From: "Swindler, Luke" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2017 13:27:02 +0000

In response to Joseph J. Esposito’s query of how libraries need to change
in a world where journals increasing are open access (both legally and
illegally), in my view the answer begins with librarians needing to shift
their focus to where libraries provide the highest unique value in support
of the academic enterprise.  Specifically, the reconfiguration of research
and scholarship in the networked digital environment should encourage a
pivot in the focus of library collections beyond the traditional fixation
on consumption of proprietary/toll-access periodicals:  that is, publishers
sell as many journals as they can profitably produce and libraries buy
subscriptions to as many titles as they can afford.

This transformation begins with librarians aggressively engaging in “right
sizing” expenditures by focusing on continuing only the most critical
subset of essential/core journal subscriptions, and thereby achieving
significant permanent reductions in traditional spending patterns.  In
tandem, when appropriate and to the greatest extent possible, collections
and staffing dollars need to shift from simply acquiring content to
offering products and services that enhance support for research beyond
consumption to including its creation, capitalization/assessment, and when
applicable curation/management.  By supporting research through the entire
life cycle libraries can actually enhance their role and value.

As part of effecting this transition, librarians need to consider the
opportunity costs of continuing past spending patterns focused on
toll-access journals and not changing by investing in the
acquisition/provision of other kinds of content.  When doing so, they
could/should shift collections dollars from proprietary e-journals along
the following lines:

•       Pursuing minimal rather than maximal acquisitions strategies for
toll-access journals as “good enough” solutions, which means cancelling
e-journals big deals whenever practical;

•       Supporting core pre-print services and open-access journals;

•       Moving expenditures from “outside-in” to “inside-out” collections
that results in a service portfolio actively supporting their own
researchers’ workflows and making it widely available rather than only
accumulating content produced outside their institutions and expecting the
resulting collections to exercise gravitational pull on researchers;

•       Acquiring other kinds of digital media, e.g., steaming high-quality
video products that explain and demonstrate new procedures that help labs
stay abreast of breakthrough innovations, save time in training and
learning, and enhance the quality and effectiveness of research;

•       Acquiring more books, including cost-effective e-books collections
that are not available elsewhere on the open internet.

•       Subscribing to services that improve discovery and the assessment
of the value of research, including alt-metrics.

This transformation begins with reviewing and revising past collections
practices.  As an essential component of creating a new internal and
external narrative about collections and what they should be, librarians
need to adopt a different and less conservative mindset and corresponding
behavioral changes.  Based on present and probable future fiscal realities
in a collecting world of plenty, this view encourages librarians to take
calculated and bounded risks in changing collections philosophies,
priorities, and strategies from those regnant in the past.  In conclusion,
remaining a vital library entails becoming a different kind of library.

Luke Swindler

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Luke Swindler
Collections Management Officer
Davis Library CB #3918
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC  27599   USA
[log in to unmask]
TEL (919-962-1095)
FAX (919-962-4450)
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