Future-Proofing the Library: Strategies for Acquisitions,Cataloging, and Collection Development

The future is not perfectly predictable. However, as serialists it is our job to predict the future in some very real ways, and current trends give us valuable tools for at least figuring out a range of possible future scenarios. Certain trends in particular point to highly likely developments in the near future, and wise libraries will position themselves to deal with those developments. They include a continued drift on the part of researchers away from printed resources, from the library catalog, and from non-unique collections, with a concomittant rise in the importance of unique collections and locally-produced scholarships. Libraries can future-proof themselves by, in part, turning decisively away from resources and services that patrons are abandoning and towards those resources and services that are likely to grow in importance.