Contributing to the Archives
WEST is a distributed archive, meaning that there is no central facility that houses the WEST archives. Archived volumes are held at a number of member libraries and library storage facilities across the Western portion of the USA. There are many ways members can get involved and contribute to the archives, from retaining materials on behalf of the program to contributing volumes to complete another member’s collections.
Serve as a WEST archiver
Archive Holders and Archive Builders are WEST member institutions that perform archiving activities, retain materials on behalf of the program, and make those materials accessible via existing resource sharing channels. Any WEST member institution may elect to become an Archive Holder of low risk materials. Low risk materials do not require any physical or content validation, and may be stored in open stacks.
WEST members with secure, environmentally-controlled closed-stacks storage facilities may become Archive Builders, after review with the WEST project team and approval from WEST governance. Archive Builders retain low, medium, and/or high risk materials, ensuring that appropriate validation and gap filling activities are undertaken and materials are shelved in facilities appropriate for their risk level. Archive Builders receive a subsidy for the work they undertake on behalf of WEST. For detailed information about the WEST archives and the work that goes into building the collection, see the Archiving Standards and Requirements pages.
Proactive Archiving
WEST encourages members to proactively make local decisions outside of the regular analysis/proposal process to archive journals for WEST that are of local and regional importance. Proactive local retention decisions are an important additional avenue by which WEST archives can be developed. To support this process, WEST has developed Guidelines for Proactive Local Archiving, which go into more detail about the process, archiving priorities identified by the Operations and Collections Council, and Archiving Responsibilities.
Help complete the archives
WEST members, whether they are retaining titles or not, have other opportunities to contribute to and strengthen the collection. Archive Builders issue periodic ‘calls for holdings’ where they request volumes from members to fill gaps and complete backfiles for medium and high risk level journals they are archiving. All WEST members are encouraged to respond to these calls and to contribute volumes where they are able. By drawing on the collections of the wider WEST membership, Archive Builders are able to compile complete runs of journals in a single location, streamlining access and maintenance responsibilities. Please review the Answering a Call for Holdings FAQ for more information about the process from the contributor’s side, and see this brief video overview of the process: Answering a Call for Holdings Video. Additionally, we now also have a Calls for Holdings Tracking Spreadsheet where WEST members can indicate if they are currently open and able to respond to calls for holdings, or share if they are engaged in a deselection project and seeking to contribute volumes to aid in that deselection. Conversely, if a member is unable to respond to calls for holdings at this time, then putting that information in this spreadsheet can save everyone time.
In addition to answering Builders’ calls for holdings, any member may use the Journal Retention & Needs Listing (JRNL) tool at any time to identify gaps in shared print holdings across the country and make offers to supply the necessary volumes. While we ask that you give priority to WEST archivers when offering volumes, you may offer them to any archiving institution in any of the Rosemont Shared Print Alliance partner programs.