Daily Egyptian Spring 05
Library policy draft finished
Julie Engler
Daily Egyptian
Morris Library's administration finished the withdrawal policy and handed it out Wednesday, which David Carlson, dean of Library Affairs, said would help to clean the library's confusion with the issue. The policy has been in question since February, when several Library Affairs committee members found 20 rare books in the library's discard bins. The discard process has been halted since late in the fall semester because there was no formal procedure to determine which books were thrown out. According to Carlson, the library's subject liaisons are responsible for making sure books that may be valuable to their subject's department are not discarded. They are also responsible for double-checking books to be discarded to make sure they are not last or rare copies in Illinois, as were several of the books found in the bin by committee members.
After several drafts, Carlson and Associate Dean Susan Logue said the committee, faculty and administration finally agreed upon the content reflected in the final draft. "I think this really just puts into words what we have been doing all along," said Loretta Koch, Morris Library's collections coordinator. "This unfortunate incident did give us a chance to take a look at our procedures and how the process works." Previously, Carlson said the Library Affairs committee had asked for a secondary review to ensure no valuable books were discarded, but Carlson said not a single member of the committee voted for such a process when polled at Monday's meeting. He said there will be no faculty review shelf or e-mail review process for the discarded books.
The formal policy includes not only the withdrawal policy but also a procedures list, which will be given out to all library faculty involved in the deselecting of books, and mandating that a procedure slip be kept with all books until their final moments in the library. The withdrawal procedure outlines the process by which books are discarded. The policy states that brittle books considered for withdrawal must be checked over to see if they are rare copies or last copies within the state's universities' libraries. The withdrawal procedures slip, a paper that displays information such as why the book was taken off the shelf, what is going to be done with it and why, and the name of the librarian who filled out the form who can be consulted with any questions.
Logue said the slip, which has added a few extra bits of information, was previously used to identify brittle books but not for all discarded books. Koch said the finished policy mirrors the unwritten policy the library has been following for the last 30 years. She thinks the liaisons will be more involved in the process and that the new procedure will help prevent mistakes from being made. The decision must then be made to preserve the book or discard it. Logue said preserving books can cost $2 to $5 a page, and the library makes a conscious effort to go through the process if the book is not damaged beyond repair. Other preservation methods include photocopying or digitizing the book. Other factors considered in the withdrawing of a book include the number of copies in the library and state and the condition of the book.
"Like I've said before, the only way to ensure no mistakes are made is to never throw anything away at all," Carlson said. "We have learned a lot, and we will do everything we can to prevent mistakes." The Association of Research Libraries mandates that Illinois' school libraries provide it with statistics of how many volumes have been added and discarded from the library each year. SIUC's has discarded about 4,000 fewer than the average of other state libraries for 2003. Of the 9,211 volumes that were discarded in 2003, Logue said more than half of them were government documents, which are updated every year. "We have made positive developments," Carlson said. "We're glad it's done."
Last update: Friday, March 25, 2005 at 2:29:09 PM
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