IAMSLIC,
I believe there has been some discussion about whether it is possible
to regain some valuable shelf space by removing back runs of journals
that are available full-text through JSTOR. Below is the experience
of one library.
Joe
____________________________________
"BAKERED!" UNM DISCARDS, THEN REACQUIRES MATH JOURNAL
COLLECTION
The University of New Mexico (UNM) will reacquire more than
800 previously discarded math journals after faculty
members at the University of New Mexico (UNM) protested
their removal. "The journals are coming back," confirmed
UNM library spokesperson Carolyn Gonzalez. Gonzalez says
the UNM library initially donated a set of Applied
Mathematics journals to an individual collector who
salvages journals, and those will be returned. The library
sent a second collection of journals to the University of
Louisville and the U.S. Book Exchange, a nonprofit
foundation which distributes materials to libraries. UNM
library officials say those journals will not come back,
but will be replaced by copies to be supplied by the
research library at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Those journals actually represent an upgrade for the
library, as they are in better shape than the copies
discarded by the UNM library. Struggling with a persistent
space issue, the library made the decision to discard the
journals, but reacquired them after the math faculty
protested.
"The information in the journals is available on JSTOR,
which we subscribe to, but math faculty didn't find the
material as easy to read as the print journals," says
Gonzalez. "Unfortunately this information didn't get to the
library. We try to be very responsive to our faculty." But
Gonzales concedes that while the journals may be coming
back, the problem of storing them remains. The university
had asked the New Mexico state legislature for $10 million
in 2001 to build a storage facility. They were
rejected. "We are acquiring 1.5 miles of materials
annually," Gonzalez notes, stressing the need for a storage
facility to avert problems like the one with UNM's math
faculty. "Our goal is to find the funding for the storage
facility somewhere. Had we gotten that, this incident never
would've happened. We just have to be persistent."
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