Maine Shared Collections Cooperative Collections and Operations Committee

August 29, 2024

10:00 am – 11:00 am

Attendees: Jeff Eastman, Patrick Layne, Tim Morton, Shiloh Parker, Matthew Revitt, Deb Rollins, Krystie Wilfong, Meg Gray, and Ana Noriega

Absentees: Sarah Skawinski  

1. Update and Feedback on Review of MSCC Commitments 

Following on from the MSCC member meeting Matthew has been reviewing the lists of MSCC commitments at the smaller member libraries who took on additional commitments as part of the 2019 collection analysis project. These lists are relatively small so it was possible to carry out manual reviews of the lists. Matthew has been flagging items with zero circulations, those by publishers MSCC has agreed are out of scope, guides and manuals, non-monographic material, juvenile non-fiction, and special collections items. 

Matthew has had meetings with library representatives to go over the results. The libraries have been very grateful for this work, as it will facilitate local deaccessioning work, and make it easier to sell MSCC to staff. To date all the libraries have also confirmed their willingness to extend commitments for their remaining titles. Matthew noted that none of the libraries had previously indicated they weren’t willing to extend commitments, but some like Gardner PL hadn’t responded to last year’s survey. In total around 9,000 titles were flagged as potentially having their commitments removed. The average percentage of overall commitments being removed was 30%. Jeff commented that he was surprised how many commitments Gardner PL had. 

Many of the libraries are keen to begin the work of removing the commitments from Sierra and some of the public libraries in-particular are keen to withdraw titles flagged from their collections. However, libraries had been asked to hold off on any withdrawals until the Collections and Operations Committee had a chance to review the list to see if there were any categories of material they felt should still be in-scope for MSCC.

Deb commented that she’d taken a look at the spreadsheet and was concerned about libraries withdrawing unique Maine related titles. For example, among the University of Maine at Farmington list were yearbooks and an archaeology report that were unique to them. Matthew responded that some of these titles were in special collections and were unlikely to be withdrawn and that material like yearbooks were not in-scope for MSCC. Also, while some libraries may choose to withdraw titles on this list, many would choose to retain the content regardless of whether it still has a MSCC commitment. Jeff also expressed concern about libraries withdrawing last copies from the state. Matthew responded that keeping a last copy of all titles was not something MSCC had set out to achieve and that in some cases something is rare for a reason i.e. it’s outdated content other libraries have already removed. Jeff also pointed out that many of the titles on the list had high circulation levels, but recognized that this may not have been recent circulation. Jeff wondered whether the last checkin date could be added in the future to these sorts of spreadsheets. Ana commented that it wouldn’t be feasible to include all the many different data points that go into deciding whether or not to withdraw a title in the spreadsheet. 

Krystie commented that we have to have faith in our colleagues throughout the state that they will carefully consider different factors when withdrawing titles. 

The Committee discussed that the Maine State Library has a commitment to collecting and retaining Maine related material and that this message should be communicated to MSCC members. 

Action Item: Matthew will include in his messaging to libraries that for any Maine related titles they plan to withdraw they should first contact him and Jeff to see if the item and commitment can be transferred to the Maine State Library. 

Action: The Committee approved libraries removing MSCC commitments from titles on the list that Matthew shared. Matthew will let the libraries know of this decision. 

2. Update on Portland Public Library Discussions

Earlier in August Lori Fisher, Ben Treat, and Matthew had met with Sarah Skawinski and Sarah Moore from Portland Public Library (PPL) to discuss the potential for PPL remaining in MSCC beyond the initial retention period expiration. PPL still has concerns about the bandwidth required to manage MSCC commitments, but there still remains a possibility that they will remain in MSCC beyond the expiration of the initial commitment. A couple of options  discussed at the meeting were for PPL to remove commitments on all non-fiction and also focus their commitments on ME related fiction and non-fiction. Matthew hoped that Sarah Skawinski will be able to report back on any follow up discussions at PPL at the next Collections & Operations meeting. Meg hoped there could be some clarification around focussing on Maine related material when this was already something the Maine State Library was already doing. Meg also commented from Bangor Public Library’s perspective on the importance of PPL remaining in MSCC as a fellow ARC and as the other largest public library in the state.  

3. Status on Reviews/Removals of Commitments 

Patrick and Meg reported that Bangor Public had been using the list of titles Matthew had flagged as being able to remove their commitments from to withdraw around 10,000 titles. Patrick had been working with colleagues in youth services on withdrawing outdated juvenile titles and with adult services on removing outdated non-fiction. 

Deb reported that deaccessioning work at UMaine had been in a holding pattern. Any work to look at titles with zero circulations would have to wait until the current projects were completed and they are waiting to hear about the Internet Archive regarding their work comparing overlap with their collections. 

Action: Matthew will follow up with the Internet Archive to see where they are with producing the overlap reports. 

Bowdoin is losing an entire floor and over half their shelf space to create new offices for the computer science department. They are having to withdraw a good chunk of our journals and over 15,000 books. Tim is working with colleagues at Bates and Colby on a plan for titles with MSCC commitments that need to be withdrawn. 

Bates have deaccessioning projects underway, but they aren’t removing any MSCC titles. Similarly Colby is not looking at MSCC titles, but they are withdrawing audio cassettes and some reference materials. 

4. Guidance on recording commitments in Alma & MaineCat Display

Matthew met with Summer Unsinn (Bowdoin) and Cason Snow and Pete Altman (UMaine), and Alisia Revitt (Maine InfoNet) to discuss how MSCC commitment notes should be recorded in Alma. Based on that meeting Pete is going to update the guidance on the MSCC website so the commitments can be consistently recorded across MSCC. Also discussed were adding to the guidance information to ensure the MSCC retention notes display correctly in both Alma and Maine Cat. Matthew will share the guidance once it’s ready.

Deb commented that she’d been unable to see the MSCC retention note in the new Alma OPAC. Krystie showed an example of a Bates record with the MSCC note. 

Action: Matthew will follow up with Cason and Alisia about why the MSCC note isn’t appearing in Alma.

5. Article on MSCC in the library edition of the Maine Policy Review 

Matthew is working on a draft article on MSCC for the libraries edition of the Maine Policy Review. The article will discuss some of the challenges MSCC is facing and how things have moved on from the 2013 article he wrote for the MPR.

6. Next Meeting

The Committee is due to meet next in November. Matthew will send a Doodle Poll.