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Collection ManagementStrategies in a DigitalEnvironmentCecily Johns aa Davidson Library , University of California, SantaBarbara , Santa Barbara, CA, 93106-9010, USAPublished online: 11 Oct 2008.

To cite this article: Cecily Johns (2004) Collection Management Strategies in a DigitalEnvironment, Collection Management, 28:1-2, 37-43, DOI: 10.1300/J105v28n01_04

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Collection Management Strategiesin a Digital Environment

Cecily Johns

SUMMARY. This article discusses the issue of costs related to managingprint and digital collections in an environment of increasing digital contentthat replicates the University’s collective print collections. The Universityof California, with funding from the Mellon Foundation, has been adminis-tering an experiment to determine user acceptance and costs incurred whenprint journals are placed in remote storage and users must rely on the digitalversions. As part of the grant project, the University has been gathering costinformation and planning future scenarios for preserving a limited number ofprint copies in storage and relying on electronic versions. The article describesthe project briefly and how it relates to the funding issues of supporting digi-tal and print collections. [Article copies available for a fee from The HaworthDocument Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <docdelivery@haworthpress.com> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2003 by The HaworthPress, Inc. All rights reserved.]

KEYWORDS. Digital collections, cooperative collection development–economic aspects, University of California (system), Collection Manage-ment Initiative (University of California)

Cecily Johns is Associate University Librarian, Davidson Library, University ofCalifornia, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010 (E-mail: johns@library.ucsb.edu).

[Haworth co-indexing entry note]: “Collection Management Strategies in a Digital Environment.” Johns,Cecily. Co-published simultaneously in Collection Management (The Haworth Information Press, an imprintof The Haworth Press, Inc.) Vol. 28, No. 1/2, 2003, pp. 37-43; and: The New Dynamics and Economics of Co-operative Collection Development (ed: Edward Shreeves) The Haworth Information Press, an imprint of TheHaworth Press, Inc., 2003, pp. 37-43. Single or multiple copies of this article are available for a fee from TheHaworth Document Delivery Service [1-800-HAWORTH, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (EST). E-mail address: docdelivery@haworthpress.com].

http://www.haworthpress.com/web/COL 2003 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

Digital Object Identifier: 10.1300/J105v28n01_04 37

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BACKGROUND

Collection Management Strategies in a Digital Environment, alsoknown as the Collection Management Initiative (CMI), is the formal ti-tle of a two-year grant project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foun-dation. The grant was awarded to the University of California onJanuary 1, 2001 and extends through December 31, 2002.

Mellon expressed an interest in funding experiments that would testacademic and research libraries’ ability to manage their collections thatincreasingly consist of a mix of print and digital materials. In early 2000,the University initiated a planning process to develop a research grant todevelop strategies for managing digital and print collections. The Univer-sity was awarded a planning grant by the Mellon Foundation to develop afuller proposal for a research project. In support of these efforts, a Univer-sity-wide committee made up of faculty and academic administratorswho advise the University on library planning issues approved a resolu-tion endorsing “the implementation, beginning no later than January2001, of experiments that would help the University increase its under-standing of strategies for creating a durable, reliable archive of its digitalcollections and of issues arising from the development and implementa-tion of these strategies.” See URL http://www.slp.ucop.edu/consultation/slasiac/ for the complete text of Resolution A. The final research grantfrom Mellon was awarded in late 2000 to begin in January 2001.

The University of California is particularly well suited to undertakesuch a complex and extensive research project. Several factors, includinga history of collaboration, an infrastructure and extensive digital collec-tions, supported the University’s application to the Mellon Foundation:

• A long history of collaboration, as evidenced by resource-sharingagreements among the nine campuses; a patron initiated online “Re-quest” service, which is increasingly replacing the more staff-inten-sive campus Interlibrary Loan operations for UC owned materials;and an overnight courier service to deliver books and journals amongthe campuses.

• An infrastructure to support access and resource sharing that com-bines a union catalog (the Melvyl catalog) of library holdings forall UC campuses with over 150 online reference databases and in-dexes with citations linked to full-text digital resources.

• Extensive shared digital and print collections. For example, all thejournal titles selected for the study are held in print form by more

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than one campus of the University and digital versions are avail-able on all the campuses.

• Two regional storage facilities that house “seldom used” librarymaterials from all campus libraries, one housed in northern Cali-fornia and one in the south.

