Digital and Physical: Coevolving Formats in Today's Research Libraries

Academic libraries have been at pivotal crossroads for some years as deans and their staffers realize the perplexing shortage of shelf space for print volumes while at the same time determining the optimum balance of physical resources on shelves in light of the exploding world of online digital information. The question of what is the best format for the library users’ research, teaching, and scholarship continues to be analyzed, assessed, and discussed. As a result, new and innovative library business models are evolving that consider dramatically "revisioning" floors of library space to accommodate the ever‐changing needs of library users while at the same time providing a limitless quantity of research resources. Various methodologies, as it relates to library collections, have emerged from pioneering thinkers affiliated with such organizations as OCLC, ITHAKA with its JSTOR & Portico initiatives, the HathiTrust Digital Library, and the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC). There are a host of challenges and possibilities as library systems collaborate and dialogue with each other and with these organizations’ representatives. When actions are implemented to effectively accommodate what the evolving society of information‐seeking users must have for their educational and research needs, then positive perceptions of a library’s critical role in higher education can and will surface. The University of Maryland Library System, one of the newest members of the CIC, has been able to take enormous strides in its evolving business model. Perfecting the coevolution of formats—print and digital—thus meeting the demands of an ever‐growing number of users, paired with the libraries’ renewed confidence in reducing the physical collections’ redundancy based on the notion of shared print repositories (SPR) have been tested and the new model is working. This discussion will center around the various stages, some of the challenges, and a few promising outcomes resulting from co‐evolving information formats at the University of Maryland Libraries—one of the CIC’s east coast "hubs of collective collections."