Reference and standing orders: Print vs online

[Deborah Harris]

Hello,

 

My library is planning to review our reference collection and standing orders. We want to consider what to retain in print and what to switch to online. Have any of you done such a review? I’d be interested in hearing how you conducted the review and the criteria you used for considering print v online. Thanks in advance for your time.

 

Debby Harris

Reference and Remote Services Librarian

Lansing Community College

harr...@lcc.edu

[Pat Woodworth]

I would be interested in such a document as well.

 

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[Deborah Harris]

Thanks, Pat. I haven’t heard from anyone so far, but if anyone contacts me directly, I’ll share.  --Debby

 

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[Pat Woodworth]

Thank-You!

[Tony]

I work at Portland Community College in Oregon. We have three main
campuses, each with a library.

We too are cutting back on print reference, and looking at electronic
alternatives to some of them.

The print reference 'weed-transfer' has been done by the campus
librarians, physically going through the reference collection. At my
campus, the two of us have been here for 5 and 7 years, so it was
pretty easy to say...this gets used, this doesn't. Even some once
standard items (such as the Dictionary of American Biography) really
don't get used anymore with the rise of online biography databases.
But, you can't weed the DAB- so we moved it, and similar items, to our
circulating collection.[We are fortunate to have the shelf space.]

The second part of this project is that we have one librarian
designated on each campus to informally track (by talking with other
librarians) which disciplines get 'reference type' use. For example,
our Psychology Print Encyclopedias get good use, but we don't really
have a Psychology Online encyclopedia. So we will probably subscribe
to one of those in the next fiscal year. We decided not to do a
straight replacement of print to electronic. Some things, such as
Hoover's Business Directory, which was used a lot back in the day, are
not used at all any more- the core information in this product is
available on the free internet. Others, such as Psychology, we will
get online.

So, our system is fairly informal, but it seems to be working.

Tony Greiner, Portland Community College

> harri...@lcc.edu

[Deborah Harris]

Tony, thank you so much for the helpful information! Best wishes-- Debby

[Steinhoff, Cindy]

We’ve done this in a number of ways, including the following:

 

We typically select at least one subject area in reference to weed every summer.  During this process we may come across books that are also available as ebooks and then we evaluate whether we want to purchase the electronic version.  Most frequently, we come across an older book for which a new edition is available and factor that into the decision.  Do we use the older edition often enough to justify a new one? 

 

Right now, we are looking at all of the standing orders we have with one vendor.  This is our general book vendor, so the titles on standing order are in just about every subject area and most end up in the reference section.  This vendor handles at least half of all of our standing orders.  We are reviewing the list for several purposes, as it has been several years since we last examined it.  Possible outcomes include that we no longer use the title enough to justify the cost, resulting in cancelling the standing order; we use it occasionally enough that we don’t need to buy every edition, so will change the standing order to every 2^nd or 3^rd edition; or that we want to consider the publication as an ebook, if it is available.  We’ve done a similar activity with our GPO standing orders and those with 3 legal publishers.  

 

Factors that we look at to determine whether to convert to an ebook or remain with the print include how we use the book (quick facts, browsing, using an entire article, etc.), whether we anticipate use by distance students, ease of use of the electronic version, and how often a book is used.  We also look at the “value” factor, which can be a bit nebulous.  For this, we compare the cost of print to the cost of electronic.  The electronic almost always has a higher price than print, so we ask if the extra cost it worth it.  For example, one of our major ebook vendors charges about 25-30% more for ebook versions of its titles.   We now purchase the ebook version almost exclusively for this vendor, because we feel that it is indeed a better value for us.  In one case, because of an interest in being able to easily browse the book, we purchased both electronic and print.  There was a good package price on this one when it was initially published, so it was even more of a value than we expected.   

 

Our distance learning program has been experiencing significant growth in the past few years and continues to do so.  We’ve been purchasing more and more electronic resources to support these students.

 

I am happy to answer any specific questions that you may have about our process, Debby.

 

Cynthia Steinhoff

Anne Arundel Community College

Arnold, MD

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