Collection Management - Policy for Suppression and Deletion

General statement

• If Harvard owns a physical item, or has online access, the records should be active (not suppressed), and exposed in the catalog. Exceptions are outlined below.

• If Harvard no longer has a resource, the item, holding, bib records should be removed from Alma.

User expectations / Impact

• Users (including library staff) expect HOLLIS to reflect what we actually hold on our shelves. Omissions (where we hold the item but there’s no record in HOLLIS) are commonly understood to be the result of errors or backlogs that we hope to eventually resolve. Information about the conditions for access is helpful and should be included in a note, but access should not be controlled via suppression of information.

• RTL staff frequently get questions from both Harvard users and non-Harvard users asking for help interpreting HOLLIS – does this mean we have it? Or that we definitely don’t have it? I found x book that claims there’s a fragment of it in Widener’s collection, is that true? Is the copy at Penn the only one in the world? – and we rely heavily on what we find in HOLLIS to answer those questions. If an RTL staff member saw a microfilm copy but no original they would tell the patron that it’s likely that Harvard no longer has the original.

• (statement provided by the Discovery to Delivery Working Group, Jan. 2023)

When to Withdraw Items / Delete Bibs & Holdings

The deletion of items, holdings and bibs for withdrawn resources is especially important in Alma. Otherwise, the res

ources are assumed to be parts of the collection that need to be managed. System functions for managing the collection continue to apply to suppressed records, such as authority control processes. 

Reminder: you can view information about withdrawn items and deleted bibliographic records and holdings records in Alma Analytics. Also, POs, POLs, and Invoices continue to exist in Alma with limited bibliographic information even when the associated bib is deleted. 

When items are removed from the Harvard collection

• For items that we physically have and are removing, the item should be withdrawn from Alma and the reason for the withdraw should be noted in Internal Note 3.

• Withdrawn items are reportable in Alma Analytics.

• If the holding has no other items, the holding should be deleted. 

• If the bib has no other holdings, the bib should be deleted

• Please refer to Withdrawal documentation for more detail and step-by-step instructions.

• If you encounter a bib that has no holdings, items, or portfolios, it should be deleted. 

• Deleted bibs and holdings are reportable in Alma Analytics. 

Legacy holdings with no items

• At times in the past, the policy was to suppress, not delete, holdings that were withdrawn or transferred. When you encounter these holdings in the course of your work, please delete them (and bibs if applicable). 

• Alternatively, you may create an item, then withdraw the item using best practice guidelines. This will make the item reportable in Analytics. This option is only necessary if your unit has an explicit requirement regarding the reporting of material no longer held in the library (which may be the case for some special collections). 

• Examples: 

  • A WID GEN holding is suppressed with a note indicating that it was transferred to HD. A separate, active HD holding and item exists for the resource. Action: delete the WID GEN holding.  

  • A suppressed LAW GEN holding has a note indicating that the item was withdrawn due to water damage. There is no item, and the bib is suppressed. Action: delete the bib and the holding. 

Exceptions to deletion policy: when to suppress instead of delete

There is no exception to the item withdraw policy. There are exceptions to the policy regarding deletion of bibs and holdings. Bib and holdings may be suppressed instead of deleted in the following scenarios.

Acquisitions records / Technical Services resources

• Bib records used to pay for memberships to organizations

• Resources used in tech services departments that are not available to patrons

Special collections not yet processed

• Newly received archival materials that are not ready to be exposed to the public

Record cannot be exposed to the public due to privacy reasons

• E.g. scholars at risk

Portfolios used for Electronic Resources - Temporary de-activation

• An electronic portfolio and its associated bibliographic record may be suppressed rather than deleted when suppression may be temporary, as in the case of an expired leased (PDA) e-resource.

• Example: Kanopy collection management. ITS is suppressing portfolios (rather than deleting) when they reach their expiration date. This way, if a title is purchased again (a likely scenario), there is a bib and portfolio for staff to work from at point of order. Otherwise, they would have to create a new local portfolio and staff would have to load a bib record.

Recording “reject” decisions by bibliographers

A bib / holding may be suppressed, rather than deleted, if it is needed to record collection decisions for continuing resources.

BEST PRACTICE for recording acquisitions decisions for continuing resources

1. Suppress the bib if there are no items held by the library

2. Suppress the holding if there are no items held by the library

3. Add holding field 909 $r with the text: Retain record for acq decision

   1. 909 $r is a controlled vocabulary in Alma with a single allowed value (Retain record for acq decision), therefore once you start typing the system will offer a suggestion for the rest of the text. Do not add additional text. This will help with consistent reporting.

   2. If you need to add additional concise free-text information, please do so in 909 $x. 

   3. The past practice was to add 909 $k \*sra

Rationale behind recording “reject” titles:

1. It is more efficient for technical services staff if they can search Alma for past decisions, rather than searching multiple places or asking bibliographers about the same title more than once. 

2. It is more efficient for bibliographers because they only need to decide once per title (e.g. for continuing resources), since any staff member can find past decisions recorded in Alma. 

3. If a bibliographer requests an order for a title that has been rejected in the past, technical services staff can consult with the bibliographer to make the sure the request was not sent in error. This is especially important for serial title changes. 

4. Bib records will undergo automated authority control, allowing the latest forms of corporate bodies’ names to be searchable. 

5. Recording the decision in Alma will help staff know at a glance why the record is in Alma even though we don't own the resource, and it will reduce the likelihood that the records are purged in future projects. 

6.  Examples of when a decision may need to be recorded:

   1.  an issue of a serial sent on approval but not retained

   2. a title bundled with another order or society membership

   3. a print title bundled with online

Alma location-level suppression for DRS Dark Archive