2015 Charleston Library Conference

Academic libraries should consider collecting self-published (indie) materials since some include appropriate information of potential value to faculty and students. Beyond the stigma of pre-Internet vanity presses, these books account for between 50 and 75 percent of all titles published in the United States, usually as e-books or print-on-demand. An industry has evolved to support these publications. Public libraries are already encountering public requests, mostly for fiction. Reasons for their collection by academic libraries include: (1) importance as source material for current historical events or local history; (2) the documentation of popular culture trends, some not suitable for commercial publication, such as Holocaust denial, anti-vaccination advocacy, and non-mainstream sexual practices; (3) earlier works by currently popular authors; (4) research from independent scholars for narrow topics not viable for commercial publication or when the author wants complete control; (5) inexpensive self-published textbooks to meet one of the most important unmet information needs for students. Finally, major research libraries should evaluate self-published works in areas where their goal is to collect comprehensively. Currently, statistics from vendors show that libraries are not collecting self-published works extensively and are mostly purchasing publications by campus community authors.