SCS has assembled a vast amount of information about the use and costs of print collections. This background material has proved very useful in thinking through the benefits and risks of managing print journal and monograph collections more actively—and in balancing deselection with each library's responsibility to the "collective collection" and to future users.

We offer seminars and presentations on these themes, tailored to audiences of library staff, teaching faculty and/or campus administrators. Our content is continually evolving, as we incorporate new information and perspectives—and as we work with library after library to analyze print collections and to help generate reliable lists of withdrawal and retention candidates.

Rethinking library resources: sustainable print collections in a digital age (a half-day seminar)

Library shelves are increasingly full, and more books are being published than ever. Yet surprisingly few are being used. The Kent study, begun in 1969 at the University of Pittsburgh, found that 40% of monographs in academic collections never circulate. Recent data suggest that percentage is even higher today, as users flock to electronic content. Meanwhile, library administrators seek to expand space for group study, information commons, writing centers and cafes. Much of the available space is currently occupied by low-use print collections, stored and maintained at an estimated annual cost of $4.26 per volume. For all these reasons, print collections are facing scrutiny.

Many libraries have already begun to store or withdraw journal backfiles represented in JSTOR, to weed print reference collections, to share last-copy responsibilities, and to rethink tangible Government Documents. For print monographs, other factors must be considered, such as the extent of holdings in other libraries, regional commitment to shared print, and the availability of secure e full-text digital surrogates.

We have distilled this research from the library literature and our monitoring of current activity into a dynamic 2-3 hour presentation on "Rethinking Library Resources." This seminar is available for individual libraries and consortia, and can be adapted for audiences of librarians, administrators, and faculty.

Data-driven deselection for monographs: achieving a sustainable print collection (2-hour presentation)

This is designed as a more focused and practically-oriented introduction to monographs deselection. Presentation time is 60-75 minutes, typically followed by 30 minutes of questions and answers. The presentation includes a detailed look at several library case studies in which low-circulation titles are identified, compared to holdings in other libraries, to authoritative title lists and to print and digital archives. Particular attention is paid to available tools for selectors and administrators, such as the GIST Gifts & Deselection Manager (GDM) and our own decision-support system for deselection (GreenGlass).

This is very much a how-to session for libraries or consortia seeking to inform deselection decisions with data from outside sources as well as circulation and in-house use. We will present anonymized data sets and results from several libraries, and will highlight portions of the analytical process.

This session typically concludes with some thoughts about project management, scoping, getting started and getting finished.