LIBRARY PRIORITY 3C COMMITTEE (3C)

"Obtain any title requested by students or faculty within an average of one week of their requests."

Committee Charge

To: Kristy Hibbs, Linda Lester, Lew Purifoy, Gary Treadway, Buddy Woodward, Lynda Clendenning and Doug Hurd, Co-Chairs

From: Kendon Stubbs

Date: November 14, 1998

Subject: Committee for Library Priority 3C

I am grateful to you for agreeing to serve on the important committee to recommend how to implement Library priority 3C: "Obtain any title requested by students or faculty members within an average of one week of their requests." Before describing the committee's two major tasks, I want to comment on some planning assumptions.

"Obtain any title" can apply to titles -- monographs or serial articles or other formats -- that the U.Va. libraries already own or that we do not own. If we own a title, it may be on the shelves, or it may be charged out or missing. A planning assumption should be that Priority 3C applies both to titles that we don't own and to ones that we do own, including titles that are charged out. Consequently, there are six or more ways to satisfy 3C:

• purchase a requested title that we don't own
• borrow a title that we don't own
• retrieve a title from the stacks
• purchase or borrow a title that we own but that is missing
• purchase or borrow a title that we own but that is charged out, and there are reasons not to recall it
• recall a title that is charged out and that can reasonably be returned within one week.

In other words, your committee will need to look into acquisitions, interlibrary loans, circulation, and cataloging. It goes without saying that a great deal of good work has already gone into improvements in these areas, including the rush and rush cataloging procedures; continuing efficiencies in ILL; expedited recalls; etc. I expect that the committee will build on the foundations already laid. With this background, the two major tasks of the committee are as follows:

1. Determine what kinds of requests should fall under Priority 3C. You will need to decide whether new book requests in VIRGO, recalls, requests at a service desk, etc., are to receive 3C treatment. Should there be a special form -- e.g., in VIRGO -- where 3C requests are explicitly entered? We want to be as inclusive as possible, but not so that 3C could fail by overreaching the resources that can reasonably be dedicated to it. In forming your concepts of what is to be included under 3C, please be guided, first, by what the ideal would be, and only second by expected constraints on resources or by tradition. You should also consult widely with library colleagues about the parameters of 3C, and also consider consulting the library's student advisory committee through Jim Self and the University Libraries Committee through me. I would like to have a report on this task by early January.

2. What policies and procedures should be put in place to implement 3C? We need recommendations from the committee on specific steps to be undertaken to make 3C a regular part of our services. For example, there will need to be a decision process for deciding whether to buy, borrow, or recall a title. Who should be involved in the process, and what criteria should be applied? Similarly, the basic steps of putting a title into the hands of a requester within an average of one week need to be described. I would like recommendations on this part of your charge by mid-February.

Thanks in advance to the committee for its work on this exciting and critical customer service.

Kendon L. Stubbs, Deputy University Librarian

Alderman Library