SUNDAY   6/24

RSS Discussion Forum: Rethinking Your Print Reference Collection

Sharaton Park Hotel, Garden AB · 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/618

Convener: Christy Caldwell, University of California, Santa Cruz

Library literature shows that since the eighties, we have known our print reference collections were probably too big and underused. Lately, we've seen more studies indicating increasingly low usage of print reference items both by patrons and librarians. Some libraries, as a result, have weeded their reference collections or, less commonly, no longer have one. While it may be time for many of us to weed our print reference collections, the multitude of sticky decisions in a time of staff attrition make it a very difficult and potentially labor intensive task. These studies provided data, but often not details: what titles were kept? What large multi-volume works were discarded? Join a lively discussion about this important issue.

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