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Five College Library Depository Policies

From "Operating Principles and Procedures"
November, 2002

I. Purpose and Organization
The Five College Library Depository (FCLD) is established to serve as a high density storage facility for infrequently used materials from the libraries of the Five Colleges.

It is to be operated in accordance with the Policy established by the Five Colleges Librarians Council in March, 2002. These Operating Principles and Procedures are the condensed essence of the Final Report of the Depository Planning Team, dated August 26, 2002, as accepted by the Librarians Council in November, 2002.

This document is intended to inform the Five Colleges community about the operation of the FCLD, and its use by students, faculty, staff and general public. It is not intended describe detailed system functions, nor to document the many years of collaborative study, discussion and decision making that precede this document.

The FCLD will not have its own OCLC identification, and will be operated as a branch location of each of the libraries. InterLibrayLoan credits will accrue to the member institution making the request.

The FCLD will utilize compact shelving organized by volume dimensions, not by subject, and will not allow browsing by patrons. Volumes will be placed in trays with a common call number for all volumes in the tray. All retrievals will be by FCLD staff members.

Rapid and accurate response to users will be the top priority for FCLD the staff, this activity taking precedence over shelving and administrative functions. The long term success of the FCLD operation depends on fulfilling the needs of the users.

II. Innovative Interfaces Catalog System Issues
Four new locations, one for monographs and one for serials in each of the separate catalogs, will be created. The Depository will be a circulation controlling location with its own login. The Depository will have its own Check-in module for proper handling of serials, many of which will be ongoing subscriptions, with holdings at member institutions as well as the Depository.
The public display in both catalogs will show "FCLDepository" as the location of holdings, and the tray number as the volume's call number.

III. Transfer of material into the Depository
The FCLD is designed to accommodate approximately 500,000 volumes in the initial configuration within the space leased in the Amherst College underground storage facility. Expansion space may be negotiated if needed. One half of the capacity is allocated to UMass Amherst; the other half is allocated to the consolidated holdings of Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, and Smith College.

UMass may transfer materials into the FCLD at its own discretion and pace, subject to coordination with FCLD staff in order to maintain efficient processing and minimum "off-shelf" time.

The decision to transfer any material to the FCLD is ultimately under the control of the owning institution, but transfers of titles held by more than one institution will be coordinated by the Collection Management Committee (CMC), with the active assistance of the FCLD Project Director. The Director will distribute listings of titles desirable for transfer, within the subject categories proposed by the CMC, about 45 days prior to the desired transfer period. In the case of journal runs the Director will work with the CMC and the individual libraries to obtain the most complete run with the best quality, possibly requiring components from more than one source.

The cost of moving materials to the FCLD for the first three years of operation is included in the FCLD budget, up to ,000. Every attempt will be made to minimize costs in order to move the maximum number of volumes within the established budget.

Journals not selected for transfer will be donated to JSTOR, if appropriate, or to other institutions in need. The FCLD Project Director will coordinate and handle this disposal activity if desired.
The transfer of titles unique to one of the four colleges may be made at any time.

IV. Physical processing and shelving
Volumes to be added to the FCLD will have a sticker affixed by FCLD staff below the existing barcode label that reads "Five College Depository". These labels will be approximately the same size as the barcode label and be color coded, one color for the four college collection (blue), and another for UMass (red). Existing barcode labels will be left in place for easier editing of catalog records. If the volumes have not yet been converted, the FCLD will have its own supply of item barcodes for conversion and also to replace any if needed in the future. Call number labels will be left as is, even though not needed for FCLD operations. Page slips, either manual or produced by III, will show the FCLD tray number to be used for re-shelving after the article is scanned or copied.

The institution that wishes to send runs of periodicals that have not yet been converted to the Depository will be responsible for entering a bibliographic record in the catalog for them, and at least one item record. Depository staff will use this as a template for item conversion for the remaining volumes, if they are selected for inclusion in the Depository collection, using FCLD barcode labels for the volumes.

Items to be transferred to the Depository should have their item locations changed to the appropriate Depository location before being shipped. Depository staff will delete item records for volumes not selected if needed (duplicate copies, etc.). The Tray Number will be entered into each item record in the 099 field as the material is boxed for shelving. This will replace the existing call number field. The presence of this value in the call number field will be the indicator that the material is available for loan or copying.

