University of California Systemwide Libraries

Panelists in this traditional session will discuss holistic decision-making frameworks for collection management activities. They will share how to build accountability to their organizational mission and values in these frameworks, as well as transparency in decision-making and strategic thinking to achieve long-term goals. In particular, the panelists will focus on how they are thinking about and embedding principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in these decision-making frameworks. The panelists represent a variety of institutional perspectives with differing stakeholders, priorities, legacies, and processes in place, as well as a range of collection management functions, which includes prioritizing processing; strategic decision-making related to backlogs, reappraisal, and discovery; ethical and legal responsibilities towards contributors of metadata; and the creation of a DEI interest group to critically examine all areas of collection management.

We acknowledge historical absences in library collections, including those of the University of California Libraries. We will develop practices that counteract a paradigm of racist, sexist, and white-centered collecting, description, instruction, and access. Metadata, digital exhibits, and archival descriptions in particular have disadvantaged communities of color, limited points of subject-based access, and contributed to a culture of exclusivity and inequity. We commit to immediate and enduring work to elevate the narratives, perspectives, and expertise of the marginalized: those who identify as Black, Indigenous, persons of color, immigrants, women, disabled people, and those from the LGBTQ+ communities. We recognize that this work is iterative and ongoing, inherently risky, and messy, but entirely necessary.

Following the charge provided by the University of California’s Direction and Oversight Committee in 2019, the Digital Preservation Strategy Working Group (DPS WG) focused Phase Two activities on identifying the steps needed to build a community of practice around digital preservation in the UC Library system with the primary goal of preparing a path for collective action in the stewardship of the content types held in common by the ten campuses and CDL. To this end, the DPS WG developed a taxonomy of digital content types to serve as the basis for a systemwide digital asset inventory, designed a comprehensive survey instrument administered through interviews with 44 individuals across all campuses and CDL, and conducted a literature review regarding relevant economic models for sustaining a digital preservation program.

In the Fall of 2018, the Direction and Oversight Committee (DOC) formed the Digital Preservation Strategy (DPS) Working Group with the charge of (1) developing a practical, shared vision of digital preservation for library content, and (2) outlining a roadmap to guide the UC Libraries in advancing that shared vision. The DPS Working Group will fulfill this charge in multiple phases, and this report presents the results of Phase One, which lays the groundwork for further discussion and, ultimately, recommendations on the policies, strategies, and actions required for the digital preservation of the millions of digital assets held across the ten UC campuses and the California Digital Library. Specifically, the Phase One report focuses on three areas: (1) an overview of external digital preservation service providers (exemplar organizations), including consortia, vendors, and university-based providers; (2) background information on current and planned UC libraries’ digital preservation activities; and (3) a high-level overview of current best practices for digital preservation, based on the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model.

On October 16-17, 2018, University of California (UC) libraries hosted a working forum in Berkeley, California entitled “Choosing Pathways to Open Access” (“CP2OA”) (see https://cp2oa18.com/). Sponsored by the University of California’s Council of University Librarians (“CoUL”), the forum was designed to enable North American library or consortium leaders and key academic stakeholders to engage in action-focused deliberations about redirecting subscription and other funds toward sustainable open access (“OA”) publishing.

This report was prepared by members of the forum’s Planning Committee1 as a way to update CoUL on forum outcomes, and to synthesize these outcomes into recommendations for further collective (UC multi-institutional) action to advance OA. The recommendations reflect the opinions of the report drafters; they are not an official statement by CoUL, nor should publication of this report signify CoUL’s endorsement of our recommendations. We (the Planning Committee) instead hope that CoUL will consider the recommendations in due course, particularly as some of them reflect efforts already underway within various UC libraries.