Examines traditional conceptions of a library collection, and reveals four major presumptions associated with collections: tangibility, ownership, a user community, and an integrated retrieval mechanism. Explores challenges posed by media, and proposes an expanded concept of collection that considers the perspectives of both user and collection…

Digitization benefits the users of special collections through increase in traditional use of materials, development of new avenues of research, and the appearance of new types of research using rare books and manuscripts. It challenges the relative value given to paper originals of rare materials as digital holdings increase. Special collections…

Focuses on library economic metrics, and presents a conceptual framework for library economic metrics including service input and output, performance, usage, effectiveness, outcomes, impact, and cost and benefit comparisons. Gives examples of these measures for comparison of library electronic and print collections and collection services.…

Data on the use of bound an unbound journals in an academic biology library suggest that almost all of the journals studied are suitable as electronic only; only a very few are reasonable choices in both print and electronic formats. Most scientific articles might be better suited for publication not in journals at all, but rather in a suitable…

Presents an overview of concerns and problems with digital archiving, with a focus on preservation of government information. Addresses standards and costs. Discusses the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, and the digital preservation strategies of migration, emulation, and encapsulation. An appendix reviews some of the…

The Commission on Preservation and Access has published a number of reports on the preservation and access implications of scanning text and microfilm. This report focuses on what sets the digitization of visual collections apart from other scanning projects. Projects to digitize visual collections present their own unique set of questions and…

In response to technological advances, future libraries will blend new technologies with traditional information resources by partitioning collections into various formats including print, nonprint, electronic, computerized, media, and video. In effect the library will be "freezing" portions of collections in their most appropriate formats based…

Explores controversial questions related to libraries' decision-making on paper journals and electronic journals. Notes that the critical mass of scholarly publishing is still in print. Discusses benefits and drawbacks of electronic journals and paper journals. Presents comments on the pros and cons to binding paper periodicals gathered from an…