Withdrawal Policy

The New York State Library collects materials in accordance with the collection levels established in the Library's Collection Development Policy.  Decisions to withdraw New York State Library items (items with NYSL stamps and labels, accession numbers, or barcodes), like the decisions to acquire new titles for the collection, are made within the total collection policy so that the integrity of the total collection is not impaired, but is enhanced.

In general, materials may be withdrawn if they are:

• duplicate copies,
• superseded editions or loose-leaf updates,
• replaced by another format,
• found, for whatever reason, to be inappropriate for the collection,
• damaged or in such poor physical condition that they are no longer suitable for use,
• not able to be retained for other reasons.

All materials will be withdrawn according to established Library withdrawal procedures. Items removed from the New York State Library's collections will be documented.