On Monday 20 June I gave a talk focusing on the relationship between Collections Management projects and the development of the University Estate.
I spoke about the Law Library refurbishment at the University as an example of a current collections project which results from an Estates development. In this project we’re moving the Law Library to a temporary location for 18 months while the permanent Law School undergoes a complete refurbishment and then in December 2017 / January 2018 we’ll move the Library back to its refurbished home. As part of this move the Collections Lifecycle Management team and Law Library colleagues are managing the move of the collections and undertaking collection assessment, relegation and weeding projects.
In addition to the continual transformation of the University Estate, the ongoing management of our collections is also undertaken within the wider context of developments such as our e-preference model for new acquisitions, the increase in online distance learning, the growth of our heritage collections and our commitment to collaborative collection management with other institutions.
On Wednesday 22 June I then gave a tour of the Library Annexe, the Library’s offsite storage facility.
In addition to showing how we house some of our different collections — monographs, journals, archives, art works … harpsichords! — I spoke about the retrieval and scanning services we offer to allow access to our collections in the store.
During the tour the group discussed some of the challenges we all face in managing print collections. Some common themes were the increasing need for collaborative solutions to issues of space and retention / disposal and the need for purpose-build storage facilities to provide appropriate conditions for our valuable or unique heritage collections.