As a unit of UCSB Library, Special Research Collections is committed to responsible stewardship of the rare, unique, and historically significant materials through the ethical acquisition, thoughtful maintenance and preservation, and commitment to access to collections. The SRC department works extensively with the Resource Acquisition and Discovery Services (ReADS) department to maintain the integrity and accessibility of the collections.

SRC Guiding Principles for Stewardship

Responsible Stewardship Guidelines
  • We are committed to building collections that engage our campus community and the larger UC system, while building world-renowned collections in selective areas that support scholarship in many fields. We work closely with peer institutions to build upon the historical record.
  • We view our work as transformative–in documenting, processing, providing access, and facilitating engagement with collection materials, we understand that our work may affect cultural values and historical understanding. We impact the creation of the historical record by selecting materials for inclusion in our collections.
  • We seek to make connections between existing collections holdings, continuously building upon and enhancing relationships within content and materials in our collections. 
  • We are committed to documenting underrepresented and historically excluded communities and expanding the agency as well as the voices of our students, faculty, and the larger communities.
  • Collection and acquisition decisions are based on the ability to commit to long-term preservation and access to our holdings. UCSB Library stewardship is focused on making our collections accessible for research as quickly as possible so as to advance new scholarship. 
    • Responsible stewardship incorporates principles of appraisal, undergoes reappraisal activities, and follows University retention schedules as appropriate.
    • We assess the impact of acquisitions on every part of library operation: for this reason, we take particular care when considering the acquisition of large physical collections, born-digital materials or other types of materials not supported by staff expertise, fragile and otherwise compromised materials, and other materials that require exceptional resources and for which the UCSB Library is unable to provide responsible stewardship in a timely manner.   
  • We ensure responsible endowment stewardship. In spending endowed funds in accordance with their defined purpose, we invest in the future of the UCSB. Our aim is to develop collections of high research value, as effectively as possible through thoughtful and strategic decision making.  
  • We value accountability, commitment to professional standards and ethics, a holistic approach to teaching and learning, stewardship of collections, and quality service to our users.

Physical Material Locations SRC collection materials are held at a number of locations: UCSB Library, the Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF), and Devereux campus storage. The SRC stacks within UCSB Library storage includes a cold vault for audiovisual formats, such as film, audio reels, and other magnetic media.

Transfer to RLFs: UCSB Library uses SRLF, UC's shared high-density storage building in Los Angeles. Both SRLF and the UC’s Northern Regional Library Facility (NRLF, in Richmond, CA) provide a secure, climate-controlled environment designed to preserve physical collections. The shared regional storage infrastructure enables the UC libraries to store, manage, preserve, and provide expedited access to low-use collection materials economically and thus devote a significant portion of limited onsite shelving space to newer and high-demand items. Materials held at an RLF are available  upon request within 1-5 working days and may be viewed within the SRC Reading Room.

Collaborations & Partnerships Partnerships are essential to the work we do. We will continue to build new relationships and community partnerships to inform on collecting and stewardship.
  • Institutional Partnerships: SRC is excited to partner with any academic unit on campus on acquisitions, exhibitions, special programs, and other opportunities that center teaching and/or scholarly engagement with collections. SRC has well-established collaborative relationships with the College of Creative Studies, Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, Department of Film and Media Studies, and the Department of Music, among others.
  • Community Partnerships: SRC welcomes opportunities to partner with local organizations across Santa Barbara County and the Central Coast, especially cultural heritage organizations and others that support open access to historical documentation. Recent collaborators have included the Santa Barbara Public Library, Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society, and the Carpinteria Valley Historical Museum.
  • California Digital Library (CDL): The CDL provides transformative digital library services, grounded in campus partnerships and extended through external collaborations, that amplify the impact of the libraries, scholarship, and resources of the University of California. The CDL’s Online Archive of California (OAC) provides free public access to detailed descriptions of primary resource collections maintained by more than 300 contributing institutions including libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums throughout California and collections maintained by the 10 University of California (UC) campuses. 
  • Digital Public Library of America (DPLA): the California Digital Library, in collaboration with the ten-campus University of California (UC) Libraries system, is a DPLA Content Hub. In this role, CDL shares metadata records from Calisphere, a website with approximately 250,000 digital primary source objects contributed by libraries, archives, and museums across the state. Additionally, CDL will be exploring new avenues for aggregating metadata

Weeding, Reappraisal, and Deaccessioning SRC is committed to responsible stewardship of collections, which includes programmatic and strategic reappraisal of collections. This process is outlined in Deaccessioning Guidelines and includes identifying materials—ranging from single items to entire collections—appropriate for weeding and deaccessioning. Curators and Special Collections Processing staff engage in weeding regularly as part of the acquisitions and accession process.

 

Weeding is the process of identifying and removing unwanted materials from a collection. These may include materials identified as exact duplicates or damaged beyond repair, deemed out of scope during processing, or reappraised in consideration of updates to the collection development strategy. See the list of items that SRC generally does not collect on our Guiding Principles for Acquisition page.

Materials considered for deaccession are carefully reviewed and, as appropriate, deaccessioned in compliance with any donor agreements or legal restrictions, professional best practices, and professional standards such as the Association of College and Research Libraries Code of Ethics for Special Collections Librarians, the Society of American Archivists Code of Ethics for Archivists, and the Society of American Archivists Guidelines for Reappraisal and Deaccessioning.

Deaccessioned materials may be transferred to another repository; returned to the donor if applicable; sold, disposed of, donated or transferred in accordance with University policies; or destroyed as appropriate. Final deaccessioning decisions are made by the Associate University Librarian for Research Resources & Scholarly Communication or the University Librarian, and the Chancellor or Executive Vice Chancellor, as appropriate.