Approved by CCDSC, October 1, 2021

Policy for Adding New Accessions

The initial contribution of material to the ReCAP Shared Collection in 2018 fulfilled Harvard’s obligation to join the ReCAP partnership. See the ReCAP Shared Collection FAQ for more information about the initial contribution of materials.

New Harvard material will be added to the ReCAP Shared Collection in the following ways:

• Collective collecting agreements

• Exceptions processing for individual items

• Retrospective processing of large-scale contributions

Collective Collecting Agreements

Initiating agreements

New agreements may be initiated by Harvard Library leadership, Library Directors, or Collection Managers. All agreements must be approved by all impacted or participating Library Directors and Collection Managers.

Documenting agreements

Once agreements are finalized, signatories should work with the Harvard Library Collections and Content Development Standing Committee to add the agreement and any subsequent documentation (e.g., vendor approval plan profiles) to the central list of collective collecting agreements to ensure it is accessible to all Harvard libraries.

Current ReCAP Shared Collection agreements include the following:

• Slavic monographs (Americas, Europe, and Oceania Division, Widener Library)

• South Asia Cooperative Acquisitions Program monographs (Middle East, Africa, and Asia Division, Widener Library)

• Italian monographs via coordination of Casalini approval plans.

Materials acquired as part of these or similar agreements before Harvard's implementation of SCSB will be added retrospectively to the ReCAP Shared Collection.

Establishing agreements

Librarians involved in establishing collective collecting agreements need to take the following issues into consideration when working with ReCAP partners:

ReCAP Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

Harvard is a signatory to a ReCAP MOU governing the broad principles of collaborative collection development. Specific approval plans developed with vendors will be added as addenda to this basic MOU and can be modified as necessary.

Batch Acquisitions Processes and Dataloads

Ongoing contributions by Harvard to the ReCAP Shared Collection through collective collecting agreements (e.g., through a shared approval plan) should be added to Alma via batch process. Item-by-item handling is reserved for exception processing, such as the replacement of a damaged item.

To maintain organizational efficiency, shelf-ready ReCAP Shared Collection material should be shipped directly from the vendor to its destination when feasible.   

Librarians involved in establishing collective collecting agreements should contact the ITS dataloads team as soon as possible in the process to discuss implementation options, which include the automatic import of vendor supplied MARC records to create order and inventory records, as well as automated invoice generation.

Ongoing Harvard commitments to the ReCAP Shared Collection will be recorded in Alma item and holdings records as part of these batch import processes.

In addition, all Alma purchase order lines for ReCAP Shared Collection materials must include a 3rd reporting code of ReCAPSharedCollection to aid with reporting and analysis related to Harvard contributions to the ReCAP Shared Collection. 

Item Use Guidelines

Printed monographs stored at the Harvard Depository and ReCAP storage facilities may be committed for permanent retention and sharing within the partnership. There are three options for circulation: No Restriction, In Library Use, and Supervised Use. Each are documented in detail on the ReCAP Shared Collection FAQ.

To the extent possible, collections librarians involved in establishing collective collecting agreements should consider whether use restrictions will be needed for all or part of the material being acquired, based on factors such as condition, cost, size, uniqueness, and theft potential. Material requiring in-library or supervised use will require proper item policy coding in Alma via the dataload process described above.

Note that material that cannot withstand transport to and from partners in bins or boxes with no special precautions is unsuitable for the ReCAP Shared Collection, regardless of use restriction.

Although out of scope for this group, we recommend further discussions about condition assessment workflows, damage criteria, and acceptable loss for new accessions to the ReCAP Shared Collection once we have a year's worth of data on the impact of the SCSB implementation.

Discovery of Multipart and Continuing Resources

Although out of scope for this group, we recommend further discussions with the Discovery to Delivery Working Group and metadata managers to assess users' ability to find and request monographic series, multi-volume sets, serials, and bound-with titles within the ReCAP Shared Collection. Holdings for these types of materials are commonly split across on-campus, HD, and ReCAP locations and cataloging practices across institutions for these types of materials can differ. User assessment could help inform whether discovery of these materials should be considered when establishing a new collective collecting agreement.

Exceptions processing for individual items

Individual item accession that is not part of a collective collecting agreement will only occur as part of exceptions processing (e.g., the replacement of an absent or damaged item). 

See Shared Collections - Policies and Workflows for Living Collections Exception Processing for additional details regarding exceptions. 

Retrospective processing of large-scale contributions

Harvard materials will not be added to the ReCAP Shared Collection retroactively without approval from impacted Library Directors and Collections Managers.

• Acknowledging that the libraries use and select material for offsite storage differently, collection librarians should continue to use offsite storage as it benefits their library’s needs.

• If a proposal is made to retroactively add material to the ReCAP Shared Collection from HD or elsewhere, the following conditions would apply:

  • Only circulating (item policy blank or 01) monographs should be considered.

  • Collection managers have the opportunity to review material selected to identify items that should be excluded from commitment to the ReCAP Shared Collection.

Changes and Updates to the Policy for Adding New Accessions

Proposals that change how new accessions are added to the ReCAP Shared Collection must be communicated to all impacted Library Directors and Collections Managers with sufficient time to review and approve participation under the new guidelines.

The CCDSC is responsible for ensuring ongoing updates to this document as needed.