The Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries (PASCAL) is pleased to announce the successful completion of its retention project as part of the Eastern Academic Scholars’ Trust (EAST) shared print program. Through this project, nineteen PASCAL member institutions, serving as Retention Partners, have committed to retaining more than 1 million print items, ensuring the long-term preservation and availability of these scholarly resources for students, faculty, and researchers across South Carolina and beyond.
The retention commitments were determined following a comprehensive collection analysis conducted in collaboration with EAST using the Gold Rush analysis tool. This effort, which took months of meticulous work by PASCAL member libraries and staff, is a testament to the consortium's dedication to preserving vital print resources for the academic community. The retention period for these materials will be in place through July 2031 with plans to reassess the retention schedule after that date.
By participating in the EAST shared print program, PASCAL’s Retention Partners have joined over 170 academic libraries from Maine to Florida in a groundbreaking collaboration to safeguard print collections. The preservation of these resources will support the educational and research endeavors of students and faculty by ensuring continued access to critical, scarcely held, and unique titles. This initiative aligns with PASCAL's mission to enhance and preserve access to both print and electronic resources for member institutions.
Benefits for South Carolina Academic Community
The successful completion of this retention project marks a significant milestone in the management of South Carolina’s academic print collections. The benefits of shared print retention extend across the academic community:
PASCAL’s Retention Partners and twenty-two Supporting Partners will also have the added benefit of participating in EAST’s interlibrary lending network, significantly expanding access to materials housed at institutions across the country. This increased resource-sharing capability will bolster the academic experience for students and faculty by providing greater access to materials at no additional cost to participating libraries.
A Collaborative Effort
PASCAL extends its gratitude to all participating institutions and staff who contributed to this endeavor. This project would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of staff at member libraries and the PASCAL team, who worked closely with EAST to carry out the extensive data analysis and collection reviews required to establish retention commitments. Their dedication has laid the foundation for a sustainable shared print collection that will benefit South Carolina's academic community for years to come.
For more information about PASCAL’s participation in the EAST shared print program and the benefits of shared print retention, please visit the Common Collections guide for Members on the PASCAL website (member password required).
About PASCAL
The Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries (PASCAL) is South Carolina’s statewide academic library consortium, serving over 238,000 students at 55 colleges and universities. Established in 2001, PASCAL supports higher education in South Carolina through multiple programs including a Shared Library Services Platform for 53 institutions; statewide rapid resource sharing service; shared licensing of electronic resources; collaborative collection management, and affordable learning. PASCAL’s cost-effective, collaborative initiatives enable member libraries to provide essential academic resources and enhanced library services while reducing costs.
About EAST
EAST is a collaboration of over 150+ academic and research institutions focused on protecting and preserving print scholarly materials. By comparing the print collections of EAST Retention Partners, a collective collection of unique, scarcely held, and frequently used book and journal titles is identified to be retained by the participating libraries. The EAST Lending Network ensures these titles can be shared across the member libraries. Today over 11 million books and over 37 thousand journal titles are protected through the EAST collective collection.
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