This panel examines how library collections operate and exist to best serve users in an increasingly complex research landscape. Panelists from academic and museum libraries discuss strategies and assessments that support new directions in collection development practice and consider everything from reference to rare and print to digital. Topics discussed include how to determine if library collections are obtaining and holding the most relevant formats; how to best understand digital vs. print resources as they relate to research and pedagogy; and the tools that support researchers in their quest for valuable works, such as facsimiles. While many libraries use approval plans to conduct the majority of their collection development, Virginia Commonwealth University closed their academic approval plan in 2014. Emily Winthrop discusses collection development without large approval plans. Collections are moving toward a bibliographic landscape where print and digital share almost equal footing and students are trained in digital production in greater measure than physical media. In order to balance the acquisition of digital resources with that of print and other physical resources and to best utilize digital and print in various teaching, research, and creative situations, librarians need to evaluate and understand acquisition options. Using statistics and anecdotal feedback from faculty about the resources they request when both digital and print formats are available, along with current scholarship on cognition and retention of information gained from print vs. digital sources, Deborah Ultan and Alan Michelson shed light on future acquisition decision-making. Across libraries big and small, many libraries are deaccessioning or sending print reference materials offsite (and out of sight) with a shifted focus on digital resources. Gwen Mayhew, in the Thomas J. Watson Library in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Annalise Welte, formerly at The Met, now Reference Librarian at The Getty Research Institute, have been re-examining print art reference materials in their collection with the goal of helping staff, and by extension, researchers, better utilize print resources that digital resources don't cover. Medieval manuscript facsimiles are often difficult to find in library catalogs; cataloging involves bibliographic information that a printed book would have, but not necessarily information most sought after by those who wish to study medieval manuscripts—style of art, time period, place of origin, or genre are just a few nuggets of value to the scholar which are often not discoverable through a library catalog. Giovanni Scorcioni and Kiana Jones from the University of Pittsburgh will highlight an innovative new software system, Facsimile Finder for Libraries (FF4L), which uses both visual and textual descriptions to more easily enable researchers to discover these materials.

Related Event: ARLISNA 2019 Salt Lake City Conference