Free electronic books and weeding

Steele, Kirstin

doi:10.1108/08880451111185982

Cited by 3 publications

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“…Several authors have addressed the potential of e-books to replace out-of-copyright print titles in academic libraries. A brief article by Steele (2011) A related article focuses on the potential of the HathiTrust to revolutionize the ability of libraries to provide electronic interlibrary loan copies of older titles. Eden and Beaubien (2012) report that the full text of books published more than 75 years ago and no longer restricted by US copyright laws are now available as e-books through HathiTrust.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deselection of print monographs in the humanities and social sciences in the digital age

Oliva

2016

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Purpose For most college and university libraries, deselection of monographs should be an essential component of collection development. Few of these libraries have unlimited space for book stack expansion. This research study aims to cover the reasons why this should be undertaken and how it can be accomplished in the humanities and social sciences. At the main campus of Adelphi University Libraries, a conservative approach was used to identify and carefully review monograph titles that were published more than 50 years ago, and, in most cases, this resulted in their deselection without significantly affecting the collection. For some of these titles, the author determined that they might be worth replacing with available e-books and the author did so. Design/methodology/approach A brief overview is provided to delineate why deselection is important, and how it can be accomplished. A literature review was prepared. It included a review of deselection at small-, medium- and large-sized college and university libraries. The pros and cons of print versus e-books for collection development were reviewed, including four case studies. The feasibility of replacing print reference titles with e-books was also covered. A review of the monograph weeding project at the Adelphi University Library in the humanities and social sciences is provided. Conclusions and a projection of next steps are also included. Findings An overwhelming majority of the monograph titles reviewed were deselected without adversely affecting the overall quality of the collection. A small number of available e-book editions were selected to replace some of these deselected titles. Research limitations/implications All of the titles deselected were published more than 50 years ago. All of these titles were in the social sciences and humanities. The deselection review was limited to philosophy, religion, history, political science, sociology, education and psychology. There were limitations on the amount of time available to review titles in most of these fields, and as a result, only a small percentage of the titles in our collection could be reviewed. Practical implications The library has very serious space constraints, which has made it difficult to provide the needed study space for members of the Adelphi University community. Some sections of the book collection are jam packed, with no room for expansion. Deselecting older less used titles and eliminating some sections of book shelves help address both of these problems. Replacing some of these print titles with e-books contributes as well. This deselection project has reduced the holdings of monograph print titles significantly. In the future, the author hopes to rely less on print titles and more on e-books for collection development. Social implications In most fields, college and university students would be better served for their research by more recently published titles. Older, less used titles, as well as those not used at all, should be deselected to make room for more useful and up-to-date titles. As more and more titles become readily available as e-books, the collections of print titles can be reduced. Being able to use e-books even when the library is closed is a great advantage. It should also be noted that these titles can be used by more than one user simultaneously. Originality/value In conducting the literature search, the author discovered that there were a large number of titles on deselecting print titles. There was also considerable research on e-book collection development. However, there were few that linked these two important topics. In this research article and case study, the author hopes to have made a significant contribution to linking them together.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deselection of print monographs in the humanities and social sciences in the digital age

Oliva

2016

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“…Checking open access book collections such as Google Books or Project Gutenberg for digital copies can assist decisions about replacing damaged copies, removing duplicate copies or deciding which print books to move to off-site storage. 21 Collections are for use, so promotion of resources is also a part of collection management. A 2007 survey found that 75% of ARL libraries promote OA resources just as they do other resources; examples of promotion activities for OA resources include adding to a library catalog, including in subject guides or pathfinders, discussing in instruction sessions or reference interviews, and highlighting in newsletter articles or on web pages.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Impact of Open Access on Collection Management

Grabowsky¹

2015

Virginia Libraries

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“…However, there are potentially many advantages to including open access e-books in library catalogs. In addition to expanding a library's collection, open access e-books can also be used as a collection weeding tool 3 and libraries will likely want to provide access to the increasing number of open access textbooks. 4 Unlike some very large open access e-book collections, the size of the NAP collection is small enough that collaborative batch creation seemed a reasonable, attainable goal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collaborative Batch Creation for Open Access E-Books: A Case Study

Young

Culbertson

McGrath

2013

Cataloging & Classification Quarterly

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When the National Academies Press announced that more than 4,000 electronic books would be made freely available for download, many academic libraries expressed interest in obtaining MARC records for them. Using cataloging listservs, volunteers were recruited for a project to identify and upgrade bibliographic records for aggregation into a batch that could be easily loaded into catalogs. Project organization, documentation, quality control measures, and problems are described, as well as processes for adding new titles. The project's implications for future efforts are assessed, as are the numerous challenges for network-level cataloging.

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Free electronic books and weeding

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Deselection of print monographs in the humanities and social sciences in the digital age

Deselection of print monographs in the humanities and social sciences in the digital age

The Impact of Open Access on Collection Management

Collaborative Batch Creation for Open Access E-Books: A Case Study

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