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The Evolving Landscape of Library Collections: Challenges and Future Directions

This review explores the transformative journey of library collections from the 1990s to the present and anticipates future trends. It discusses the decline of traditional collection methods, the impact of budget cuts, and the changing role of librarians in the face of technological advancements. As libraries struggle to meet patron needs amidst mass media consumption and shifting user behaviors, the concept of collection becomes increasingly complex. We examine stages of access, discovery tools, and the need for a new paradigm, aimed at fostering relevance in a digital age.

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The Evolving Landscape of Library Collections: Challenges and Future Directions

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  1. Collections 2021 The Future of the Collection Is Not a Collection

  2. The Recent Past: a Quick Review • 1990s: The Gutenberg Terror comes to an end • Stage 1: Journals • Stage 2: Books – piecemeal (NetLibrary, etc.) • Stage 3: Books – wholesale (Google) • 2000s: Gutenberg is tamed and domesticated • Print on demand

  3. The Recent Past: a Quick Review • Library hegemony comes to an end • Massive drop in unit price of information • Radical increase in ease of finding • Ready reference becomes a social exercise • Full-text searching obviates the proxy record • Access (for many) becomes virtually ubiquitous • Meanwhile, librarians working busily to undermine their own role as brokers (OA)

  4. The Current Reality • The collection is a bad guess at patron needs • Massive budget cuts make collecting hard to defend • Reference service is bypassed and unscalable • The OPAC is completely eclipsed as a discovery tool (even with WorldCat) • Circulation is down dramatically • Gate counts are up, but the stacks are deserted

  5. The Current Reality • The collection is a bad guess at patron needs • Massive budget cuts make collecting hard to defend • Reference service is bypassed and unscalable • The OPAC is completely eclipsed as a discovery tool (even with WorldCat) • Circulation is down dramatically • Gate counts are up, but the stacks are deserted

  6. Circ Trends at the University of Utah

  7. Ten Years from Now... • PDA is the new assumption • Smart phone = killer delivery app • Most academic print acquisition is POD (outsourced or local); much is never added to collections • Collecting behavior is trifurcated: • Monuments to Western Civilization (Big Collecting) • Local research & curriculum (Small Collecting) • GBS + just-what’s-needed/just-in-time (Conduit) • We search primary documents, not proxy documents • Library services have become very difficult to distinguish from other educational services • Collections still exist, but their (general) marginality is now freely acknowledged

  8. Stumbling Blocks • Sclerotic librarians • (Fainthearted library leaders) • Legacy accreditation structures • Legacy RPT structures • (Justifiably) fainthearted publishers • Customer-focused competitors

  9. Questions? Contact: Rick Anderson rick.anderson@utah.edu

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