From: Kanika Sago <sago_at_crlmail.uchicago.edu>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACT:
March 29, 1999 Bill Buchanan, (202) 364-3995
Milton Wolf, (773) 955-4545, Ext.
334
The Center for Research Libraries (CRL)
& Library Dynamics Company (LDC)
Plan National Back-up Collection of Weeded Books
Chicago, IL/Washington, DC - The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) and
the Library Dynamics Company (LDC) are collaborating to create a central
"safety net" repository which will provide libraries with replacement
copies of the volumes they discard under LDC's Weedlist Program.
This cooperative effort, called the "Weeder's Insurance Network" (WIN) will
begin with a beta-site collection of as many as 20,000 Weedlist titles
which will be transferred to CRL's storage facilities in Chicago from the
Libraries of the University of Missouri at Kansas City. As explained by
Ted Sheldon, Director of the UMKC Libraries, "Now that the WIN program will
be included in the price of our Weedlist Project, we can not only reclaim
thousands of square feet of shelf space, with a cost-avoidance replacement
value of more than $1 million, but also we will be acquiring the use of an
off-site storage facility for our discarded books without any additional
investment in space, equipment or overhead expenses."
"Once operating procedures are developed for the beta-site-volumes,
discarded volumes from other Weedlist libraries will be added to the WIN
collection until it finally accumulates multiple copies of all the titles
in the database" said CRL President, Donald B. Simpson. "CRL sees the WIN
program as a logical extension of our role as a massive storage and
retrieval facility for those huge numbers of research materials that better
lend themselves to 'access' by individual libraries than to 'ownership',"
Simpson continues. "The unique new benefits which the WIN and Weedlist
programs offer to small and medium-sized academic libraries provides us
with a natural opportunity to expand our services beyond the current CRL
membership. These benefits are available to CRL members without charge. A
reasonable fee structure for non-members will be instituted."
Library Dynamics created the Weedlist Program in order to assist academic
libraries in identifying and de-selecting marginal titles in their book
collections. By reclaiming shelf space they already own instead of making
large capital investments in new buildings or remodeling projects,
libraries can enjoy the immediate financial benefits of space reclamation
while removing the operational hardships of overcrowding.
During 1998, LDC completed its first Weedlist database containing
bibliographic records for 53,222 titles of widely held books that are now
prime candidates for de-selection from academic library collections. The
rationale for the de-selection process was explained by Weedlist editor,
Evan Farber, in his article, "Books NOT for College Libraries" (Library
Journal, August 1997). Each title selected for Weedlist was included in at
least one of the authoritative Books for College Libraries core
collections, but dropped from later editions as having been superseded,
outdated, or otherwise no longer considered as important as it once was for
academic collections.
In August 1998, LDC announced an offer to match the holdings of academic
libraries against the Weedlist database free of charge. Since that time,
the company has matched millions of holdings-records sent to them by
academic libraries of various sizes. The matches completed thus far have
generated enough "hits" to give the first group of participating libraries
the opportunity to recover more than seven miles of shelf space.
In addition to learning how many of their titles are in the Weedlist
database, each participating library received a detailed proposal to carry
out a custom LDC "Speedweeding" project on their behalf. Based on a small
charge per-matched-record, the library pays in proportion to the benefits
it receives in the form of reclaimed shelf space and cost avoidance.
Customer libraries receive both printed and digital files of bibliographic
records of their Weedlist titles. Printed "checklists" are arranged in the
library's shelflist order (in either the Library of Congress or the Dewey
Decimal Classification). One set of these volumes is provided in
loose-leaf format for carrying out the "retention review" process (during
which teaching faculty and library subject specialists can select titles
that they feel strongly should be kept). Coil bound sets are provided for
later search and transfer operations in the shelves.
The digital file is provided for use with the library's online system and
for the "UnPAC" process of recording the changes-in-status of discarded or
transferred titles in the library's Public Access Catalog.
"CRL is the ideal site for the WIN program," said Bill Buchanan, president
of Library Dynamics. "Not only are its facilities and personnel already in
place to start the WIN operation quickly, it also provides an excellent
platform from which to extend our coverage into other "weed fields." The
Center for Research Libraries is an international not-for-profit consortium
of colleges, universities, and libraries that has made scholarly research
resources available to users everywhere for fifty years. For more
information about CRL, visit the website at http://wwwcrl.uchicago.edu.
For more information about the WIN Program, please contact:
Bill Buchanan, President
Library Dynamics Company
4201 Cathedral Avenue NW, Suite 502-E
Washington, DC 20016
Tel: (202) 364-3995
Fax: (202) 364-3077
E-mail: wbuchanan_at_erols.com
Milton Wolf, Senior Vice President
The Center for Research Libraries
6050 S. Kenwood Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637-2804
Tel: (773) 955-4545, Ext. 334
Fax: (773) 955-4339
E-mail: wolf_at_crlmail.uchicago.edu
For those attending the upcoming ACRL National Conference on April 8-11 at
Detroit's Cobo Convention Center, the Center for Research Libraries (booth
#119) and Library Dynamics Company (booth #651) will both be available to
answer any questions.
Received on Mon Mar 29 1999 - 18:11:28 EST