The Weeding Planner: How a Research Library Weeded Approximately 2.76 Miles of Print Materials from, the Shelves to Repurpose Library Space OR Much Ado About the New Normal

摘要

In the past four decades, academic libraries have changed from print-collection focused spaces to resource and services-driven organizations that respond and adapt to the changing needs of users, the developing technologies that improve access to information sources, and the increasing costs of acquiring and providing access to those sources. In the immediate post-World War II years, academic libraries adopted the mission of purchasing vast print collections to support the expansion of the research focus of universities. As the internet developed into the World Wide Web in the 1990s, print indices gave way to electronically searchable indices, which in turn evolved into our current full-text academic databases. As more scholarly resources became available online full text, reliance on print collections decreased. The popular "Teens React to Encyclopedias"YouTube video is a simplistic and unscientific indication of our current college student's familiarity with using print resources.1 It can be assumed that future academic library users will rely less and less on print, and that collection development decisions will focus more and more on acquiring electronic information sources.