Date: August 26, 2005
To: RCPL Trustees
From: Board Policy Committee
Lynda Clark, Chairman
Re: Newspaper
back issue retention
Recommendation: That the retention of newspaper back issues be changed to the current month plus one month of back issues.
Background: Through the move to new newspaper shelving, the use of newspaper back issues was tracked. Requests for back issues of newspapers older than one month were approximately two times or less in a month and most requests related to SD newspapers.
A majority of the newspapers maintained are also online. The
South Dakota Newspaper Project is also working to address access for the
Policy change: The Information Resources Development and Maintenance policy changes would be only in the Adult Magazines section as follows; the Children’s and Young Adult magazine sections of the policy do not address newspapers:
7.A.6 Adult Magazines
The magazine collection contains magazines and newspapers in print. The basic purpose of the collection is to
provide timely and popular information on a wide variety of subject areas and a
variety of viewpoints.
The basic function of the Magazine
collection is two-fold. First, it is
designed to supply more current information for popular reading than the book
collections allow. Second, it is designed
to provide multiple perspectives on subjects that are popular but which
typically have different viewpoints (e.g. religion; politics).
Retention specifics: Magazines will be retained for the current calendar year plus one year back issues. Back issues are retained only for magazines for which a current subscription is held. The retention period for each title is maintained in the online magazine record. Tabloid and newspaper formats are held for 2 months (current month plus one months’ back issues), except for local newspapers which are held until the microform is available. These decisions are recorded in the catalog record for each title.