Print Collections Management in the Wake of Digitization

Richers, Katherine

Sammonds, L. I., & Housewright, R. (2011). Print collections management in the wake of digitization. The Serials Librarian, 61(2), 193-195. doi:10.1080/0361526X.2011.591039

 

Summary:

ITHAKA S+R conducts surveys about scholarly publishing with faculty from American four-year universities. They have been doing so since the year 2000. Sample population is 3,000 respondents from different disciplines, age groups and experience levels. While more and more faculty are becoming comfortable with using electronic resources over print, not many faculty members are comfortable with replacing entire print collections in campus libraries with electronically accessible resources. It is suggested that this reluctance may be to the perceived stability of print collections. Out of five functions of an academic library suggested in the survey, the gateway function isn’t considered as vital as it used to be. Besides the survey, a framework for collection weeding (What to Withdraw framework) was also presented to the same population. In both cases (the survey and the framework) the researcher suggested that collection weeding and expanding electronic collections should also be based on what the community the library serves wants. In terms of weeding, the researcher from ITHAKA S+R noted that libraries often need to keep print materials to meet preservation goals. If libraries work together then they can tackle weeding choices more effectively.

 Evaluation:

This article is short but raises some interesting questions about collection weeding and the emotions associated with it. I found the part about print collections giving the impression of stability interesting.  Considering the amount of debate over internet censorship and how we as information professionals are supposed to help our patrons find what they need, how dependable are electronic sources? These sources cost money (for instance, database subscriptions) and poor infrastructure may not permit electronic access. I come from a low-income to middle class community and not everyone has consistent, good quality web access.  I think both print and electronic materials should be kept in a collection.