Collection Management and Strategic Access to Digital Resources: The New Challenges for Research Libraries

Learn to better control costs for print and digital resources—from recognized leaders in library administration!

Academic libraries have been using electronic resources for several years, yet library administrators still find that the evolution from print to digital takes meticulous planning. Collection Management and Strategic Access to Digital Resources is a collection of eight presentations from the 2004 University of Oklahoma Libraries Conference focusing on the ways academic research libraries can successfully make the transition from print materials to electronic resources. Respected authorities offer effective strategies to efficiently coordinate the use of digital materials in the contemporary research library.

As acquisition budgets tighten and fresh emphasis is placed upon finding strategies to afford needed resources, library administrators find it increasingly difficult to meet the challenge of providing information to today’s students and scholars. Collection Management and Strategic Access to Digital Resources focuses on innovative, practical solutions to difficult problems facing librarians and library administrators today and in the coming decade. The book is carefully referenced and includes tables and charts to clearly explain data.

Collection Management and Strategic Access to Digital Resources presents and thoroughly discusses:

• the impact of digital resources on libraries, research, and learning in history and science
  
• open access of research results beyond the print journal regime
  
• Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and electronic journal subscriptions
  
• an introduction to Ithaka—a not-for-profit organization that acts as an “incubator” for electronic projects and research for libraries
  
• evaluations—and innovative alternatives—of the rules and beliefs of electronic resource collection
  
• the historical and contextual considerations that have made collections cooperation difficult to achieve—and a global resources network initiative that may answer the challenge
  
• transforming scholarship’s role by offering access to the raw material of research—offering new opportunities for access to a greater range of information
  
• the responsibilities of research libraries in a rapidly evolving digital world
  
  

Collection Management and Strategic Access to Digital Resources is essential reading for senior library administrators in public, special, and academic libraries, as well as acquisitions, reference, collection development, and systems librarians.