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Collection Management Strategies in a Digital Environment

Cecily Johns
Project Director
Collection Management Initiative
University of California, and
Deputy University Librarian
University of California, Santa Barbara
johns@library.ucsb.edu

Abstract

This paper describes a grant-funded research project to relocate selected print journal runs, for which an electronic version is available, to remote storage from the shelves of campus libraries at the University of California. During the project, users will rely on the electronic version of selected journals. Data, including costs associated with the project, usage of print journals, usage of electronic journals, as well as user behavior and attitudes, will be gathered and used to develop long-range strategies and institutional policies.

Collection Management Strategies in a Digital Environment is a two year grant project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and began on January 1, 2001 and extends through December 31, 2002.

Purpose of the Grant

The project will involve removing from campus libraries selected print journals for which electronic access is provided and relocating these journals to remote storage. A major objective of the grant will be to gather data, including costs and usage of both print and electronic versions of selected journals during the experiment. We will also be studying user attitudes and preferences when the primary use of these journals is access to the electronic version.

There are currently nine campuses of the University. Campus libraries that participate in the study can do so as an "experimental" or as a "control" library.

Experimental library

These libraries will participate by removing selected journals for which electronic access is provided from the campus library to remote storage. Data collection for the journal titles selected will include gathering data on requests to retrieve print volumes from storage and electronic use of these titles.

Control library

These libraries will participate by maintaining selected print journals for which electronic access is provided on their shelves and gathering usage data provided through reshelving and circulation counts. Use of the electronic versions will also be monitored.

Objectives for the Project

The goal of the project is to explore issues associated with integrating and managing research library journal collections composed of shared print and digital formats. The study will evaluate the factors that affect reliance on shared digital resources to relieve pressure on physical facilities and capital budgets to house and manage print materials. Our specific objectives are to:

• Study the behavior and attitudes of users when selected print journals for which electronic access is provided are relocated to a remote storage facility and primary use is of the electronic version, and ascertain the variety of factors affecting the acceptability of digital publications as a substitute for the equivalent print publications

• Design and test processes for consultation and decision-making for selection, processing, relocation, and administrative management of print materials relocated to remote storage

• Document the costs incurred and avoided for maintaining selected journal titles for which electronic access is provided when paper copies of the journals are relocated to a storage facility and primary use is of the electronic version

• Document the change in usage of digital and print versions of selected journal titles when print is relocated to storage

• Assess the institutional implications for library organization and operations, including facilities planning, capital budgeting, systems, and resource management

• Evaluate institutional strategies and policies for archiving of research library materials in a mixed print/digital environment.

Background

Two events in early 2000 initiated a planning process to develop a research grant to explore issues and strategies for managing collections combining both digital and print formats.

• The University of California Systemwide Library and Scholarly Information Advisory Committee (SLASIAC), a group of faculty and academic administrators who advise the University on library planning issues, approved a resolution (Resolution A) endorsing "the implementation of experiments that would help the University increase its understanding of strategies for creating a durable, reliable archive of its print and digital collections and of issue arising from the development and implementation of these strategies." See {http://www.slp.ucop.edu/consultation/slasiac/}

• The Mellon Foundation expressed an interest in funding experiments that would test academic and research libraries' ability to manage their collections that increasingly consist of a mix of print and digital materials.

The first step was to apply for a planning grant from the Mellon foundation. With the funds from this grant UC embarked on the development of a two year project to be funded by with Mellon. In the final {grant proposal}, the planning team made the case that the University is well positioned to undertake such a project because the University has.

• a long history of collaboration, as evidenced by our union catalog (Melvyl), our resource sharing agreements among the nine campuses, and our patron-initiated request service, called CDL Request.

• overcrowded library facilities on several campuses of the University. Many UC library facilities are currently full or nearly full, and we do not anticipate additional funding for new buildings that will satisfy library space needs. Like many institutions of higher learning, capital bond issues must be passed first in order to pay for physical facilities, and libraries must always compete with other campus priorities, such as classrooms and faculty office space.

• UC is able to leverage the extensive electronic collections of the California Digital Library, which include
  • Over 4,600 electronic journals
  • over 150 reference databases/indexes
  • numerous monographs in electronic form

• The University of California maintains two remote storage facilities to house "seldom used" library materials from the campus libraries.

Criteria for the Selection of Journals

During the planning phase, we developed criteria for the journals selected to be relocated to storage if an electronic version was available. The specific criteria are:

• Sufficient data are provided by the electronic publisher to measure use by title and use by campus

• A choice of titles that allow us to study a variety of factors influencing use, including a variety of disciplines, content characteristics, e.g., graphics, language, article length.

The Advisory Committee for the project urged us to capture variety in characteristics of the journal literature and its use by faculty and students in various disciplines, and assess the implications of that variety for collection management policies in the mixed print/digital environment.

• The sample of journal titles will include titles for which current issues are available in digital form and titles for which the digital version is available only retrospectively in back runs (e.g., JSTOR titles), so that we can provide cost, usage, and behavioral data for both publishing models.

• The sample of journal titles should include multiple publishers of electronic journals.

• The print title must be held in more than one library in the UC system so we can gather usage data for print runs on library shelves on campus and usage data for both electronic and print journals relocated to storage.

Phases of Grant

The two year project will be carried out in three overlapping phases:

Phase 1: Consultation and decision-making including the identification of journal titles to be included in the study and the campuses that will participate (January 1 - June 30, 2001)

Phase 2: Implementation of the actual experiment when print journals are relocated to storage and the gathering of data of ongoing (July 1 - June 30, 2002)

Phase 3: Evaluation of Institutional Strategies, Policies, and Programs for archiving and management of collections in the print and digital environment (July 1 - December 30, 2002). During Phase 3 of the project we plan to assess what we have learned during the experiment itself and to develop UC-wide strategies, policies, and programs for archiving and managing collections in both print and digital form.

Acknowledgement: I wish to thank Gary Lawrence, Co-Project Investigator, and Brian Schottlaender, Project Investigator for their contributions to this paper.

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