May 23, 2013
The Maine Shared Collections goal as set forth in this MOU is to provide new options for sharing the costs and effort of long term retention of low use library materials. The following MOU provides a mechanism by which the materials designated under this agreement will be retained and made available to participating institutions and the library users of Maine as long as the need for them exists, thereby allowing participating libraries to consider withdrawing duplicates of these items from their respective collections and to rely with confidence on access to the retained copies.
The agreement will use a distributed model, which may include local libraries and remote storage facilities.
1. Participation
1.1 Founding participants: The original participants in Maine Shared Collections Cooperative (MSCC) are: Bangor Public Library, Bates College, Bowdoin College, Colby College, Maine InfoNet, Maine State Library, Portland Public Library, University of Maine, University of Southern Maine.
1.2 Members: All libraries in Maine may apply to join the program beginning in 2015.
1.3 Membership Term: Members agree to join the MSCC for an initial term of 3 years.
1.4 Annual Membership Meeting: A membership meeting will be held each year, to update participants on the status of the program, solicit feedback on future developments, etc.
1.5 Collection Holders: Collection Holders are those members who agree to retain materials as part of the MSCC.
1.6 Collection Builders: Collection Builders are those Collection Holders who agree to ingest and validate retained materials.
1.7 Supporting Members: Supporting members will pay membership fees in exchange for ensured access to retained materials.
2. Governance
2.1 Memorandum of Understanding: The Cooperative shall be governed by a Memorandum of Understanding signed by all participating libraries.
2.2 Executive Committee: The Board of Directors of the Cooperative is composed of 5 members of the Maine InfoNet Board who represent constituencies that are participants in the Cooperative. The Board of Directors shall be selected by the Maine InfoNet Board Executive Committee. Public universities, private non-profit colleges, the State Library, and public libraries must each be represented on the Executive Committee of the Cooperative. The remaining position can represent any participant constituency.
2.3 Collections and Operations Committee: The program’s Collections and Operations Committee will oversee issues related to the selection of materials for retention, as well as issues related to holdings disclosure and access/delivery. Members are appointed by and serve for terms determined by the Executive Committee.
2.4 Administrative Host: Administrative hosting, such as program management and member support, will be provided under the auspices of the Maine InfoNet Collaborative.
2.5 Membership Fees: The Executive Committee is authorized to set membership fees.
3. Duration of agreement, retention period
3.1 Duration: Libraries agree to retain materials from15 years of date of signing. The memorandum of understanding and the retention commitment will be reviewed at least once every five years.
3.2 Modification/Amendment: This agreement can be modified or amended with the approval of 2/3 of the Executive Committee.
4. Selection and identification of retained materials
4.1 Selection: During the initial three-year term, monographs and journals will be selected for retention. After the initial term, other materials may be selected for retention. The Collections and Operations Committee will identify materials to be retained based on a collection analysis.
4.2 Holdings disclosure: Collection Holders will take all steps to ensure that the retention commitment is displayed in local and union catalogs and other applicable systems as established in the MSCC disclosure policy.
5. Retention facilities
Collection Holders agree to maintain MSCC materials in locations suitable for the materials as established by the Collections and Operations Committee. Items to be retained under this agreement may be housed in remote storage facilities, closed/secured stacks, or open (public) stacks.
6. Ownership and Maintenance of Retained Materials
6.1 Ownership: Libraries will retain ownership of the titles for which they are a Collection Holder. A library may donate materials to another library for retention. Materials which are relocated to a Collection Builder will become property of the Collection Builder (if allowed by state laws and regulations). Collection Holders agree not to sell, discard, donate, or otherwise relinquish ownership or control of any of the archived materials prior to the Retention Date, except to transfer materials to a Collection Builder or with permission of the Collections and Operations Committee.
6.2 Duplicate materials: Members may retain or withdraw duplicate copies of titles retained by a Collection Holder. No library is required to discard any materials.
6.3 Lost or damaged materials: Libraries are expected to follow their usual workflows and procedures for identifying, repairing, and replacing retained materials. Original artifactual copies are always preferred, but facsimiles are acceptable when necessary.
7. Financial obligations
7.1 Financial Support to the MSCC: Members agree to provide financial support to MSCC through payments to the Administrative Host as specified in an annual budget and cost-sharing formula developed by the MSCC Executive Committee and approved by the MSCC membership.
7.2 Financial Support to Collection Builders: Collection Builders may receive funding from the MSCC program to help support their activities as Collection Builders if approved and budgeted by the subgroup of the Maine InfoNet Board of Directors.
7.3 Absorbed Costs: Members agree to be responsible for all of the costs and expenses associated with maintaining the materials, contributing holdings to Collection Builders, and deselecting materials from local collections.
8. Access to the materials
Retained materials are subject to the circulation and Interlibrary Loan policies of the Collection Holder.
9. Withdrawal: If a participating library opts to withdraw from this agreement, it must provide written notice to the Executive Committee a minimum of one year prior to withdrawing. If a Collection Holder is no longer able to retain the materials, the library may offer the materials to another library for retention.
A waiver of the one-year term may be granted by the Executive Committee in certain instances, such as a disaster, financial exigency, or institutional mandate.
Signature:
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[Institution Name]
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[Role/Title at Institution]
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[Signatory] Date
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[Print Name]