University of Adelaide Barr Smith Library to slash its collection by 70pc
MORE than half a million books, journals and other items will be removed from the University of Adelaide’s Barr Smith Library — reducing the collection by up to 70 per cent — as part of a major modernisation.
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MORE than half a million books, journals and other items will be removed from the University of Adelaide’s Barr Smith Library — reducing the collection by up to 70 per cent — as part of a major modernisation.
The historic library has 800,000 items in its main collection, the majority of which have not been loaned out in more than five years as borrowing rates decline about 10 per cent each year.
The university plans to hugely downsize the collection over the next two to three years to make way for more and better technologically equipped study spaces, with features such as loanable computer or tablet-vending machines, lockable desks, multimedia suites for video creation and editing, and “maker spaces” for activities like 3D printing.
More than 2200 library users took a survey that informed the review.
“In most cases (the downsizing) will mean moving inactive but valuable materials to off-site storage,” the university’s Library of the Future report says.
Its five libraries — the Barr Smith, Law and Music libraries at the North Tce campus and those at the Waite and Roseworthy campuses — and two storage facilities collectively hold more than 1.8 million items.
The libraries have been reducing the overall collection by about 10,000 items a year, a rate “far too slow to correct the growing mismatch” between space and usage, the review found.
The Music Library will likely be relocated into the Barr Smith, where a major refurbishment will begin in 2019.
The university says the transformation is not a cost-cutting measure but will involve a restructure of staff and the need for new skills to match an increasingly online and digitised study and research environment.
“Over time the libraries will need fewer staff involved in material handling, metadata and acquisitions roles and likely more staff working side-by-side with clients,” the review said.
Teresa Chitty, currently director of research and collections at the University of Melbourne, has been hired to drive the transformation and will take up the role in November.
Announcing the appointment on Friday, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Pascale Quester said libraries across the world were transforming “as a result of the digital disruption society is now experiencing”.
Items in storage are generally available for borrowing on request. Electronic materials such as online journals already account for 87.5 per cent of the libraries’ annual acquisition spending.