Discard Procedures for California Selective FDLP Libraries

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As the Federal Depository Library Program’s (FDLP) regional depository for California, the California State Library (CSL) established these procedures for discarding (also known as disposing of) tangible FDLP materials. Please send questions about these procedures to California’s FDLP regional librarian at FDLP.Regional@library.ca.gov.

Discard information for California Depository Library Program (CDLP) materials can be found at Retention and Disposal Policies for California State Document Depository Libraries. Please do not include both federal and California state materials on any disposal list.

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) resources quoted below provide context and FDLP requirements for discarding tangible materials distributed through the Program.

“The mission of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) is to provide free, ready, and permanent public access to Federal Government information, now and for future generations” (FDLP Mission, Vision, & Values). “As members of the FDLP, depository libraries play a prominent role in providing Federal Government information to the public. FDLP libraries collaborate on a local and national level to provide informed access to both historical and current Federal Government resources distributed through the FDLP and deposited in libraries across the country” (FDLP Basics).

“The Legal Requirements & Program Regulations of the Federal Depository Library Program provides member libraries with a single, concise resource to consult for the current legal and Program obligations of libraries in the Federal Depository Library Program” (Regulations). “Materials distributed through the Federal Depository Library Program remain Federal property and must be disposed of according to specific rules and state/regional instruction. The weeding of depository materials is optional” (Weeding a Depository Collection).

“Designated regional depository libraries must:

  • Ensure the comprehensiveness and integrity of a tangible FDLP collection in their state or region, …
  • Manage the publication withdrawal process in the state or region they serve …

Regional depository libraries do not have jurisdiction over depository libraries in the various agencies of the Federal government or those designated as the highest state appellate court libraries” (Regional Depository Libraries).

California’s selective federal depository libraries (selectives) request permission, with some exceptions, from their regional to discard federal depository materials eligible for weeding by submitting disposal lists identifying these materials to the CSL for review and approval. Exceptions are discussed later in these procedures. If permission is given, listed materials not claimed by the CSL are then offered to California’s other selectives via Phase 2 in FDLP eXchange for possible addition to their collections. At least one staff person involved with the FDLP at all selectives over which the CSL, as regional, has jurisdiction should have credentials for FDLP eXchange.

It will help us process lists more quickly if weeding is done on a regular basis resulting in sending smaller lists more frequently rather than longer lists infrequently.

Determine Weeding Eligibility

A collection’s depository materials are eligible for weeding through supersession, substitution, or the five-year rule. Superseded depository materials can be weeded without regional approval. Please see the “1. Superseded Publications” section of Weeding a Depository Collection for the FDLP criteria used to determine whether an item is eligible for supersession.

Tangible materials can be substituted with content in another tangible format (e.g., microfiche) or an online equivalent. Regional approval is required for both the substitution and weeding of the substituted item. Substitution with an online equivalent (also called online substitution) can occur when an item is held at least one year and the online version meets GPO’s criteria. Please see the “2. Substitution of Depository Materials” section of Weeding a Depository Collection for additional information about substitution including the criteria for online substitutes.

Additional information about supersession and substitution can be found in GPO’s Best Practices when [or with] Superseding and Substituting.

Materials held five or more years “dated from the date of receipt, shipping list date, or date of processing” (Weeding a Depository Collection, “3. Five-year Rule” section) are eligible for weeding. Regional approval is required to weed these materials. Due to their eligibility to weed, it is not necessary to also request approval to provide access to an online substitute should a selective decide to do so.

Supersession, substitution, and the five-year rule do not apply to duplicate and unselected depository materials and non-depository federal materials. Duplicates and unselected depository materials do not need to be held any specified length of time, and do not require regional approval to discard. These materials would still go through California’s disposal process, however, to provide California’s other selectives and the CSL with the opportunity to add them to their collections.

Non-depository federal materials are not required to go through the FDLP disposal process. Selectives are, however, encouraged to include these materials on disposals lists, especially if about California or not widely held, to provide the opportunity for California’s other selectives and the CSL to add them to their collections.

Materials to Omit from Disposal Lists

Disposal lists, with the noted exceptions, need not include the following materials, and can be disposed of without offering them to the CSL or California’s other selectives. If you would like to offer them to the California State Library, California’s selectives or nationally you may do so though. Offering them to public libraries or educational institutions in your area before recycling or discarding them is encouraged.

  • Superseded materials.
  • Pamphlets (i.e., print publications less than 24 cm tall with at most 20 pages) held at least five years.
  • Microfiche held at least five years, unless discarding a long run of a particular title (five or more years or 100 or more numbers of a serial).
  • CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs held at least five years.
  • Congressional committee hearings and prints classified Y 4, issued after 1960, and held at least five years unless they are about:
    • California or California issues (e.g., federal water allocations in the western states),
    • American Indians in the western United States, or
    • A major historical event or issue (e.g., Kennedy Assassination, Iraq War, Social Security reform).

Materials to Offer California’s Selectives

Before utilizing FDLP eXchange, items could be offered to California selectives without submitting lists to the California State Library. With the implementation of FDLP eXchange items offered to California selectives should be offered in FDLP eXchange. The materials described below need to be offered to the CSL but only so they can continue to California’s other selectives in Phase 2. The note field in FDLP eXchange will be utilized indicating that these specific items are not for CSL review. Once the California State Library sees this in the note field, we will pass these items.

