In Spring 2022, the library ran a trial providing print textbooks on reserve. The experiment yielded some interesting information that suggested a different approach.
All posts by Douglas Black
We’re back! Middlebury rejoins Center for Research Libraries
New Library Purchase Request Form!
Library Resuming Deselection Project
You may recall that before the pandemic, the library had begun a project to review its circulating collections in order to remove outdated materials and those no longer needed for the curriculum and research.
The Library is Purchasing Print Books Again!
We’re happy to report that with restoration of its budget for print books, the library is once again able to purchase them. Not only was the library’s capital request for FY22 granted, but additional funds have been provided to help acquire some of the books we weren’t able to purchase last year. Since these are capital funds and print books are the only thing we can purchase with capital funds, we can’t use them for anything else. You have current needs, and we have holes in the collection from last year’s inability to purchase anything, so…please place your requests!
Can’t find something the library used to have? Please tell us!
If you’re discovering that the library no longer has access to something you used to use, it’s because the library’s collections funds were cut deeply this fiscal year, with the budget for print books eliminated entirely. Please tell us what you need that’s no longer available and how its lack has affected your work. The information will be very important as we work toward rebuilding the library’s resources to support the College’s instruction and research.
Has an ebook disappeared on you?
Looking for an ebook you used recently but that seems to have vanished? Let us know right away; we can probably get it back. Our major ebook program is undergoing some changes due to soaring costs and increasing publisher restrictions on usage. A large number of titles will disappear from our catalog this week. The process is designed to leave available anything that’s been used recently, but because of behind-the-scenes technical work, there’s a lag between the vendor’s most recent usage reports and the actual catalog-record deletion. As a result, you may have used a title in the last two weeks and now can’t find it again. Just ask us to recover it, and if our supplier still has it available, we will!
We also added a new collection recently, with more than 140,000 ebooks from EBSCO. Check it out!
What’s an Approval Profile, and Why Does the Library Want to Change Ours?
A brown-bag lunch will be held on May 3 at 12:30 pm, in the Crest Room of the McCullough Student Center, to explore the subject of the library’s approval profile. Douglas Black, the library’s Head of Collections Management, will be presenting, with some sweets and coffee to augment your own lunch. He’ll give some history of the approval program in library acquisitions over the years and lead discussion on its role in the academic library collection of the 21st century.
For context, the library selects, acquires, and provides access to materials in many different ways:
- upon request by students, faculty, and staff
- automatic purchase of e-books and streaming media based on usage
- subscriptions
- package deals on journal subscriptions and purchased journal archives (“backfiles”)
- one-time purchases of electronic databases, which often require annual maintenance fees
- gifts/donations
- and through automatic purchase via an “approval profile.”
Under the approval model, the library utilizes a library vendor (in our case, YBP Library Services) to purchase automatically books that meet certain criteria (e.g., subject, hardbound only, no workbooks, scholarly publishers only, within a certain price range, etc.). Middlebury typically purchases about 3,000 volumes/year this way, at an average annual cost of $97,000 in the last few years. We recently conducted a thorough analysis of the program’s effectiveness, finding that print books purchased through the approval profile are used much less than those specifically requested. The library believes some of that money could be spent more effectively and would like to gather input from members of the campus community on reshaping the profile.
Please feel welcome to contact your liaison or Douglas Black (dblack@middlebury.edu or x3635) with any questions (whether or not you can attend the meeting), or comment here in the blog.