StaffGuide: Receiving & Processing

Limited Retention Titles

Limited Retention Titles:

Limited Retention titles are kept by the library for a temporary amount of time and then older issues are discarded, ranging from a few months to 5 years. Since limited retention titles are not kept permanently, special rules apply.

  • Damaged/Defective Limited Retention Items:
    • We do not claim for limited retention titles, especially if it is available online. If not available online and the title has high print usage, go ahead and claim for a replacement copy.
    • Minor tears can be repaired by the Receiving Specialist by using regular tape. Do not use archival tape and do not send item to binding for complex repairs. Do your best to repair as much as you can on your own.

These titles should have a note clarifying that it’s a limited retention title at the top of the check-in record like so:

NOTE: *****Limited Retention title: RETAINS CURRENT TWO YEARS ONLY ; REMINDER: PICK UP OLDER ISSUES IN (SPECIFIC MONTH)


Throughout the year, the Receiving Specialist will pick up older issues for discard and either send them to the Content Services Student Worker to work on or if a student worker is not available the issues can be sent to Preservation to work on.

A staff note in a box in the check in card will alert the Receiving Specialist that it is time to pick up older issues. The note will look like this: "REMINDER: TIME TO PICK UP OLDER ISSUES".


For Limited Retention Titles located at the Branch Libraries:

Flags are to be created for these titles at regular intervals, usually for the first issue of a year or volume, to alert branch library departmental staff that it’s time to discard older issues and any other info. Please read these notes carefully and create the flag (procedures for flags can be found here).


Limited Retention items will not have a bind title and will include often include binding notes indicating that issues have been discarded.

Limited Retention

Limited retention titles are also denoted in the 860 field of the bib record (the "library has" note). This title, for example, is retained for 5 years then discarded:

Library has note for limited retention title

 

Bind Info Notes for Discarded Issues (Limited Retention Titles and Supplements, etc.)

LIMITED RETENTION TITLES

With limited retention titles, you will often need to perform card maintenance after several issues have been discarded. The discard process is generally performed by either Preservation personnel or student employees. Full discard procedures can be found in the Discard Area section of the Serials Work Study & Hourly Employees StaffGuide.

However, the Receiving Specialist will be responsible for deleting the boxes for these issues after the main discard process has been completed. When checking in limited retention titles, watch for clusters of suppressed boxes with the "removed" status. If you see these, look for a corresponding BIND INFO note in the check-in record. This note should indicate the dates and enumeration of the discarded issues, which should match the removed boxes in the check-in card, followed by the date and initials of the staff member that did the discarding. Example:

bind info note with discarded issue info

After you've confirmed that the info in the note matches the info in the "removed" boxes, you can delete the removed boxes. Once you've done this, add a brief explanation that you've deleted the boxes to the end of said BIND INFO note, like the example above.

SUPPLEMENTS

You may sometimes come across an isolated box with the "removed" status rather than clusters. These will often be discarded supplements. The parent titles themselves are usually bound titles, but some supplements to bound titles are not permanently retained. You can confirm that this is the case by examining the sup notes and finding a note indicating that the sup is checked in and processed, but will ultimately get discarded when it comes time to bind the parent title:

instructions for sup to be discarded

You will follow the same procedures for these discarded individual supplements that you would for rows of discarded issues in a normal limited retention situation. There should be a bind info note corresponding to the removed box. After verifying this, you can proceed to delete the removed box and add a brief note to the bind info note that you've deleted the box.