Abstract

Lorcan Dempsey has formulated the brilliant concept of the "facilitated collection”, which represents what the academic library collection should be today. Library collections have traditionally been dominated by print logic, where size and closeness are core values. This logic has been altered by the possibilities of the Internet and digital collections. Presently, collections can be built around the user's needs and as a result libraries must assure access to documents that are not necessary owned by the library. Therefore, collection development should be based on cooperation between institutions, which entails a great deal of effort because of the constant updating, maintenance of catalogs, and discarding the vision that assimilates a collection to a property.

Abstract

The increased proliferation and accessibility of geographic data are changing the landscape of services based on geographic information. From the analysis of recent job offers posted in American university libraries, we discuss what could be the role of the information professional in this new context, with respect to the management and dissemination of geographic data collections, looking for synergies for mutual benefit between academic libraries and their information professionals and the geographic data community that uses geographic information systems (GIS). In fact, this activity would be one more among the data curation or data sets preservation tasks needed currently in many disciplines.

Abstract

Considering bibliographic heritage as indispensable for the knowledge of our culture and history, we show the results of the research project “Situation of the heritage library collections of three public libraries of Antioquia, Colombia". This research aimed to establish the role of public libraries in relation to local collections and bibliographic heritage. Aspects discussed include the design of criteria for the assessment and recovery of these collections and the suggestion of a diagnostic process to be followed. Our inventory produced two outcomes: 1) the creation of a digital reference repository that helps to systematize and disseminate the heritage collections existing in public libraries; and 2) evidence of how these collections lack needed policies for recovery, identification, processing, preservation and dissemination, which results in difficulties in terms of their valuation as heritage collections.

Abstract

The evolution of the use of electronic scientific journals in the 2007-2018 period by the academic communities of the public universities of Castilla and Leon, members the Bucle consortium, is studied. Downloads of articles distributed by four broad-spectrum providers are analyzed: Emerald, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, and Wiley. Unexpectedly, in spite of the new ways of accessing content, this analysis shows that the number of downloads in public universities in Castile and Leon has increased. However, it has been found that despite the growth, a few journals concentrate most of the downloads and that a large number of titles are not used. It has been verified that the universities with a higher number of staff and greater diversity of knowledge areas use a wider range of titles and thus obtain a higher benefit from their contracts. All of the above leads us to question the system of contracting big deals, i.e., bundles of hundreds of multidisciplinary journals and other resources. In a moment of change promoted by Plan S, we consider it more necessary than ever to understand the situation of the provision of serial scientific publications and to find the best strategy to have access to them.