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Call for Cycle 9 Archiving Disclosures – Due June 30, 2020

May 4, 2020 Author: Anna StrikerCategories:

The WEST project team recently sent out a call for WEST Archive Holders and Builders to submit metadata records describing the journal backfiles archived during WEST Cycle 9.

Back in September 2018, WEST members committed to titles for archiving during Cycles 8/9 (through spring 2020). Many Archive Holders (Bronze, no physical validation required) may have chosen to disclose all their committed titles during Cycle 8 disclosure, meaning that some institutions may not have anything left to disclose in Cycle 9. Archive Builders (Silver and Gold, physical validation required) are expected to disclose the remainder of their archiving commitments that were not disclosed during Cycle 8; however, there may be exceptions to this depending on how much of the physical archiving work Archive Builders were able to accomplish before their libraries closed due to the COVID-19 crisis. The WEST project team is highly aware of the disruptions this crisis has caused not only to WEST archiving work but all library activities, and requests that Archive Builders disclose what archiving they were able to complete during Cycle 9, and then disclose any remaining Cycle 8/9 commitments in the Cycle 10 disclosure period (spring 2021).

The WEST Disclosure Policy, which is available for download from the WEST website, includes a commitment for Archive Holders and Builders to provide metadata records to the California Digital Library (CDL) for ingest into the AGUA analysis tool and propagation to the CRL Print Archive Preservation Registry (PAPR). The PAPR system is a public registry of the titles archived by major print archiving and shared print programs. Archive Holders and Builders also provide disclosure records directly to OCLC to disclose WEST holdings in WorldCat. New for Cycle 9: Archive Holders and Builders are now asked to submit disclosure files directly in AGUA using the Bibliographic and Holdings Data Ingest file upload tools.

WEST members may be aware that OCLC is currently engaged in development work to improve shared print registration functionality. OCLC anticipates launching its new shared print registration service later this spring, but as this coincides directly with the WEST disclosure period members are encouraged to continue using established processes and standards for disclosing commitments to OCLC WorldCat as described in WEST Disclosure Policy until training materials can be developed for the new system.

Disclosure of WEST archived materials is intended to support three primary goals:

  1. Discovery and display of WEST materials for use by library staff and by library users as appropriate
  2. Resource-sharing among WEST members as defined in the Access Guidelines for WEST Archives
  3. Collection analysis to support local and system-level collection management decisions and development of additional WEST print archives

WEST asks that Archive Holders and Builders submit these records to AGUA by June 30, 2020. (Please provide records to OCLC separately on a schedule convenient for your library; it is strongly recommended that this is done around the same time.)

Please note an important change for Cycles 8 and 9 commitments:

    • In 2016, the WEST Executive Committee approved a recommendation from the Operations and Collections Council to modify the definition of backfile from v.1-2005 to v. 1-2015 (for all future proposals, all archive types); additionally, for Bronze, archiving up to the current year is preferred. Through this shift, WEST’s governance groups responded to the fact that as we move forward in years, WEST’s backfile definition is increasingly outdated. More titles are identified in the automated analytics that began publication after 2005, for which WEST members have substantial print holdings. Shifting the backfile definition is meant to increase the pool of available titles and simplify decision-making and cataloging for Archivers. This does not place any obligation on Archivers to maintain current print subscriptions. Additionally, Builders are not being asked to retrospectively build journal families already committed under the v.1-2005 model.

Once normal operations have resumed, keep an eye out for Calls for Holdings from WEST’s Archive Builders! Calls for holdings are crucial to the archive building process and help Builders fill gaps and complete runs of journals. They also offer an opportunity for all members to contribute materials to the collective collection. If you would like to learn more about Calls for Holdings and the role they play in WEST’s archive creation work, please see this blog post or WEST’s FAQs.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact WEST’s Operations and Collections Analyst, Anna Striker, at anna.striker@ucop.edu.