Withdrawal of Print Monographic Materials from the Collection

The Information Resources Management Dept. (IRM) will Withdraw materials from the Library’s collection upon their 1) being declared Missing, 2) Lost by a Patron, or 3) Discarded by Library staff. The Circulation Dept. will notify Cataloging and Processing in regard to material that is to be declared Missing or Lost by patron.

In order to Withdraw an item, IRM will 1) suppress the item record, and also suppress the bibliographic and holdings records, if there are no other copies or volumes in any Library location; 2) remove the Library’s holdings from OCLC (if there are no other copies or volumes in any Library location), 3) enter or verify the presence of a Circ note in the item record concerning the Withdrawal, e.g. WDN [date, initials], and 4) record the Withdrawal in the statistics of the collection. IRM will inform selectors concerning Withdrawn material, who will make a decision in regard to possible replacement. Note that the Five College Depository should be considered a Library location, but not the Renaissance Center collection.

Notification of selectors will be accomplished through an annual batch process. At the beginning of January, a list of all items in all formats Withdrawn during the previous calendar year will be created by IRM staff and distributed to selectors via the ref-liaison-l listserv. The list will be created on the basis of the Item Processing Status WD. This is an interim Item Processing Status to be used for all items at the time of Withdrawal, if it is desired that a selector be informed of the Withdrawal. After the list is created, the Item Processing Status will be changed to MI. Any item that is Withdrawn that a selector does not need to see, e.g. because we have other copies or a replacement, should be given the Item Processing Status MI at the time of Withdrawal.

If the holdings record is for a multi-part title and contains a holdings statement indicating the Library’s holdings, the item being withdrawn should be removed from the holdings field, and the reason for the withdrawal given in a non-public note field in the holdings record.

When an item is Withdrawn, an appropriate Circ Note should be entered in the item record in all cases, in order to trigger an alert to circulation staff during a transaction that a withdrawn item has been found. In such a case, the item should be sent to IRM for re-instatement. If the item is being charged out to a patron, the patron should be allowed to have the book and the item should be sent to IRM upon its return.

Item records, holdings records (if appropriate), and bibliographic records (if appropriate) for Withdrawn materials will normally be suppressed from public view, but will be retained in the catalog indefinitely. Exceptions are possible, e.g. records for material discarded according to regular schedule, e.g. “latest volume only retained,” will simply be deleted from Aleph.

An item will be declared Missing when it has been searched at least twice, over a time period of at least 6 months, and not found.

At the point an item is first noted to be absent, the Item Processing Status will be coded SF for “First Search” (displays in the OPAC as Missing), normally, but not necessarily, by Circulation staff. There is no need to enter a note with date, etc., since the Update Date in the item record will generally give the date. If an item coded SF is still not found the next time it is searched, the code will be changed to SS for “Second Search” (displays in the OPAC as Missing), if at least 3 months have elapsed from the Update Date in the item record. If 3 months have not elapsed, the status should be left as SF until a subsequent search. If an item coded SS is still not found the next time it is searched, and at least 3 months have elapsed after the Update Date in the item record, the item will be declared Missing and Circulation will send a printout of the record to IRM for Withdrawal. IRM will change the Item Processing Status to ‘WD’(Withdrawn), which suppresses the display of the item in the OPAC, and follow standard procedures to complete the Withdrawal. If it is not necessary for a selector to be notified of the Withdrawal, the Item Processing Status should be changed to MI instead of WD. The standard form of the Circ Note should be: “WDN [date, initials].”

Circulation or branch staff will normally conduct searches of materials coded SS or SF twice a year, during the January Intersession and in the Summer.

Circulation will declare an item Lost by Patron at the point at which a patron pays the replacement fee, or informs Circulation staff that the book has been lost. An item will also be declared Lost by patron if the item is over-due for at least two years.

When a replacement fee is paid or a patron informs Circulation that an item is lost (regardless of whether the patron presents a replacement copy or not), Circulation, in addition to any standard billing procedures, should enter an appropriate Circ Note in the item record for the lost item, e.g. “Lost by patron” or “Bill paid by patron,”with date and initials, and notify IRM. This notice should include an indication of which item record is to be withdrawn, if there is more than one on a title, e.g. by including the last 3 digits of the barcode. IRM will change the Item Processing Status to WD, which suppresses the item from OPAC display, or MI if a selector does not have to be notified. The item will be withdrawn according to standard procedures.

If a replacement copy is presented by the patron, that fact should be recorded in an Internal Note in the item record for the lost item, “Lost and replaced by patron [date, initials].” The replacement copy should be sent directly to the Bibliographic Access and Metadata Unit in IRM (not to the Acquisitions Unit) accompanied by the notification of the lost item that is to be Withdrawn, with enough information to identify the precise item if there is more than one on a record. IRM will catalog the replacement volume as an added copy or new edition, change the Item Processing Status of the item record for the lost item to MI [not WD in this case, since we have a replacement], which suppresses the item from OPAC display, and record the note “Replacement copy [date, initials]” in the Internal note field of the new item (which will also be coded as a gift). The lost item will be withdrawn according to standard procedures.

An item will be declared Lost by patron, and Withdrawn, when that item is found to be overdue for at least two years. Materials in this category will generally be identified by running a report in Aleph at least once a year to identify material overdue for two years or longer that is not already Withdrawn. IRM will be notified about materials in the report, and will enter an Item Processing Status of WD, or MI if a selector does not have to be notified, which suppresses the item from OPAC display. IRM will Withdraw the item according to standard procedures.

