[Eril-l] funding for DDA/PDA

[Rick Anderson]

To your knowledge, has anyone expressed that conclusion based purely on falling overall circulation numbers?

That is one reason that conclusion has been frequently drawn.

Oh, sure — but there’s a big difference between using circ trends as _a_ criterion for reducing print purchases, and using it as _the_ criterion for that decision. I agree that the latter would be unwise. Failing to consider circulation numbers at all, however, along with other criteria, would be to say that usage doesn’t matter. That would be silly.


Can you cite any examples of librarians advocating the wholesale discontinuation of print acquisition? I spend a lot of time listening to and participating in the professional conversations around this issue, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone propose that. I don’t deny that there may be people out there taking that position, but I think they’d be pretty extreme outliers.

Well, there’s this: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/25/us-usa-florida-library-idUSKBN0GP0W620140825...

This is an example of a new library (and one with a fairly narrow and specific curricular mission) that is itself e-only. No one, to my knowledge, is promoting it as a model for academic libraries generally (which is what I presume you mean by “turning our backs wholesale” on the acquisition of print).


Given the very disparaging tone we use to discuss print collections? Given the extreme pressure we’re under to get rid of them, or stop getting them, despite evidence that they are valued?

Are you under extreme pressure to stop buying print? Or is your library moving in an e-preferred direction? Those are by no means the same thing.


Is your dean pushing you to cancel the art journals because they’re not available online?

Every time she suggests this course of action, which she has done several times, I remind her that not all of our journals are available electronically. I am not entirely sure she believes me, or perhaps she is being pressured by people in university administration who do believe all the journals we need are online. I don’t think that is an attitude in administrators that is uncommon.

I’m still not really clear on what her attitude is. If her attitude is that it’s generally better to get journals online than to get them in print, then you’re right that her attitude is not uncommon. If her attitude is that if a journal is available only in print then it should be canceled, that would be a very unusual attitude for an administrator.

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Rick Anderson
Assoc. Dean for Collections & Scholarly Communication
Marriott Library, University of Utah
Desk: (801) 587-9989
Cell: (801) 721-1687
rick.anderson at utah.edu
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