Check in records for the original owning institution should be deleted or modified according to local practice as titles are transferred. Depository staff will create a new check in record for every serial title added to the Depository according to established Five College conventions. No call number will be used on Depository check in records, since these shelving locations will be useless to patrons and may change as different batches of the same title are transferred at later dates.

V. Access to Depository Holdings

1. 5 College circulation -- monographs

The new Depository location on III, will be set up with standard Five College loan rules and billing policies. The Depository location will be added to the III table which permits the "Get" function for monographs for Four College patrons. Umass patrons will use a web request form. Using a III system printer, Depository staff will print pull slips daily and follow standard Five College practice for circulation. The Depository will be served (on request only until demand increases) by the Five College library courier service, so requested materials will be delivered every working day.

2. 5 College circulation -- articles

Journal articles will routinely be supplied as photocopies, faxes or scanned images. Ariel will be used when ever possible, with email to patron or posting to a website as alternatives. Faxing, due to high telephone costs, will be the last alternative. Patrons requesting articles available from JSTOR will be referred to JSTOR for access.

Lending of bound volumes will require staff to make an exception, which the loan rules will permit if desired. However, any bound volumes will be lent for "in library use only," preferably from Special Collections, Reserve, or other supervised areas. The loan period will be seven days, including the days of pick-up by courier and return by courier to FCLD.

Requests for journal articles will be sent to FCLD via a web request form to the FCLD email inbox. This inbox will be closely monitored by FCLD staff to insure prompt response.

If alternative methods of requesting and providing journal articles become available in the future, they will be adopted subject to approval by the Librarians Council.

3. Use of Depository bound volumes on Reserve

Bound volumes may be used on Reserve at any of the institutions, including runs of bound volumes, on an exception basis when copies of the relevant articles simply will not suffice. This procedure will conform to the already established by the libraries to place borrowed material on Reserve, and comply with the "in library use only" restriction. Such temporary transfers will not exceed one year in duration, and the library that houses these volumes will assume responsibility for providing inter-library loan access (both in and out of valley) for this material.

4. On-site access - Five College community members

The FCLD will have limited hours for on-site access. During the first three years of operation, hours will be from 10 AM to 3 PM. Other hours, including evening and weekend hours, will be available by appointment, especially for faculty. Later, hours may be increased if demand warrants.

Material will be made available in the Reading Room by FCLD staff. Patrons will not be allowed to browse the stacks. Materials requested prior to arrival will be delivered to the Reading Room prior to the appointed time of arrival.

5. Out-of-valley ILL -- monographs

Access to the Depository collection for remote users will be through the existing ILL departments of the Five Colleges. They will treat the Depository as though it was one of their own branches. The request can be transmitted by email or fax. A turn around time of 24 hours or less will be maintained. FCLD staff will ship monographs directly to the remote library (access to a post office and a budget for this will need to be determined), and notify the valley institution mediating the request that the material has been shipped. The monograph will be returned to the mediating valley institution, checked in to "in transit" status, and returned to the Depository via the library courier. This should enable OCLC updating to proceed smoothly. Any lending credit from OCLC will accrue to the ILL department that mediated the loan, and any policies on fees will also be that department's responsibility.

6. Out-of-valley ILL -- articles

Out-of-valley requests for articles will be supplied as photocopies, faxes or scanned images, using Ariel whenever possible. Response time of 24 hours or less will be maintained.

Bound volumes will not be lent out-of-valley from the Depository.

7. General Public access

Persons not affiliated with any of the Five Colleges will be afforded access to Depository holdings through any convenient public library and the ILL procedures established by that institution.

On-site use by the general public will be by appointment during the established hours. Appointments may be made directly by telephone or email or through a public library. As with Five College community members, materials will be made available in the Reading Room only. In the absence of a book theft detection system, patrons will be asked to show positive identification before being given access to materials. Photocopies will be made by FCLD staff at a charge of $.10 per page.

VI. Additions and alterations
Any changes or additions to this document will be subject to the approval of the Librarians Council.

Rev: 9Jan03 DGS

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