Suzanne M. Ward

Mary E. Miller

By learning how to rightsize, you will ensure that both the collection and your institution's available physical spaces meet the needs of your library's users.

Rightsizing the Academic Library Collection

Is your institution’s library bursting at the seams with books that have not been touched for decades, microfilm that nobody uses, and print journals that have been superseded by electronic access? Have you wondered how best to identify what physical material to retain and what to withdraw to maintain an inviting collection of relevant material for your users? Then it’s time to rightsize! Ward identifies the challenges and proposes solutions to shaping physical collections for today’s academic library. Filled with sage advice and ready-to-implement guidance, this book Introduces the concept of rightsizing, a strategic and largely automated approach that uses continuous assessment to identify the no- and low-use materials in the collectionWalks you through crafting a rightsizing plan, from developing withdrawal criteria and creating discard lists to managing workflow and disposing of withdrawn materialsShows how to identify stakeholders, plus strategies for winning them overOffers tips for working with consortial partners on collaborative print retention projectsDiscusses how growing electronic collections can enhance legacy print collectionsAdvises what to do with print journals after your library licenses perpetual access rights to the electronic equivalentLooks ahead to the future of physical collections in academic librariesBy learning how to rightsize, you will ensure that your institution’s collection meets the needs of your library’s users.

Robert S. Freeman

Judith M. Nixon

E-Books in Academic Libraries: Stepping Up to the Challenge provides readers with a view of the changing and emerging roles of electronic books in higher education. The three main sections contain contributions by experts in the publisher/vendor arena, as well as by librarians who report on both the challenges of offering and managing e-books and on the issues surrounding patron use of e-books. The case study section offers perspectives from seven different sizes and types of libraries whose librarians describe innovative and thought-provoking projects involving e-books.Read about perspectives on e-books from organizations as diverse as a commercial publisher and an association press. Learn about the viewpoint of a jobber. Find out about the e-book challenges facing librarians, such as the quest to control costs in the patron-driven acquisitions (PDA) model, how to solve the dilemma of resource sharing with e-books, and how to manage PDA in the consortial environment. See what patron use of e-books reveals about reading habits and disciplinary differences.Finally, in the case study section, discover how to promote scholarly e-books, how to manage an e-reader checkout program, and how one library replaced most of its print collection with e-books. These and other examples illustrate how innovative librarians use e-books to enhance users' experiences with scholarly works.

Suzanne M. Ward

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