Honored with many accolades, including a starred review in Library
Journal, the first edition of this book demonstrated the power and
flexibility of "rightsizing," an approach that applies a scalable,
rule-based strategy to help academic libraries balance stewardship of
spaces and the collection. In the five years since Ward's first edition,
the shared print infrastructure has grown in leaps and bounds, as has
coordination among programs. With this revision, Miller addresses new
options as well as the increasing urgency to protect at-risk titles as
you reduce your physical collection. Readers will feel confident
rightsizing their institution's own collections with this book's expert
guidance on
- the concept of rightsizing, a strategic and largely automated approach
that uses continuous assessment to identify the no- and low-use
materials in the collection, and its five core elements;
- crafting a rightsizing plan, from developing withdrawal criteria and
creating discard lists to managing workflow and disposing of withdrawn
materials, using a project-management focus;
- moving toward a "facilitated collection" with a mix of local,
external, and collaborative services;
- six discussion areas for decisions on participating in a shared print
program;
- factors in choosing a collection decision support tool;
- relationships with stakeholders;
- how to handle print resources after your library licenses perpetual
access rights to the electronic equivalent; and
- future directions for rightsizing