In addition to an infrastructure that supports and encourages resourcesharing among the campuses, UC was seeking long term solutions tocollection management issues that would relieve pressure on physicalfacilities and capital budgets and would leverage the University’s in-vestment in extensive digital collections. Among the motivating factorsthat led to the University taking on such a complex project are:

• Overcrowded physical facilities: Many UC libraries are currentlyfull or nearly full. The University does not anticipate sufficient ad-ditional funding for new buildings over the next decade that wouldsatisfy library space needs on every campus. Financial support forcapital expenditures on UC campuses is dependent on bond issuesand a strong economy. Even if capital funding were abundant, li-braries must compete for funding with proposals for new class-room buildings and faculty office space.

• Need to address urgent seismic safety deficiencies and replace de-teriorating campus infrastructure: The University of California hasa compelling interest in managing existing library facilities to ac-commodate continually-growing collections, while relieving de-mands on its overtaxed capital program.

• Projected increase in enrollment: Over the next ten years UC is an-ticipating an enrollment increase of 60,000 new students that willmost certainly impact the priorities for capital expenditures.

OBJECTIVES FOR THE PROJECT

The overarching goal of the project is to explore issues associatedwith integrating and managing research library journal collections com-posed of print and digital formats. The study will evaluate the factorsthat affect reliance on digital resources to relieve pressure on physicalfacilities and capital budgets.

The specific objectives of the grant are to:

• Study the behavior and attitudes of users when selected print jour-nals for which electronic access is provided are relocated to a re-

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mote storage facility and primary use is of the electronic version,and ascertain the variety of factors affecting the acceptability of dig-ital publications as a substitute for the equivalent print publications

• Design and test processes for consultation and decision-makingfor selection, processing, relocation and administrative manage-ment of print materials relocated to remote storage

• Document the costs incurred and avoided for maintaining selectedjournal titles for which electronic access is provided when paper cop-ies of the journals are relocated to a storage facility and primary use isof the electronic version

• Document the change in usage of digital and print versions of se-lected journal titles when print is relocated to storage

• Assess the institutional implications for library organization and op-erations, including facilities planning, capital budgeting, systemsand resource management

• Evaluate institutional strategies and policies for archiving of re-search library materials in a mixed print/digital environment.

CRITERIA FOR THE SELECTION OF JOURNALS

The following criteria were developed by project staff during theplanning phase to inform the selection process and to aid librarians whowere consulting with faculty, students and colleagues on their campusesin the decision-making process.

• All journals selected must be available in digital form on all campuses• The print journal must be held in more than one library in the UC sys-

tem to enable us to gather usage data for print runs on library shelvesas well as usage data for print journals relocated to a storage facility

• Sufficient use data must be available from the electronic journalpublisher in order to obtain use by title and use by campus

• The choice of journals should allow us to study a variety of factorsinfluencing use, including disciplinary and content characteristics,such as graphics, language, and article length

• The sample of journal titles must include titles for which currentissues are available in digital form and titles for which the digitalversion is available only retrospectively in back runs (e.g., JSTORtitles), so that we can gather cost, usage and behavioral data forboth publishing models

• The sample of journal titles should include multiple publishers ofelectronic journals.

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PHASES OF THE GRANT

The grant covers a two year period (from January 1, 2001 to Decem-ber 31, 2002) and is being implemented in three phases:

• Phase 1: Consultation and decision-making including the identifi-cation of journal titles to be included in the study and the campusesthat will participate (January 1-September 30, 2001)

• Phase 2: Implementation of the actual experiment when print jour-nals are relocated to storage and the gathering of data of ongoing(October 1, 2001-September 30, 2002)

• Phase 3: Evaluation of Institutional Strategies, Policies, and Pro-grams for archiving and management of collections in the printand digital environment (July 1-December 30, 2002). Note thatPhase 2 and 3 overlap.

Phase 1 posed the most difficult challenges to the campuses and to thegrant staff. The selection of journal titles and the related bibliographicwork that was needed to match journals from two campuses was moredifficult than had been anticipated. Originally, Phase 1 was scheduled tolast six months but was extended to nine months. At this writing, the cam-puses are completing Phase 2, the yearlong period during which journalsare located in storage and staff are collecting usage and cost data.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EXPERIMENT

In order to create the necessary conditions for the experiment and toset the stage for data gathering, librarians on the campuses of the Uni-versity of California worked with project staff to identify 300 journal ti-tles. Libraries on all nine campuses participated in the study.

