The UCSF Library’s Archives and Special Collections has been rapidly acquiring rare ephemera and archival materials in order to preserve the significant contributions UCSF has made to the history of medicine. They have outgrown their current storage areas and are in desperate need of additional secure space to continue their critical mission. The Library has identified a space on the first floor of the Parnassus library as an ideal location for Archives and Special Collections to expand. In order for that space to be repurposed, the bound journal volumes that are currently shelved there will need to either be relocated to our regional storage facility or deaccessioned.
Our bound journal collection, comprising of approximately 174,000 volumes, has seen very little use over the last decade as the Library has shifted to providing stable online access to health sciences resources. In 2018, these bound journals were only checked out 24 times by UCSF patrons. The vast majority of these journal titles are not unique and are also held at other UC campuses or at a UC regional storage facility, in addition to being available online. Our goal is to deaccession the duplicate bound journal volumes and to relocate our unique titles offsite for continued access and safekeeping.
Access to bound journals is not going away; the method used to access them is simply changing. All journals that will no longer be housed at the UCSF Library, including those materials available at other UC campuses and facilities, can be requested for free through our existing request system if they are not available online. Relocating our unique holdings to offsite storage has the added benefit of ensuring that they will not be lost, stolen, or damaged in the future. Our commitment to preserving access to unique print resources can be seen in our participation in shared print initiatives, such as the UC Journal Archiving Campaign Service (JACS) and the wider Western Regional Storage Trust (WEST).
Please direct any questions or feedback to Sarah McClung, Head of Collection Development, by March 20, 2019.