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Print Retention Decision Making, SPEC Kit 337, Published by ARL

SPEC Kit 337 cover
Print Retention Decision Making

ARL has released Print Retention Decision Making, SPEC Kit 337, which examines research libraries’ print retention decision making strategies related to storage of materials in three different types of facilities or circumstances: on-site, staff-only shelving; remote shelving; and collaborative retention agreements. The survey also examined the decision making and practices surrounding the deaccessioning of library material. For each retention or deaccession strategy, the survey explored the on-going or project-based nature of the work, the involvement of stakeholders, the selection process and criteria for materials to be retained or deaccessioned, the communication strategy with internal and external audiences, and the responses from the libraries’ internal and external audiences to these endeavors.

The SPEC Kit includes examples of collection management policies; on-site, off-site, and collaborative shelving strategies; last-copy agreements; and procedures for retrieving materials from storage.

Ordering Information


SPEC Kit 337, Print Retention Decision Making
Scott Britton and John Renaud
October 2013 • 210 pp.

Online edition

SPEC Kit 337
ISBN 1-59407-908-0 • $50 • Password or IP access

The SPEC Kit Collection provides online access to all titles published from 2006 to the present (SPEC Kit 292– ). Password access is $400. IP access is $300 ARL members/$400 all others.

Print edition

ISBN 1-59407-907-2 • $35 ARL members/$45 all others

Shipping and Handling

US: UPS Ground, $10/publication
Canada: UPS Ground, $15/per publication
International and Rush Orders: Call (301) 362-8196 or e-mail pubs@arl.org for quote.

2013 subscription, six issues (334–339), shipping included (additional postage may apply outside North America) • ISSN 0160-3582 • $225 ARL members/$300 all others.

Order online IP access and print from:

ARL Publications Distribution Center
PO Box 531
Annapolis Junction, MD 20701-0531
Phone: (301) 362-8196
Fax: (240) 396-2479
E- mail: pubs@arl.org

Payment by check, money order, MasterCard, or Visa is accepted. Make check or money order payable in US funds to the Association of Research Libraries, Federal ID #52-0784198-N.


The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 125 research libraries in the US and Canada. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at https://www.arl.org/.

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