One copy of a print journal run, called “an experimental journal” forpurposes of the study was placed in storage. A second print copy, called“a control journal,” was identified and maintained on library shelves onanother campus. Use data for the experimental journals, the controljournals and the ejournals is being gathered during the yearlong study.

Once the journal titles were selected, print volumes and issues forwhich electronic content was available, were relocated to remote stor-age. These journals will remain in storage for a year while use data aregathered. Even though the experimental print journals are in storage,the library will bring a volume or issue back or supply a photocopy uponrequest.

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USE DATA

The definition of use of an experimental journal is defined as “each re-quest by a library patron at the owning campus library for a volume or un-bound issue or for a copy of an article contained in a study volume or issue.”

As an example, French Historical Studies, volume 22 (1999) to thepresent, held on the Irvine campus, was relocated to the University’sSouthern Regional Library Facility at the beginning of the study. A con-trol copy of the same journal, French Historical Studies, is housed oncampus in the library at UCLA. During the study use data will be gath-ered for that copy of the journal as well. The definition of use for controljournals is “each instance of re-shelving of a volume or an issue” duringthe study period.

Use data for print and digital copies of the 300 journals in the studyhas been collected for the first and second quarters of the experiment.Print use data only is available for the third quarter.

BEHAVIOR AND PREFERENCE DATA

A critical part of the research for the grant will be to gather informationabout user attitudes and preferences when primary access to journals isthe digital version. Grant staff has utilized various methodologies togather user preference data, including face-to-face interviews that will in-form the design of a broad survey to gather information about user prefer-ences and behavior.

COST DATA

Dr. Michael Cooper, School of Information Management and Sys-tems, UC Berkeley, was engaged as a consultant to the project (Cooper,1989 & 1991). He developed an extensive research framework for ac-quiring and analyzing relevant costs in the following categories:

• Access and circulation costs (applicable in varying ways to both printand digital use, including print use from storage for the “experimentaljournals,” and including costs both to the library and the user)

• Selection, transfer and processing of titles for storage• Ongoing storage costs for print journals (campus and storage)

During Phase 1, grant staff gathered cost data from each campus li-brary that participated in the study, including the costs of management

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activity, preparation for the relocation of journals, selection of titles, bib-liographic record changes, processing, publicity to library users about theproject, and staff training. Campus librarians completed a survey form in-dicating the number of hours devoted to each activity and the level ofstaff that performed those tasks. In addition, cost data were gathered fromthe regional library storage facilities in order to determine the cost of pro-cessing and storing print materials. Special studies may be required tocapture costs of activities not included in this survey.

These data are being translated into unit costs in order to more effec-tively project expenditures and savings in the future. For example, as a re-sult of the study, staff will be able to estimate costs for selecting titles andrelocating journal volumes to storage, including loading volumes into boxesor trucks, transporting volumes, updating records, recataloging and shelv-ing and handling at the storage facility. Ongoing costs of storing print jour-nals has been estimated in terms of acquisitions, processing, circulation,requests from the campus, retrieval and return to the campus as well as ad-ditional transportation costs.

In addition, cost avoidance and cost savings are being estimated in termsof recovered space in campus libraries were journals to be relocated tostorage or discarded, centralized processing in lieu of multi-campus process-ing operations, and savings of print subscriptions and binding costs. To esti-mate potential savings as a result of canceling print subscriptions, an analysiswas done to estimate savings were print journals to be cancelled. The analy-sis focused on the publishers and providers of the journals selected for theCollection Management Initiative project. In spite of restrictions in licenseagreements the analysis showed that substantial savings can be achieved.

During the final phase of the project various planning and managementgroups within the University will assess what we have learned during thestudy and develop University-wide strategies, policies and programs forarchiving and managing collections in both print and digital form. Costdata gathered as part of the CMI study will be invaluable for planning fu-ture strategies for managing print and digital collections effectively.

LIST OF SOURCES

UC Office of the President, Collection Management Initiative website, http://www.ucop.edu/cmi/welcome.html.

Cooper, Michael D. “The Sensitivity of Book Storage Strategy Decisions to Alterna-tive Cost Assumptions,” Library Quarterly. 61:4 (October 1991) 414-428.

Cooper, Michael D. “A Cost Comparison of Alternative Book Storage Strategies,” Li-brary Quarterly 59:3 (July 1989) 239-260.

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