Most large academic and research libraries have placed parts of their collections in off‐site storage. The author discusses the full range of decision‐making criteria used in selecting materials to be transferred into such facilities, their rationale and liabilities. The physical impact of remote library storage includes closed/limited access, collection disassembly, user inconvenience/lower productivity, and usage decline. Intellectual impact may encompass undermined scholarship, diminished graduate education, and inhibited library services. Although digital storage and electronic publishing hold some promise of relief for these problems, it’s still too early to tell just how much. Has the ubiquitous use of remote library storage taken collection development into the era of de‐construction?
The issue of format duplication in academic library collections is increasingly complicated and perplexing in an environment of static or dwindling resources, soaring user expectations, dynamic access models, and inconsistent and changing publisher and vendor pricing structures. The problem is further complicated for libraries serving a university with multiple campus locations. This paper surveys recent investigative projects and highlights the work of a Duplicate Formats Task Force at Pennsylvania State University charged with determining the extent and nature of format duplication at that institution.
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