The Impact of Electronic Resources on Serial Cancellations and Remote Storage Decisions in Academic Research Libraries

Library Trends, Spring, 2000 by Janice M. Jaguszewski, Laura K. Probst

ABSTRACT

IN THE PAST, SERIAL CANCELLATIONS AND STORAGE DECISIONS focused primarily on print resources. With the addition of electronic resources, librarians in large research institutions must now manage an integrated collection consisting of both print and electronic formats. This article explores the impact that electronic resources have on such deaccession decisions. The authors identify criteria for these decisions and, within this framework, discuss the issues that arise because of the complex nature of electronic resources.

INTRODUCTION

With the relatively recent proliferation of electronic resources and the complexities involved in acquiring access to them, much of the current collections literature focuses on the addition of electronic resources to a collection--in particular, on how these resources affect the traditional collection development and acquisition process. Now that large academic research collections have relied on online databases and an increasing array of electronic full-text products for a number of years, the role of electronic resources in deaccession decisions, such as cancellations and remote storage, is becoming an increasingly important issue.

The University of Minnesota Libraries, like other academic research libraries across the nation, continues to cope with two outstanding pressures on its collections: an acquisitions budget that cannot keep pace with collection needs, and insufficient space in its libraries to accommodate continuing growth of the print collection. The former is addressed in part through an ongoing evaluation of the University of Minnesota Libraries' serial commitments and resulting cancellations. The latter will be addressed by the addition of a new on-campus storage facility, the Minnesota Library Access Center (http://www.minitex.umn.edu/mlac/mlac.asp/). In the past, serial cancellations and storage decisions focused primarily on print resources, but with the addition of electronic resources, librarians must now manage an integrated collection consisting of both print and electronic formats.

This article explores the issues that emerge when cancellation and storage decisions in large academic research libraries are made in the context of such an integrated collection and asks the following questions: What new issues must be considered when "traditional" cancellation criteria are applied to print resources in an electronic environment? What issues develop when these criteria are applied to the electronic resources themselves? What new criteria emerge because of the complex nature of this format? And what impact do electronic resources have on the storage of print formats?

Throughout this article, it is assumed that deselection criteria are indicators to assist librarians in identifying possible candidates for cancellation or transfer to storage. These criteria are not to be applied exclusively but are to be used by experienced librarians and subject specialists as tools for evaluating a discrete body of materials (e.g., by Library of Congress classification) or for a title-by-title review. The librarian's knowledge of the collection, faculty research and teaching interests, user expectations, and current and future trends in research in related fields are equally important in ensuring that appropriate choices are made.

CANCELLATION ISSUES TO CONSIDER

Because a large proportion of the electronic resources currently available in academic libraries are serial in nature (journals and databases), and because these electronic serials consume increasingly larger proportions of the acquisitions budget, they are becoming candidates for cancellation when economic forces necessitate such cuts.

In addition, according to G. E. Gorman (1997): "There was a time when collection development meant the creation and organization of collections of knowledge through a complex intellectual process.... Today collection development is more about access to information than about the quality of knowledge" (p. xv). He suggests that, driven by a desire to create and expand digital collections, libraries may have acquired electronic access to some resources without a deliberate and systematic approach as to how such resources actually developed the collection. Indeed, several years ago, fewer options were available, and librarians may have been more accepting of what was offered. With an expanding array of electronic resources now available, accompanied by continuing budgetary pressures, many research libraries may find that a reevaluation of their electronic resources may be in order.

However, Gay Dannelly of Ohio State University and Tom Sanville of OhioLINK recently suggested that it may be premature for librarians to cancel electronic resources. In a discussion thread on the Liblicense-L electronic discussion list http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/ListArchives/), beginning August 18, 1999, they expressed the view that electronic journals are actually changing user behavior, and that there is currently insufficient data to inform cancellation decisions of electronic resources.