Print Collections Management in the Wake of Digitization

Ross Housewright, a Research Analyst at Ithaka S+R (http://www.ithaka.org/ithaka-s-r/) delivered the keynote address at the E-Resources Symposium at Mississippi State University on September 16, 2010. Housewright challenged traditional thinking about collection and preservation activities in the academic library setting. He introduced two important Ithaka S+R programs—the Faculty Survey and the What to Withdraw Framework—and discussed how they can assist serials librarians struggling to maintain the proper balance between patron needs, budget pressures, and the library's mission to preserve materials in the age of mixed digital and print collections.     

Three Libraries,Three Weeding Projects: Collaborative Weeding Projects Within a Shared Print Repository

The Tri-University Group of Libraries has operated a joint print repository (the Annex) since 1996. As of March 2011, the facility is at 94% capacity. Following a shutdown and comprehensive review in 2006, the three institutions developed a Preservation of Last Print Copy Agreement. This agreement spurred the three partner institutions to undertake three specific weeding projects (monographs deduplication, weeding of science, technology, and medicine journals, and a JSTOR journals last copy project) to prolong the life of the repository. This article outlines the scope, methodologies, successes, and challenges involved with these collaborative weeding projects.     

Creating a Statewide JSTOR Repository: Initial Steps Taken by the Florida State University System

In Florida, the State University Libraries deans have chosen to take a two-pronged approach to addressing limited physical capacity in their facilities: developing a statewide storage facility and deduplicating print serial titles. The initial efforts in the state have focused on titles included in the Journals in Storage electronic collections. Specifically, the collaboration between the University of Florida and Florida State University is the focus of this article. The background information, efforts made, lessons learned, and jobs still to be done will each be given more attention, with the intent of providing a starting point for other institutions considering similar initiatives.     

Weeding without Walking: A Mediated Approach to List-Based Deselection

Weeding an academic library is a complicated practice that tends to arouse debate. Despite these contentions, weeding is necessary to deal with the changing needs for space in many libraries. This article describes a holistic weeding project at LaGuardia Community College Library. It reviews several approaches the project team considered and draws on research, practice, and discussion to evaluate them. It concludes that weeding requires a balance between objective rules and professional judgment. The resulting workflow uses an interactive spreadsheet to automate some of the research work involved in deciding the fate of a book, allowing librarians to practice subjective weeding without walking through the stacks.     

Deep in the Weeds: Faculty Participation in a Large Scale Deselection Project

In 2014, the Pollak Library at California State University, Fullerton embarked on a project to simultaneously address an outdated collection and to provide more student oriented collaborative space by creating a large-scale deselection plan. The interim University Librarian believed it prudent to offer campus faculty the ability to provide input on the deselection plan and an online application was created to allow faculty to request retention of titles selected for weeding. Feedback from an initial weeding pilot program was instructive and the tool was updated for the following deselection rounds to compel faculty to justify reasons for retaining titles and deter arbitrary requests for retention. While ultimately successful in deselecting 95,074 titles, future weeding projects will focus on the most invested partners, rather than the entire campus community. This article describes Pollak Library’s weeding project and analyzes the results of three years of faculty feedback.     

Weeding “Naturally”

Abstract

College libraries are not research libraries; hence, college librarians would do well to abandon the notion that size has some relationship to value, to see decay in the stacks as a useful ally, and to use it to weed and improve overall collection quality.     

A Systematic Plan for Managing Physical Collections at the University of Arizona Libraries

To address the lack of space for continued expansion of the collections, the University of Arizona Libraries have developed a systematic process and timeline for the ongoing management of the physical collections of information resources. This article discusses the evaluative criteria and parameters for deselection that were developed and demonstrates how they were integrated into a 5-year plan for managing the collections. The process was designed to have the least negative impact on our customers while allowing for the flexible use of physical space. The article will also highlight the successes and challenges of developing and implementing the plan.     

Leveraging Survey Results in Support of a Library Renovation: A Case Study

Abstract

The Health Sciences Library (HSL) at Stony Brook University along with the School of Medicine were motivated to make improvements in seating and hours based on survey results from an LCME self-study. Preparation for the site visit from the Liaison Committee for Medical Education helped to garner resources and support for this initiative. To meet the evolving needs of the HSL patrons, librarians completed an overdue collection assessment project which allowed for 142 new seats, including newly designed spaces and furnishings. Ongoing assessment of the redesigned space will be conducted to evaluate success and areas for continued improvement.