Note: This page refers to EAST’s print monograph projects. See the Serials and Journals page for the scope of those projects.
EAST aims to retain all unique and scarcely held print monograph materials, and sufficient copies of widely held materials to assure preservation and access. While initially EAST only considered titles published before 2011, this has been extended to cover titles published through 2021. Libraries may also proactively add retentions on newer titles. See the EAST retention models for further details on retention models used in collection analysis. Note that while EAST focuses on the retention of print monographs in circulating collections, some libraries may opt in to retaining non-circulating special collections monographs if they can be made available digitally.
EAST excludes materials for which libraries are not usually willing to make long term commitments, which EAST categorizes as ‘ephemera’. While libraries may opt to retain some of these types of materials, they are not required to do so. The following types of materials are currently determined to be out of scope for monograph retention:
- Reference materials (e.g. handbooks, almanacs, dictionaries)
- Computer manuals and guides
- Leisure materials such as travel and hobby guides
- Juvenile literature
- Test prep materials (e.g. LSAT, GRE)
- Textbooks and instructional materials
- Theses
- Scores
- Maps
- Loose leaf material
- Government documents – both US and international (United Nations documents may optionally be included)
- All non print formats, e.g. e-books, microforms, audio/video materials and other media
See also the detailed list of EAST ephemera (pdf), and a ‘tips’ document for identifying potentially suspect or out of scope materials (pdf).
Last updated: September 2024