for research or for Course Reserves
• To fulfill a request to correct inadvertent errors in the transfer of parts of multi-volume sets or serials.
To request a permanent transfer from OSS:
• Permanent transfers from OSS require the signature of the Collection Management Team Leader or, if s/he is not available, the Director for the Collection Management and Special Collections Division.
• Send a transfer slip to the Collection Management Team Leader along with a note that addresses the above criteria.
• The CMT Leader sends the signed form to the Head, Adaptive Cataloging / Database Management or the Team Leader for Database Management in Technical Services Adaptive Cataloging /Database Management.
• ACDM will arrange directly with the OSS facility staff for the material to be delivered for processing into campus collections.

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