Retention Models

The EAST Board of Directors (or its predecessor, the EAST Executive Committee) approved these retention models recommended to them by the Monographs Working Groups and vetted by the EAST member libraries. Subsequent collection analyses built on these initial retention models and adapted them as needed, taking into consideration the specific software tool used.

Cohort 1 Model

 

The Cohort 1 EAST retention model had three primary components:

  • Retention of ALL existing holdings for titles that are scarcely held in the US, in EAST, and in the region.
  • Retention of up to five holdings for all titles that have had significant use within EAST.
  • Retention of one holding for all other titles that are not scarcely held or heavily used.

Two categories of material were excluded from the model, including recently published and “ephemeral” (non-scholarly) content.

Here is a more detailed description of the model.

  • Retain ALL scarcely held titles:  Scarcely held defined as fewer than 5 EAST holdings and fewer than 40 U.S. WorldCat holdings (any edition), fewer than 5 regional large academic library holdings (any edition), not held in ConnectNY (any edition), publication year before 2011 and not published by a publisher on the ‘ephemera’ list.
  • Retain sufficient copies of widely held titles: Retain UP TO 5 copies of works that had more than 30 aggregate uses across the Cohort 1 libraries, publication year before 2011 and not published by a publisher on the ‘ephemera’ list.
  • Retain ONE copy of all other monographs, publication year before 2011 and not published by a publisher on the ‘ephemera’ list.

 

Cohort 2 Model

Cohort 2 Model:

The various EAST committees working on the Cohort 2 collection analysis felt it was important to be as consistent as possible with the Cohort 1 Retention Model above. However, based on the results of both cohort’s validation studies, the Cohort 2 working group felt there needed to be an additional rule for retaining extra copies of material likely to be in poor condition.

  • Retain ALL scarcely held titles: Scarcely defined as fewer than 40 U.S. holdings (any edition), publication year before 2011 and not published by a publisher on the ‘ephemera’ list.
  • Retain sufficient copies of widely held titles: Retain UP TO 4 copies of works that had more than 20 aggregate uses across the Cohort 2 libraries and fewer than 5 copies retained in Cohort One (same edition), publication year before 2011 and not published by a publisher on the ‘ephemera’ list.
  • Retain extra copies of materials likely to be in poor condition: Retain UP TO 3 copies of monographs published before 1900, and not published by a publisher on the ‘ephemera’ list.  This retention rule was a direct result of the validation study showing that older materials are much more likely to be in poor condition.
  • Retain ONE copy of all other monographs not retained by Cohort One, publication year before 2011 and not published by a publisher on the ‘ephemera’ list.

These models combined resulted in approximately nine million title-holdings being allocated to EAST Retention Partners for the minimum 15 year retention period.  Quite an accomplishment!

Florida Cohort

Seven state of Florida universities (plus their regional repository), joined EAST in 2019 (please read our press release). Below is the final retention model agreed upon by the participating libraries:

  • Retain ALL copies of titles with US WorldCat holdings of less than 40
  • Retain up to 5 copies of titles with aggregate uses of more than 50, unless at least 5 copies are already being retained by EAST
  • Retain 3 copies of titles published before 1900, unless at least 3 copies are already being retained by EAST
  • Retain 1 copy of everything else, unless already being retained by EAST.
  • Exclude Out of Scope materials.

 

Note: The ‘ephemera’ list contained title keywords and publishers that were deemed to be either of short lived value or pose difficulties in determining long term retention merit, such as travel guides and computer manuals.  While these were not on retention lists, weeding of these materials is left entirely up to the local libraries. As additional cohorts and institutions join EAST, the list of publishers falling under the ephemera flag has grown.