Rethinking Research Library Collections: A Policy Framework for Straitened Times, and Beyond

Abstract

Academic and research libraries today confront daunting financial pressures. Their faltering budgets also compound an intensifying existential crisis resulting from profound shifts in information, scholarship, technology, and academic organizations. The purposes of collections are particularly uncertain in this radically fluid context. Analyzing the most salient elements in today’s collections landscape can help to frame the guiding principles that will inform adaptive new approaches to collections and content.