Distributing National Library of Medicine Duplicate Books to the Michigan Health Sciences Libraries Association

摘要

Due to shrinking library budgets and a struggling economy, many health sciences libraries have been forced to decrease or eliminate spending on library collections, especially for monographs. In order to assist its members, the Michigan Health Sciences Libraries Association initiated a resource-sharing project to distribute free National Library of Medicine duplicate books to member libraries. This article provides background information on the Michigan Health Sciences Libraries Association and its National Library of Medicine duplicate books program. The procedures used to distribute and promote books and an analysis of the free books distributed to libraries is provided. Future plans and considerations are also discussed.