Introducing JACS — Journal Archiving Campaigns to the RLFs

The UC Shared Print Strategy and Operations Teams are pleased to announce a new service: Journal Archiving Campaigns to the RLFs (JACS).

Journal archiving campaigns provide a coordinated approach to selecting, depositing, consolidating and preserving print journal backfiles at the Regional Library Facilities (RLFs). The service consists of annual, coordinated deposits of all campus holdings for a defined list of journals to the RLFs. For each title on the selected list, a single, shared print archive is disclosed in OCLC and stored for long term preservation and access. The JACS also include a deduplication component; RLF staff will take care of removing duplicates and processing discards.

The JACS are designed to advance UC’s goals to preserve the scholarly record, accelerate the development of shared print archives of journal backfiles, integrate UC’s shared print collections with broader regional and national shared collections, and create substantial opportunities to reallocate library space.

Benefits of this service include preservation of archived journals in environmentally controlled conditions, consolidated holdings at one location, systemwide discovery and equitable access to all UC users from the RLFs, informed selection through systemwide collections analysis and bibliographer-led selection, and a simpler approach for campuses that volunteer to make deposits. Shipping to the RLFs is also made easier through a dedicated courier; JACS shipments are paid for by CDL.

Campuses participate in the service voluntarily. Several campuses have already participated in this type of activity through the JSTOR project. So, the JACS build off of an already successful existing model and simply extend it to both RLFs, all campuses (that wish to join), and for a broader title list.

The first annual journal archiving campaign will run July 2015 to June 2016 and will consist of approximately 500 titles (250 titles for each RLF). It will include WEST, JSTOR and additional titles selected by UC’s bibliographers on the Shared Print Strategy Team and in consultation with UC bibliographer groups. Bibliographers will be supported by the PAPR collections analysis system for journals, which provides a systemwide view of UC’s print journal holdings and overlap. In the second year, a process for title nominations will be put in place so that bibliographers can also recommend titles for archiving.

Please visit the Journal Archiving Campaigns website, to learn more: http://www.cdlib.org/services/collections/sharedprint/jacs/index.html

Recently, the Shared Print Strategy and Operations Teams held a series of information sessions on the Journal Archiving Campaigns; thank you to everyone who attended. If you were unable to attend, you can download the presentation slides here. Please note that the slides are password protected; please contact http://www.cdlib.org/contact/password.html to obtain the password.

The shared print teams are actively working on additional operation details for the JACS. We will send out more information in the upcoming months. Some activities currently under development include a shipping contract, collections analysis, a disclosure policy, a volume-level validation standard and an access policy for the resulting archives. Closer to launch, a planning advisory message will go to campus AULS for Collections with a more formal request for campus intention to participate.

We look forward to serving your collection management needs!