Preserving the Past for the Future: Moving Toward Best Practices and Tools for Thoughtful Monographic Withdrawal

This paper presents significant findings from a 2015 survey of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and Oberlin Group Libraries to learn how institutions make decisions to withdraw or retain print monographs. The survey was part of a two-pronged national study led by preservation and conservation experts to better understand which kinds of data, policies, data sharing mechanisms, and other communication strategies libraries use and need to make informed decisions about monograph withdrawals in their collections. This study reviews how policies are (or aren't) developed, what kinds of data are (or aren't) used, and which stakeholders are (or aren't) consulted. Trends in institutions by type and size (public versus private, state institution versus college) are also investigated.