2015 Charleston Library Conference

We are living through a cultural transition from print to digital with stakeholders in scholarly communication required to navigate a dynamic, hybrid environment. The session will outline the philosophical approach used by a large ARL to conceive of ‘collections as a service’ as a guiding principle in shaping collection development decisions both internally and within broader collaborative networks. Data on usage of both print and online collections are regularly analyzed and inform these decisions, with the data sometimes running counter to anecdotal or self-reported preferences by users for print over digital formats.

The session has two objectives: to give the audience a better understanding of how a large academic research library is responding to the changing conditions in scholarly communications and user preferences, and to show practical ways that data is being used to guide that process. The session will include (if possible) a live demonstration of library use data using a visualization application (Tableau). There will be time provided for Q&A so the audience can respond to the session and ask further questions.

This session is proposed as a single presentation, but it could be structured as a panel session by seeking to include a speaker from another academic research library and/or a publisher.