Recording Retentions

Retentions are usually disclosed both in a library's local ILS/LSP, and often in national external systems such as OCLC. Shared print commitments are recorded in the MARC 583 field in accordance with the OCLC Detailed Metadata Guidelines. 

More detail on recording retentions and related actions can be found in Shared Print Actions Terminology (SPA) at: https://sharedprint.org/about/working-groups/best-practices/shared-print-actions-terminology/.

Below is documentation for adding retention commitments in a variety of vendor platforms, including disclosing shared print in OCLC. 

Record Retentions in your ILS

Sample guidelines from Shared Print Programs

•  ALI-PALNI Shared Print Project Guidelines for Recording Retention Commitments (doc)

• HathiTrust 

Vendor Specific Instructions

• EAST Documentation from 2018 on adding 583s

  • 1. • Aleph (monographs), Aleph (serials)

       • Alma - see also Adding committed to retain flag to items in Alma, Exporting retentions from Alma

       • Folio

       • Millennium  text / video using inventory module 

       • Sierra: Create Lists Import in Sierra

       • Millennium / Sierra - Serials

       • Voyager: Instructions / video / EAST_MFHD_583_NOTE.dslr / Serials

       • WMS  

• Koha instructions from SCELC

• Maine Shared Collections Procedure for Recording and Displaying Retention Commitments in Sierra

• PASCAL recording retention commitments in Alma

• WEST Trust Batch Holdings Creation in Alma

Note that Alma has some special features dedicated to Shared Print, including the ability to mark an item to be retained with its relevant information after which the system will not allow the withdrawal of items that are marked as 'committed to retain'. See the ExLibris Video on marking items for retention, which is also described on their 'Working with Items' page. 

Disclosure and Discovery of Shared Print in OCLC

• OCLC's Shared Print Registration Service

• OCLC Outline of Shared Print Functionality Across Services

See Also

• Instructions for LHR Syncing between Alma and OCLC

• Maine Shared Collections Cooperative - Submitting Your File Data Guide

• Partnership and Rosemont Registration and Working with Shared Print webinars. 

Program Databases

Some programs also disclose their retentions in program wide databases. Here are some examples:

• The Center for Research Libraries permanently retains titles which are discoverable in their catalog. 

• EAST - retention data is loaded into the Gold Rush Library Content Comparison System. Data is updated annually, and access to searching this data is granted upon request. The EAST website also provides a search box for OCLC numbers that queries registered retentions in OCLC. 

• Maine Shared Collections Cooperative provides a search box for OCLC numbers that queries registered retentions in OCLC. 

• PALNI has no formal retention commitments, but does have a shared discovery system in WorldCat.

• SCELC has a Shared Print Discovery Catalog (SHARP)

Exporting Retentions

Some programs ask that their members export MARC records of titles with retention committments. These records may be used in program's retention databases or for further collection analysis. Below are some instructions that some programs provide for export of commitments by ILS/LSP. 

• 583 Extract Instructions for various ILS/LSPs (EAST)

• Exporting Retentions with 583 field from ALMA (SCELC)

Special Situations

Here we are gathering some examples of specific use cases in Shared Print and how to record them.  

• EAST's instructions on recording facsimiles

• Metadata in transferred commitments (Best Practices for Transferring Commitments or Materials - using the 561 )