Many titles are held in multiple copies. Less than 32,000 are unique items including numerous textbooks and some unique older editions of titles held in other library collections. The collection has been maintained by the library staff adding some selected undergraduate materials and by periodically weeding the collection of older, unused and excess duplicates. Unique titles and copies likely to be in demand have been retained either in the SIGS collection or through transfer to the Robarts collection in consultation with the Collection Development Department. The working group had available to it counts of the SIGS collection by subject classification and global use reports on the collection over the past three years.
Circulation is only one indicator of use.
It is recognized that some parts of the collection are used in the library more than through borrowing. The working group opened discussions with Collection Development, the Undergraduate Book Selection librarian and former staff from Sigmund Samuel Library who will be involved in determining how much of the collection must be relocated. In considering issues and options for relocating the collection, discussion focused on Robarts stacks as the most accessible location for housing the SIGS H SS materials. Clearly this is the main location that undergraduates have migrated to since the Robarts Library was built. From the day it opened, the Robarts Library has been more than a Research Library.