ILLINOIS COOPERATIVE COLLECTION MANAGEMENT PROGRAM PRINCIPLES FOR COLLECTION PARTNERSHIPS
May 1998 (updated November 2003)


COLLECTION PARTNERSHIPS

FRAMEWORK

The wealth and richness of Illinois libraries include both research collections that support doctoral study as well as those unique localized collections that constitute pockets of excellence (local collections with particular specializations). These "pockets of excellence" can range from collections that support technical education to local history to intensive collections in an aspect of a topic such as Irish drama, post cards, etc.

This document assumes that ICCMCC will sponsor collection strengths and information needs assessments and will disseminate the results. Subsequent ICCMP funding projects will focus on the research and educational information needs which are appropriate for the missions of community colleges, four year colleges and universities in the state of Illinois. The document recognizes that funding for all of these resources adds richness to the pool of information (the State meta-collection) available for all users.

(Although libraries' special collections, such as manuscripts, rare materials, or realia, has fallen outside the range of ICCMP concerns, information about the content and location of special collections, even if they do not circulate, is important for the identification of intersection of interests and of partnerships.)

The results of the statewide collection assessment project provides an information base for libraries to identify intersecting interests on which to build cooperation, called "collection partnerships." One role for ICCMP is to support these collection partnerships.

Specifically, ICCMP funding is to foster, encourage and support collaboration and cooperation among libraries and librarians for their collections, based on identified needs within the state. Funding is to facilitate access (such as ILL improvement, paying for relocation to last copy centers and WWW access to information about ownership and location of collections).

The ICCMCC and the ICCMP Director will contact member directors annually, asking them to reaffirm areas of excellence, library partnership commitments, and names of responsible bibliographers.


DESCRIPTION OF COLLECTION PARTNERSHIPS

Partnerships may exist at many different levels:

  1. Informal networking: Based on the results of collections assessments, the bibliographers will have a knowledge base for informational networking. The ICCMCC can support this level of networking by sponsoring informal meetings of bibliographers and orientations for new bibliographers.
  2. Shared information: Libraries and librarians could share information about new purchases, cancellations, deselection, evaluation of new information products, URL sites, etc., and work together to create resources such as bibliographies or indexes, web sites, union lists, as well as to provide subject and reference expertise.
  3. Collection support partnerships: Partnerships could address support for collections regarding specific concerns, such as preservation assistance, archiving, technical assistance to create data bases, WWW access.
  4. Formal written agreements: Partnerships would formalize agreements such as last copy commitments for monographs, serials, and other formats, cooperative purchasing, and cooperative collection building.


REQUIREMENTS FOR PROPOSALS FOR FUNDING FOR PURCHASES OF MATERIALS

It is appropriate that the ICCMCC fund projects and activities that support and encourage appropriate partnerships at all of these levels. In addition, ICCMP projects will be developed to fund materials acquisitions that grow out of the formal partnerships addressing identified needs in the state. A partnership would submit an application for this funding, addressing the following criteria.

All proposals will:

  1. Identify the partnership and its collection strengths; identify the collection need; specify the expected outcome and benefits to the state; and detail appropriate methods of publicity.
  2. Specify materials to be acquired (materials in any format are acceptable). (See section on electronic resources below.)
  3. Specify how bibliographic access to these materials will be made available in an online, electronic form such as ILLINET Online or other publicly accessible online public catalogs or databases.
  4. Verify that, in general, these materials would be available for circulation and ILL. Explain any exception.
  5. Address the issue of last copy for all formats.
  6. Address whether duplicate titles will be acquired. Duplication of these materials in the state would be acceptable, and at times, even desirable.
  7. Include a statement that the participating libraries agree to a long-term commitment to the partnership.
  8. Address methods of communication to be established and maintained for the partnership.
  9. Include a method of evaluation of the project and plans for annual reports of additions to collections made as a result of proposal funding.
  10. Specify that all materials purchased with ICCMP funds will be catalogued in a timely manner, that is, within six months of receipt.  


