The Director of Special Research Collections and individual Curators apply the following general principles and criteria when evaluating items for acquisition or deaccession from SRC collections. Adhering to these principles and criteria further ensures that the Library’s collecting decisions are purposeful and intentional. Please refer to the Collecting Area Policies to see how these principles and criteria are applied in context. 

New acquisitions should build upon existing strengths to support established research and provide a deeper understanding of a given topic. We engage in curatorial appraisal, selecting materials for acquisition that address a variety of standards, including: what fits within collection scope, whether we have the means to properly store and preserve materials, whether ownership is in question. Careful consideration is given to the condition of the material and to any legal or ethical implication of the material, including the provenance and title, and following existing UC system-wide policies as well as national and international library standards.  

The decision to accept material is made by the concerned Curator, it is informed by their curatorial assessment and where appropriate, in consultation with the Director of  SRC and the AUL for Research Resources and Scholarly Communication (i.e., collections requiring exceptional resources or specific considerations for their stewardship or expensive collections requiring administrative approval).  

Modes of Collecting

  • Gifts, Solicited and Unsolicited: SRC accepts gifts of collections material that are aligned with its strategic collecting area policies or are otherwise determined to be useful for teaching or research. Gifts must be approved by the Curator, SRC Director and/or the Associate University Librarian for Research Resources & Scholarly Communication. UCSB Library encourages, but does not require, financial support for collections to offset the costs of processing, long-term storage and preservation, digitization efforts, researcher access, classroom use, and other stewardship costs. SRC does not accept walk-in donations or unapproved drop-offs at any Library facility.
  • Purchase: In some circumstances, acquisitions of high significance for the collection development strategy may also occur through the purchase of items or collections selected from dealers, auctions, and from private individuals or organizations. 
  • Post-custodial Collection Stewardship: SRC recognizes that it may not always be the appropriate physical steward for material. Communities, individuals, or other groups may wish to retain physical control and ensure local accessibility for material that is of high cultural value. In these cases, SRC will work with the community, individual, or group to determine a mutually beneficial plan, which can include digital surrogates, collections processing, preservation techniques, data curation, and increased access or other models of shared stewardship. 
  • Transfer from University Offices and Departments: University Archives serves as the institutional memory of UCSB by collecting, preserving, and making accessible materials that provide evidence of past University actions and contribute to an understanding of the University’s structure and its history. The University of California Records Retention Schedule contains detailed information about the disposition of University records, including the length of their retention. Records with enduring legal, fiscal, historical, or administrative value are transferred to the University Archives with approval from the University Archivist.

The UCSB Library does not accept long-term deposits. 

We acquire rare, unique, and valuable materials that are often not widely held or accessible based on the following characteristics:

  • Age: rarely held materials produced before 1850 (with a limited print run or a small number of surviving copies) that require secure, climate-controlled storage and monitored reading room access.
  • Uniqueness and scarcity: 
    • Published materials held in fewer than ten copies in North American libraries (U.S. and Canada) and not available in the HathiTrust or another trusted digital repository; 
    • Published materials held in fewer than three copies in the consortium or geographic region: UC-system or WEST and not available in the HathiTrust or another trusted digital repository; 
    • Materials that would be difficult to acquire or impossible to replace (e.g., book art, calligraphy, independent and out-of-print media productions, cultural heritage materials, etc).  
    • Audiovisual materials that are only available for purchase on obsolete media formats.
  • Artifactual characteristics: 
    • Materials that have value as primary sources: e.g. manuscripts, art, letters, elaborate facsimile reproductions, broadsides, posters, printed ephemera, scrolls, archival materials, textual records, digital files, audiovisual materials, photographs, cartographic materials, technical drawings, pamphlets, flyers, posters, and other graphic materials.
    • Significant association copies or autographed items with important provenance.
    • Finely produced portfolios; books with unbound elements and plates; books with valuable maps or plates; materials that present unique printing, paper, or binding techniques; materials produced in fascicles; books with decorated endpapers, etc. 
    • Materials with an added manuscript or other material of significance.
    • Materials with valuable prints or original photographs. 
    • Audiovisual materials that present unique recording or production techniques. 
  • Bibliographical, research, or market value:
    • Materials thought to be of very high value: desirability to collectors and/or cost of acquisition/replacement.
    • Intrinsic or extrinsic evidence of censorship or repression (i.e., rare to acquire material from political activist groups or organizations oppressed by ruling powers, etc.).
    • Formative nature or importance to a particular field of study or genre of material relevant to the UCSB research and teaching (i.e., first editions of pivotal or landmark studies that initially presented an idea of great importance or influence within a particular discipline).

We avoid acquiring collections that may overlap with research strengths of other institutions. We generally do not acquire archival materials that should be part of a collection located at another institution. 

Generally, we do not collect the following materials:

  • Materials that are still being actively used by their creators (working collections)
  • Personal libraries of published materials (books, magazines, films)
  • Reproductions (e.g. photocopies, microfilm, digital images) of materials held by other libraries or in private hands, except when they are integral to an archival collection
  • Duplicate copies of printed materials or other collection materials
  • Artifacts and three-dimensional objects (plaques, medals, trophies, sculptures)
  • Fine and decorative arts, framed materials
  • Plaques and trophies
  • Personnel records or other records with Personal Identifying Information (PII)
  • Materials that are in poor physical condition or are damaged beyond repair or use, including mold and vinegar syndrome
  • Materials that require exceptional resources for us to provide proper stewardship including large collections of born-digital materials and fragile or damaged materials
  • Collections of materials, including born-digital collections, that are already held at other institutions or to which other research institutions already provide access and stewardship 

At this time, SRC does not accept book collections. For materials that SRC does not accept, Curators may recommend alternative institutions that have a related collecting scope. Santa Barbara Public Library System accepts books, music CDs, CDs, and DVDs. 

A note on formats: SRC is equipped to steward a range of materials in a variety of formats, including paper, photographic prints, published works on paper, moving image and sound recordings, digital and digitized files, and other digital media. However, each curatorial area (listed above) may prioritize collecting some formats over others. Curators will engage in appraisal of potential materials to determine what materials are appropriate to acquire and preserve.

  • Web archiving: As part of our efforts to document historical figures, events, breaking news, and University history, SRC engages in website archiving efforts utilizing the Internet Archive Archive-It service to capture websites. 

In accordance with federal tax laws, the Library cannot provide monetary appraisals of donated materials. Furthermore, SRC can provide a list of appraisers upon request, but will not recommend any one appraiser.