The River, the Pond, and the Future of the Research Collection

Rick AndersonActing Dean

J. Willard Marriott Library

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, Hathi Trust)

2000s: Gutenberg is tamed and domesticated Print on demand

J. Willard Marriott Library

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)

J. Willard Marriott Library

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)

J. Willard Marriott Library

J. Willard Marriott Library

J. Willard Marriott Library

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

J. Willard Marriott Library

Circ Trends at the University of Utah

J. Willard Marriott Library

New Models

Online just-in-time (both e and p) Online breakdown of collection walls Higher prices/less budget less speculation Higher prices/less budget less archival purchasing Less circulation strong e-only momentum Online + better data + higher prices + less budget the end

of the Big Deal and of the Medium Deal (title-level journal subscriptions) in favor of the Tiny Deal

Bottom line: Less collecting (ponds), more real-time brokerage (access to the river)

J. Willard Marriott Library

What We Are Doing at UU

Formalised stance: e-first/patron-first PDA pilot programs: MyiLibrary, ebrary, NetLibrary, EBL Espresso Book Machine No more bibliographers/subject specialists Instead, College & Interdisciplinary Teams

SHEM (Science, Health, Engineering, Mines) SEBS (Social Sciences, Education, Business, Social Work) FAAPH (Fine Arts, Architecture/Planning, Humanities) DOCMAPS (Documents, Maps) MEDIA (Multimedia) INTERINTER (International/Interdisciplinary)

J. Willard Marriott Library

Predictions

The future of the library will not look much like a library Small, focused local collections of books Access to enormous public collections (Hathi, Google) Few subscriptions, if any No packages A need for consolidated brokerage service at article level, not title

level Journals are going the way of the record album

We’re headed back to a “song” economy Journal publishers are going the way of the record label

You can’t make as much on a 99-cent song as you can on a $15 album

J. Willard Marriott Library

Stumbling Blocks

J. Willard Marriott Library

Discuss!

Contact:Rick Andersonrick.anderson@utah.edu