  • Materials previously offered to the CSL by selectives. We currently have two lists. One list is for material offered before the use of FDLP eXchange in 2021 (CSV) and the other list is for documents submitted using FDLP eXchange after 2021 (CSV). The earlier list was converted to FDLP eXchange format for ease of use. Please use both lists when reviewing your documents.
  • Congressional Record volumes not included on, or having the condition requested in, our CSL Congressional Record Needs list. This list is updated periodically.
  • Serial Set volumes not included on, or having the condition requested in, our CSL Serial Set Needs list. This list is updated periodically.
  • To list an item in FDLP eXchange that the California State Library does not need to review but that you would like to offer to California selectives, please provide the following detail in the note field of FDLP eXchange “California_Selective_Offer_NOT_FOR_CSL_REVIEW”

Create Disposal List Using the Standard Format

California adopted the use of FDLP eXchange on December 1, 2021. FDLP eXchange disposal lists submitted will be incorporating the use of GPO’s FDLP eXchange Excel offers template. Or selectives may offer items manually through FDLP eXchange.

If not submitting items manually within FDLP eXchange, please use the FDLP eXchange Excel offers template to create and submit disposal lists. Data in columns with bold headings are required. Data in other columns can become required. For example, “Multiple pieces note” becomes required when multiple pieces of a publication, such as a serial, are offered as indicated by a value of “Yes” in the “Multiple pieces” column.

GPO provides training resources helpful for filling in their offers template. Two resources are their “Creating an Offers Spreadsheet” training video on their FDLP eXchange Training webpage, and “Sample Offers Spreadsheet” in the Training Materials & Templates section of another FDLP eXchange webpage.

A third resource is their FDLP eXchange Data Dictionary which is also accessed by clicking “Data Dictionary” listed first under Training Materials & Templates. The Data Dictionary describes, among other things, the system’s offers data fields (Section I) and identifies, where relevant, their valid values (Section I, “Accepted values” column and Section II). The templates’ column headings correspond to fields in the Data Dictionary. For example, if there is a question about populating the Template’s “Condition” column, Section I, p. 5 defines the Condition field and lists its valid values, and Section II, p. 9 defines the valid values. Data Dictionary fields that do not appear in the template (e.g., “Status”) are ignored for disposal lists.

By default, all materials on disposal lists will be evaluated according to the five-year rule.

  • If online substitution for an item is instead requested, please add the PURL or URL of the online resource to serve as the substitute in the “PURL/URL” column.
  • If requesting to replace an item in one tangible format with another tangible format, please note the new format in the “Notes” column.
  • If an item is held less than five years and is a duplicate or unselected depository item, or a non-depository federal document, please note which is true in the “Notes” field to indicate the five-year rule does not apply.

Please remember:

  • Confirm all materials on a disposal list are actually held. It would be unfortunate for another selective or the CSL to put time into determining whether to request an item only to learn it is not really available.
  • Use GPO’s valid data values, where they exist (e.g., “Yes” not “Y”).
  • Do not modify the template’s font, font size, or margins or the columns present in the template.
  • Provide SuDoc numbers for materials. If not used at your library, it may be possible to find SuDoc numbers in the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.
  • “Shipping Date” can come from archived shipping lists or date stamps on materials.
  • Limit disposal list length to no longer than 250 rows when using the FDLP eXchange Excel offers template. Integrated error checking works best on FDLP Exchange on lists that contain less than 250 rows.

Submit Disposal List FDLP eXchange

As noted above, we are adopting FDLP eXchange in California as of December 1, 2021.

Please submit federal disposal items within FDLP eXchange. Selective libraries should limit their submissions within FDLP eXchange to 500 rows a month, unless previous arrangements were made with the regional librarian. Thank you.

CSL Response to Submitted Items in FDLP eXchange.

All notifications for items submitted within FDLP eXchange will take place in FDLP eXchange. We will notify the submitter of any items we wish to claim from their submitted items, and, in most cases, give permission to withdraw the remaining items by first offering them to California’s other selectives via Phase 2 in FDLP eXchange. In very rare cases, we may not give permission to withdraw certain items, if this would be in the best interests of a depository’s patrons or the California FDLP as a whole. As your regional, the CSL requires that materials we claim are sent to us at no charge.

Offer to California’s Other Selectives

Once permission is given, the remaining items submitted within FDLP eXchange transition to Phase 2 – selective review. In the spirit of the program, we encourage, but do not require, sending claimed materials to other California selectives at no charge.

  • Once an item is within Phase 2 – selective review, libraries have 14 days for other selectives to claim the offered items.
  • Postage reimbursement information was added to the “Postage reimbursement” and, where relevant, “Notes” columns when the list was originally created.

Offer to Non-California Federal Depositories and GPO

Items that went through FDLP eXchange and were not claimed by the CSL or California’s other selectives can be offered to non-California federal depository libraries and/or GPO. Taking this step is not required. California selectives interested in offering items Nationally may utilize Phase 3 in FDLP eXchange.

GPO’s needs are listed on their GPO Digitization: GPO Needs Lists webpage. GPO can be contacted directly and will pay shipping costs for items they accept. Offering materials needed by GPO for digitization purposes is encouraged. National needs for digitization or disaster recovery may also be reviewed.

Dispose of Unclaimed Materials

Options for items on a selective’s disposal list that went through FDLP eXchange and were not claimed by the CSL or California’s other selectives (and also GPO or non-California depositories, if this step was taken) are listed below.

  • Offer to other libraries or institutions. Offers to public libraries or educational institutions in your area are encouraged.
  • Sell as, for example, publications or waste paper. “Libraries may not make any money on the sale of the withdrawn material. Any exchange of funds must be sent to the Superintendent of Documents” (Weeding a Depository Collection, “Sale of Materials” section).
  • Place in the recycling.