Note: Aleph supplies an Item Status display of LOST in the OPAC as soon as an item is billed. This display does not derive from the Item Processing Status. Billed material will normally continue to display in the OPAC as LOST until the item is found, the bill is settled, or the item is Withdrawn after being overdue for two years.

If at any time it is discovered that a bill for an item has been paid, Circulation will make appropriate notes in the item record and notify IRM, who will change the Item Processing Status to WD, or MI if a selector does not have to be notified, and take the appropriate Withdrawal steps.

An item will be declared Discarded when Library staff decide to physically dispose of an item (usually because of severe damage or duplicate status), at which point the item processing status will be coded WD, or MI if a selector does not have to be notified, which suppresses the item record from OPAC display. A Circ Note will be entered in the item record, saying “Discarded [date, initials].” The reason for the discard should be stated if possible. IRM will complete the Withdrawal according to standard procedures.

Responsibilities

Circulation or branch staff declare an item Missing or Lost by Patron, enter appropriate notes, and notify IRM.

IRM staff code the records appropriately, Withdraw the item, and notify selectors. IRM staff maintain OCLC holdings and statistics of the collection, and catalog replacement volumes.

Selectors decides whether or not a withdrawn item should be replaced and, if so, place an order with the Acquisitions Unit in IRM.

Acquisitions orders the replacement copy and notes in the order record that the order is a replacement for the given item.

Whenever a Withdrawn item is found, Circulation will be responsible for any appropriate refund steps, and IRM will re-instate the item by 1) un-suppressing records; 2) re-storing holdings on OCLC; 3) deleting notes relating to the withdrawal (except notes relating to patrons or payments that may be needed by Circulation); and 4) recording the re-instatement in the statistics of the collection.

DS (Discarded) (Suppresses item) [OBSOLETE] – Used to record Withdrawal for items discarded by Library staff.

FN (Bill Not Paid) (Suppresses item) [OBSOLETE] – Primarily a carry-over from III, used to record Withdrawal for an item in which it is known that the bill has not been paid. Not likely to be much used in Aleph.

FP (Bill Paid) (Suppresses item) [OBSOLETE] – Used to record Withdrawal for items Lost by patron in which it is known that the bill has been paid, or a replacement volume has been supplied by the patron.

LO (Lost) (Suppresses item) [OBSOLETE] – Used to record Withdrawal for items Lost by patron in which no billing information is available.

MI (Withdrawn) (Suppresses item) – Used to record Withdrawal on a permanent basis for withdrawn items.

SF (Missing (First) (Displays as Missing, does not suppress item) – Used to record the first time that an item is discovered to be not in its place. Marks the item for subsequent routine searches.

SS (Missing (Second) (Displays as Missing, does not suppress item) – Used to record the second time that an item is searched after being marked SF.

ST (Missing (Third) (Displays as Missing, does not suppress item) – Not used at this time, since by policy material is Withdrawn after two searches.

WD (Withdrawn) (Suppresses item) - Used to record Withdrawal on an interim basis for the creation of the annual list of Withdrawn items to be sent to selectors. Changed to MI after the list is created.

1. Generate a spreadsheet of items to be searched again. This can be based on items that have been already searched before (with Item Processing Status of SF), or items that are more than 2 years overdue. The list should probably include: Call number; Volume; Copy; Collection; Barcode; OPAC note; Circulation Note; Internal Note; Title; Item Processing Status.

2. Search the items on the spreadsheet, in the stacks, [and analyze the Aleph records to see if any have circulated recently, e.g. after the Item Processing Status was changed [I’m not sure if this step is really practical]] Reinstate any items that are found, or that have circulated recently, and remove them from the spreadsheet.

3. Separate the items remaining in the spreadsheet into two categories: 1) those that have other “live” item records, e.g. other copies or volumes that have not been withdrawn, attached to the bib record; 2) those that do not have other “live” item records attached to the bib record, i.e. if there are other item records they have been withdrawn. The Item Processing Status MI or WD indicates that an item has been withdrawn.

4. For items in category 1 (with live items associated:

a) Update the Item Processing Status to WD (if it is desired that a selector later be notified of the withdrawal (the normal case)) or MI (if it is not necessary for a selector to be notified) b) Enter a Circ Note in the form: WDN batch [date] (or a reasonable variant to identify a particular project)

5. For items in category 2 (no live items associated)

a) Update the Item Processing Status to WD (if it is desired that a selector later be notified of the withdrawal (the normal case)) or MI (if it is not necessary for a selector to be notified) b) Enter a Circ Note in the form: WDN batch [date] (or a reasonable variant to identify a particular project) c) Suppress the bib record and holdings record by entering a field with tag: STA and the word (in caps): SUPPRESSED d) Remove UMass holdings from OCLC

6. For all items in Category 1 (live items associated)

     a) Check for the presence of an 866 field in the holdings record and modify as needed to reflect the withdrawal. 
     b) Check for the presence of multiple HOLs, and enter STA SUPPRESSED into any HOL with live items no longer attached.
     c) For all serial records in category 1, modify the Local Holdings Record (LHR) in OCLC to reflect the withdrawal.

In terms of distribution of these steps, we agreed that usually Mary Ann would create the spreadsheet in step 1; students in Circulation (especially Stacks Management), IRM, or SEL (if appropriate) would search for the items in step 2; Rick would analyze the items in the spreadsheet to separate them into the two categories in step 3, and do the item update work in step 4 and parts a and b of step 5; Lucy would do steps c and d of step 5, step 6, and step 7.

— Primary contact: Gary Hough 2009/05/20 14:09