The Future (or Not) of Library Collections: A Serials Perspective Rick Anderson Associate Director Scholarly Resources & Collections

J. Willard Marriott Library (Up through) 19 th -century model

J. Willard Marriott Library 20 th -century model

J. Willard Marriott Library 21 st -century model

J. Willard Marriott Library Problems of Print-derived Scarcity Expensive  Print run  Shipping Hard to find  Not searchable Hard to move

J. Willard Marriott Library Three Killer Realities Scarcity and high cost characterize a shrinking minority of the documents that matter to our patrons An increasing number of competitively high-quality documents are easily findable and available for free Reality doesn’t matter; perception does

J. Willard Marriott Library The Current Situation Library collection is becoming:  Bigger (despite cuts)  More diffuse (internally)  Less defined (externally)  More inclusive Patrons no longer perceive (rightly or wrongly) the problems the library is designed to solve Alternatives to traditional library services abound (and grow daily)

J. Willard Marriott Library The Current Situation POD is making the concept of “out of print” obsolete … and therefore making purchase delays less risky Collection budgets are shrinking … and therefore making JIC purchasing more risky Online environment makes JIT, patron-driven micro- purchasing technically feasible for the first time

J. Willard Marriott Library Possible Sacred Cows? Approval plans Bibliographer-driven selection Big Deals Journal Subscriptions (i.e., Medium Deals) Comprehensive, JIC collecting generally  cf. “Cloud-sourcing Research Collections” ( 01.pdf) Title-level serial cataloging

J. Willard Marriott Library What Will the Future Look Like? Google Books Corpus/Hathi Trust

J. Willard Marriott Library Hathi Trust Projected Growth

J. Willard Marriott Library What Will the Future Look Like? Google Books Corpus/Hathi Trust More in the cloud generally  General collections  Special collections (digital)  Metadata Small core collection reflecting local emphases/strengths  Outward orientation More throughput; less gathering  Library as conduit, not vessel Fewer librarians Fewer publishers

J. Willard Marriott Library Discuss! Rick Anderson Assoc. Director for Scholarly Resources & Collections