In response to a community feedback survey on the strategic priorities conducted in May 2022, the Library received many expressions of concern regarding the focus on reducing the size of the physical collections at the Main Library. We fully appreciate these concerns, and have discussed them with relevant governing bodies, including the Senate Library Committee and the senior management of the University. While it was confirmed that collection rightsizing should remain a priority, it is also clear that the Library must do more to communicate why rightsizing is necessary. The criteria and processes the Library will use to minimize the impact on learning, teaching, and research should also be transparent.
Why does the size of the physical collection need to be reduced?
As shown in the chart opposite, loans of books from the Main Library collection have been declining for many years. At current levels of usage, roughly only one out of every twenty books is checked out each year.
Although usage should not be the sole criterion for retention, this does highlight an increasing opportunity cost to the University community. With declining usage, it is becoming more and more difficult to justify continuing to fill library spaces with low-use physical items instead of using our spaces for activities that make a greater contribution to the University’s teaching and research missions.
With the University’s strategic focus on transdisciplinary learning and research, we see an opportunity for the Main Library to become a nexus for collaborative study on campus. We could establish innovative spaces where students and faculty come together to create new knowledge using the Library’s information resources, in the form of both our extensive e-resource collections and the remaining high-impact materials in a rightsized print collection.
Why not move low-use collections into storage?
Many community members have suggested that lower-use items could be moved into storage. When needed, these would be requested by patrons and delivered to the Main Library.
This is a practical approach, and indeed the Library did operate a remote storage facility for several years. However, such facilities require significant resources to operate. In the Library’s experience, the usage of materials kept in remote storage was so low that it did not justify the running costs. As usage is expected to continue to further decline, a remote storage facility is not a sustainable solution.
Some disciplines rely on print materials – won’t they be disadvantaged?
Librarians understand that certain disciplines rely heavily on printed materials for teaching and research. We can assure the University community that the Library will implement a rational and thoughtful process when conducting collection rightsizing.
Usage statistics serve as a starting point, but we recognize that in some disciplines absence of usage does not necessarily indicate lack of value. Similarly, the age of a book needs to be viewed through a disciplinary lens. For example, a 40 year old history book may be worth keeping while a 10 year old computer science book may not. Details of the Library’s selection and retention criteria can be found here.
A final important point is that faculty will be kept informed during the process. Lists of titles tentatively identified for deselection by the Library will be made available, and faculty may highlight titles which should be kept in the collection.
What will happen to books that are deselected?
The Library will make every reasonable effort to find a new home for books that are removed from the collection. Some possibilities include:
- Donation to other libraries.
- Transfer to the Learning Resources Centre at the BNU-HKBU United International College.
Deselected items will be discarded only as a last resort.
How can I give further feedback?
Please contact the liaison librarian serving your Faculty/School, or submit your comments via our Ask a Librarian service.
Last updated: 10 October 2024