WITHDRAWAL FROM PARTNERSHIPS

The long term commitment is crucial to qualify for materials funding.  There may be rare occasions when it is necessary for a library to withdraw. In such a case, a library may withdraw from funded collection partnership agreements with written notice from the library director to the ICCMCC at least one year in advance of withdrawal so that alternate agreements can be substituted and transferred in an orderly fashion. In order to track libraries' continued support of the collection partnership, the ICCMP Director will request an annual recommitment from participating libraries. (See Appendix for a copy of the commitment form).


THE ROLE OF ELECTRONIC RESOURCES IN COLLECTION PARTNERSHIPS

  1. In addition to the initiatives established by the ICCMCC, cooperative partnerships should consider collaborative purchasing of specialized electronic products (identification, evaluation and/or purchase).
  2. The partnerships could consider cooperative activities in web page design and maintenance. 
  3. To support partnership projects, the partners should consider inclusion of web resources (i.e., creation, identification, organization and evaluation of web sites for the specific subject area).
  4. A collection partnership involving webpage or database creation requires partners to commit to long term maintenance on the server.


LAST COPY GUIDELINES

  1. Member institutions of the ICCMP will be surveyed to identify those willing to take responsibility for maintaining the last copies of monographic and serial titles (regardless of format) for a specified subdiscipline area(s). Preference will be given to institutions already having strong collections in the subject. Institutions receiving ICCMP funding for a specific subject are strongly encouraged to accept last copy responsibilies for that subdiscipline. The ICCMP will maintain an electronic directory of those institutions having last copy responsibilities for specific subjects. The ICCMCC and the Coordinator will remind library directors at last copy repositories of this commitment annually.
  2. Institutions with last copy responsibilities must accept the placement of a last copy in that subject area transferred from another Illinois institution. Acceptance of the last copy of a periodical or other serial does not require initiating a new subscription. Each last copy repository will designate from its current holdings the serial titles it is willing to accept responsibility to maintain. These lists of serial titles will be posted on the web or links will be provided to them from the ICCMP web site.
  3. Before withdrawing monographic or serial titles from holdings, each ICCMP member institution must verify that other copies exist within the state. If no other copies exist in statewide holdings, that institution must either retain the copy or transfer it to the appropriate last copy depository for that subject area. Items having no catalog record in ILLINET Online should be cataloged in a timely manner. Last copies will be identified with an appropriate symbol on the physical item, as well as on the catalog record.
  4. Institutions with last copy responsibilities are not required to accept last copy transfer of materials that fall outside of their internal collection development policies (e.g., copies of college textbooks).
  5. Last copies of materials such as children's literature and elementary and secondary classroom textbooks should be transferred to the appropriate last copy depository.
  6. Last copies of print materials may be replaced by electronic versions if there is assurance that the electronic version will be archived permanently and be available to other institutions in Illinois, and with the agreement of the institution holding the print last copy. An institution objecting to the disposal of a print last copy in favor of an electronic version is required to accept placement of the print copy in its own collections.
  7. Access to last copy holdings will be through standard library procedures, such as interlibrary loan.
  8. Institutions wishing to cease being a last copy depository must give at least one year's notice via the ICCMP listserv. The ICCMCC will identify another institution to accept future responsibility for the subject(s). If an institution does give up responsibility for being a last copy depository, it is responsible for retaining last copies in that subject unless the new institution is willing to accept them.

Definition of Last Copy for Monographic Materials

Publication Date/Edition/Printing

For post-1821 monographs, the last copy depository should retain copies of every edition (but not every printing) of a monograph. Librarians may use their discretion on the need to retain variant printings of monographs of this era.

For pre-1821 monographs (and for later publications of special historical or bibliographical importance) the depository library should retain all manifestations         of the item (i.e., all printings and editions).

