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FDLP Guidelines for Determining Superseded Materials[ Revision of preliminary pages of the 1996 Superseded List ] BackgroundOnce part of the Superseded List, these criteria for determining superseded materials were established to assist librarians at Federal depository libraries with decisions regarding the disposition of superseded materials under provisions of Title 44, United States Code, §1911 and in accordance with the Instructions to Depository Libraries. The criteria are useful in identifying obsolete, dated or ephemeral documents for removal from shelves, map cases, and microfiche and CD-ROM storage cabinets. Materials that meet these criteria may be discarded prior to the normal 5-year statutory retention period, without submitting them on a weeding list for Regional depository approval. DiscussionAll depository librarians should note that these guidelines do not require that materials be discarded. Do not dispose of any material that might be vital to the collection or of use to library patrons. In fact, practices or services that have evolved in your library may require that you retain, rather than remove, material from the collection. Depository librarians should carefully consider the particular needs and collection development policies at their libraries before discarding any material. When keeping superseded materials, it is important to permanently mark them as "superseded" or "not current" because misinformation can be transmitted with outdated publications. Regional Depository LibrariesRegional depository librarians agree that some superseded materials should be retained for long term public access. These items are identified by an "R." These items were designated by a consensus agreement of the Regionals, not by legal requirement of 44 U.S.C. §1911 and therefore they may change over time. Supersession CriteriaThe following may be considered superseded and disposed of by all libraries according to Chapter 4, Maintenance, in the Instructions to Depository Libraries:
A Note About EL Only MaterialsPublications in a given item number that have migrated to electronic format only (EL) status are guaranteed permanent public access. Therefore, if a library has a tangible title that is superseded by an online publication, the tangible version in the collection may be withdrawn according to established practice. A Note About CD-ROMs (or DVDs)Some agencies make CD-ROMs available to depository libraries that are compilations of publications. While some titles on the CD may be superseded, this may not be true for all the titles contained on the disc. Additionally the disc may contain monographs that are not superseded. Librarians should exercise caution when determining the retention status of these CDs. A Note About Floppy DisksBetween approximately 1987 and 1999, some agencies provided floppy disk versions of some titles. In many cases libraries have become unable to utilize these disks as hardware and software have become obsolete. In 2002, the Indiana University, Bloomington Libraries and the Committee on Institutional Cooperaton (CIC) joined GPO in a partnership to make data from FDLP floppy disks available for download over the Internet via FTP. A searchable list of titles in the CIC Floppy Disk Project is available. Floppy disk titles appearing on this list are considered superseded, and may be discarded without further permission. In some cases, the online version may be substituted for the paper version. See the Substitution List to verify these titles. Corrected CopiesWhen a library receives a corrected copy of a document, it replaces a publication previously distributed through the FDLP. The publication that was initially distributed should be removed from the collection and disposed of accordingly. This is done in order to prevent misinformation from being disseminated to the public. These copies are identifiable by the /CORR at the end of the Superintendent of Documents classification number. Related Resources
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