UC San Diego Library

The University of California Libraries embarked on a major redesign of bibliographical services operations beginning in 2008. ( Among the initiatives were the Bibliographic Services Task Force and Next Generation Technical Services.) One of the goals is to reduce unnecessary duplication across UC collections and improve efficiencies in technical services operations to allow staff to be repurposed to building more unique collections. An analysis of overlap in existing UC collections in Latin American studies indicated there are significant opportunities to reduce duplication in a number of areas. One approach would be a shared print collection built by “Centers of Excellence” based at UC campuses that would facilitate the building of “collections of distinction” at some campuses for certain countries and subject areas. (Major obstacles to this effort include the lack of consistency in vendors used by UC Libraries. ) (Few Latin American vendors participate in WorldCat Selection Service and they do not share data on approval plan receipts sent to all customers. ) UC Libraries need an infrastructure that would prevent unnecessary duplication during the selection process, not after the fact. UC also needs to focus on building more unique collections including research data, primary sources, and new media.