Shared Print: Making and Disclosing Retention Commitments

The following information was contributed by CDL's Shared Print Program Staff.

Several UC locations currently participate in the HathiTrust Shared Print Program as retention libraries. Additionally, any UC campus may proactively offer to retain materials for HathiTrust. This article includes links to HathiTrust policies and procedures governing retention commitments made to the HathiTrust Shared Print Program.

All documentation for retention libraries

• HT Resources for Retention Libraries

Making retention commitment selections

• Policies and Best Practices for Making HathiTrust Shared Print Program Commitments - pages 1-5
  • Includes guidance on reviewing proposals from HathiTrust as well as making proactive retention commitments.

Adding retention disclosure notes to local records

• HT Shared Print Operating Policies and Guidelines numbered page 2 (policy) and numbered page 4 (process)
  • Please note that each Phase uses a different Date of Action ($c), which can be found on numbered page 5 of the HT Shared Print Operating Policies and Guidelines. If you are uncertain which date to use, reach out to HathiTrust Shared Print Program Officer Heather Weltin (via [email protected]).

Preparing files of committed titles for submission to HT

• HathiTrust Shared Print File Specifications (what to include in the .tsv file of commitments)

Process for submitting files of committed titles to HT

• Policies and Best Practices for Making HathiTrust Shared Print Program Commitments - page 6

Registering commitments in OCLC

• Directions for having HT register your commitments on your behalf 
• Directions for registering your commitments yourself

Making updates after commitment

• Directions for Updating Data in the HathiTrust Shared Print Registry 
  • Use if any local identifiers or OCLC numbers change, if you need to update the status of a commitment (e.g., if it was committed in error), or if any commitments have been reallocated to a different retention library.
• Reallocating lost/stolen/damaged commitments 
  • See also additional resources from HathiTrust for providing reallocation updates to HathiTrust
• Transferring commitments to the RLFs
  • UC Campus retention libraries may wish to deposit their HathiTrust-retained materials in one of the RLFs for long-term storage in a preservation environment. Campuses must transfer the retention commitments to the destination RLF as part of the deposit. To coordinate this, contact the destination RLF to inform them of your intention. 
    • Please note that HathiTrust does not have a documented workflow for transferring commitments between retention libraries; however, they have confirmed that the process for updating retention data in HathiTrust when there is a transfer differs from the reallocation process described in the above HathiTrust documentation. The original retention library and the receiving RLF should jointly reach out to HathiTrust Shared Print Program Officer Heather Weltin (via [email protected]) for assistance updating the HathiTrust disclosure information.
    • Please note that the RLFs may find that some titles that the original retention library wishes to transfer are already held in their facilities. In these cases, the RLF may not be able to accept the retained copy being transferred; if the RLF cannot accept the item, the RLF and campus must come to a decision whether the RLF will transfer the retention commitment to the item already in their facility, or if the retention commitment will stay with the original item (which will be transferred back to the campus).