Yearly WEST Contacts Review
WEST has recently sent an email to all Primary Contacts asking them to review and, if necessary, update their contacts for various WEST and AGUA activities. This ensures that WEST is sending communications to the appropriate staff at each member institution, and that no members are inadvertently left out of any activities due to outdated records at WEST. Primary Contacts are also asked to provide information about any recent or upcoming systems migrations; providing this information now will help the WEST technical team prepare the AGUA system and ensure submitted files are analyzed properly. A description of each of the contact roles is included below.
All changes to members’ contacts should be coordinated through the Primary Contacts.
Description of WEST Contact Roles
WEST Directors: Typically, the WEST Director would be a library director or university librarian. WEST Directors receive financial and membership-related updates. Directors are contacted to participate in annual WEST Executive Committee elections and are copied on yearly invoicing communications. Directors receive notices of key strategic occurrences or decisions in the program and are regularly invited to attend WEST Member Meetings.
WEST Primary Contacts: Primary Contacts for WEST may include head librarians, associate university librarians, collections librarians, and/or serials librarians. The Primary Contacts are the recipients of all pertinent WEST communications and often serve as disseminators for WEST news or activities at their institutions. For example, Primary Contacts will receive annual requests for WEST deselection statistics and biennial requests for unarchived holdings data.
WEST Archivers: WEST Archiver contacts are drawn from the staff of WEST’s Archive Holders and Builders. Archiver contacts will receive communications such as the annual call for the disclosure of archived titles, annual requests for lending and archiving statistics, and information pertinent to the ongoing stewardship of WEST’s archives. **Please note that non-archive holders do not need to designate a WEST Archiver contact**
WEST Technical Contacts: Typically, include staff responsible for extracting data for WEST archiving activities. Technical Contacts receive instructions and technical details for activities that are vital to the success of WEST archiving, including extracting bib and holdings data for collections analysis and outputting records for disclosure of archived titles. WEST Technical Contacts may also field follow-up inquiries from WEST technical staff related to submitted data.
WEST Financial Contacts: WEST Financial Contacts receive annual WEST membership fee invoices and facilitate payment. **Please note that there is no listserv for Financial Contacts**
Description of AGUA Contact Roles
AGUA Primary Contact: Primary Contacts in AGUA serve as the main point of contact between WEST institutions during the Archive Creation process. They send, receive, and respond to collections inquiries, including calls for holdings and offers of contributions to complete archives at other WEST institutions.
AGUA Alternative Contact: Alternative Contacts in AGUA act as a backup to the AGUA Primary Contact for communications between WEST members.
AGUA Technical Contact: Technical Contacts in AGUA may be contacted by the WEST technical team with any questions that arise regarding files, records, or other technical matters. They are not usually contacted regarding collections inquiries.