Five Colleges of Ohio Last Copy Policy

"None of the five libraries will discard the last copy of any book or other type of library material, regardless of its location, without the agreement of all other member libraries. If a library does not agree, it will be given the item to add to its collection." (no. II.b. - Five Colleges of Ohio Memorandum of Understanding Regarding Sharing of Library Materials, 1/7/02)

1. Any item being considered for withdrawal needs to be searched in the CONSORT and OhioLINK databases.

• If the item is the last copy in OhioLINK, we should make every effort to keep it.
• If the item is the last copy in the Five Colleges of Ohio collections but not in OhioLINK, the Collection Development liaison at each campus must be consulted before proceeding. To determine last-copy status, in addition to searching their own catalog, CONSORT staff members need to check the Oberlin OBIS catalog and Oberlin staff members need to check the CONSORT catalog.

2. Once the item has been reviewed by the CD liaisons:

• If there are objections to the item being withdrawn, the item should go into the collection of a library that objects or to CONStor. Liaisons should use judgment regarding the condition and value of items being considered for withdrawal (e.g., the 2nd supplement of a software manual is probably not worth keeping). Preservation measures (e.g., box, re-back, etc.) must be applied to last copy (and any other) items in poor condition before they are sent to CONStor in order to be usable and able to withstand shipment via OhioLINK transport.
• If there are no objections, the item may be withdrawn. Titles of the last copy items that are withdrawn should be posted on the OhioLINK Discards list.

Adopted by Five Colleges Library Committee 3/14/02