Format

For post-1821 monographs, the last copy depository may retain copies of monographs in any format (e.g., print, photocopy, microform, computer file) which preserves the form and content of the original. The depository library should retain all manifestations of the item (i.e., all formats) if the item is of historical or bibliographical importance.

Definition of Last Copy for Periodical and Serial Titles

The last copy depository will retain all currently held volumes (in any format) of periodical or serial titles and maintain currently held subscriptions in that subject area. New subscriptions to last copies of periodicals are encouraged but not required. As opportunities arise, the institution should attempt to fill in gaps in the holdings.


ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES


Short-term Evaluation & Assessment

Each group of libraries applying for funding from the ICCMP for support for a collection partnership shall provide for evaluation at the end of each year of funding. See page 2 above.

Long-term Evaluation & Assessment

The ICCMP will give priority to funding grant projects which analyze the effects of collections partnerships on the collections of academic libraries in Illinois. The list below is intended to be illustrative, not exhaustive.



CALENDAR FOR FUNDING OF COLLECTION PARTNERSHIPS

The ICCMCC will put out a call for proposals for new collection partnerships two months in advance of the annual call for proposals. The Committee and the ICCMP Director have referred to the Illinois Collection Analysis Matrix (ICAM) in order to ascertain collection strengths in the past. The goal is to fund two to three new proposals annually; existing partnerships may be renewed for an additional year, pending the Committee's receipt of an acceptable proposal.


Funded: FY95-FY96 EDUCATION
FY96-FY97 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
FY97-FY98 MATERIALS TECHNOLOGY
FY98 PHILOSOPHY
FY98 GERONTOLOGY
Disciplines for future consideration might include: BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
  HISTORY AND AUXILIARY SCIENCES
  COMPUTER SCIENCE
  LANGUAGE, LINGUISTICS, AND LITERATURE
  CHEMISTRY
  POLITICAL SCIENCE
  ANTHROPOLOGY
  ART AND ARCHITECTURE
  MATHEMATICS
  MUSIC
  AGRICULTURE
  PSYCHOLOGY
  PERFORMING ARTS
  PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND RECREATION
  GEOGRAPHY AND EARTH SCIENCES
  SOCIOLOGY
  PHYSICAL SCIENCES
  ENGINEERInG AND TECHNOLOGY

APPENDIX

ILLINOIS COOPERATIVE COLLECTION MANAGEMENT PROGRAM COMMITMENT OF COLLECTION RESPONSIBILITY

We, the representatives of ________________________ and its parent body, accept the grant from the Illinois Cooperative Collection Management Program which shall be used to develop, provide access to, and service the collection(s) in the following area(s):





for the foreseeable future. We specifically agree to maintain the collection(s) to at least the "four" (4) level according to the description in the WLN Conspectus:

A collection that includes the major published source materials required for dissertation and independent research, including materials containing research reporting, new findings, scientific experimental results, and other information useful to researchers. It is intended to include all important reference works and a wide selection of specialized monographs, as well as a very extensive collection of journals and major indexing and abstracting services in the field. (Pertinent foreign materials are included.) Older material is usually retained for historical research and actively preserved. A collection at this level usually supports doctoral and other original research.

We agree to be a last copy repository for monographs in any format which represent the subject areas above whenever these materials are made available from other collections through deselection. We agree to take responsibility for the continuation of journals (not otherwise held in Illinois) originally purchased with CCMP funds. If at any time we find we must cancel any of these subscriptions, we will give notice to other institutions participating in the collection partnership.

We further agree to provide full cataloging of all materials acquired on OCLC, as well as bibliographic and physical access via ILLINET Online and to any institution within the consortium.

Cataloging of all materials will be done in a "timely manner"—that is, the library will ensure full bibliographic access within six months after receiving materials purchased with CCMCC funds.

Should it become necessary to withdraw from this agreement, we will provide written notice at least one year in advance of withdrawal to the CCMCC so that alternate agreements can be substituted and transferred in an orderly fashion.



_______________________________________   ________________________________________
Library Director Date