Over the years, libraries have sought ways to share resources by avoiding duplicative purchasing, but most of these efforts have failed at the selection stage. Meanwhile, library building programs have slowed down because of competition for space on campuses and in city centers. Large research libraries have opted to identify lesser-used materials so that they can be stored away from prime-use collections in central library facilities.
A significant recent trend is cooperative storage, whereby a group of libraries finances the construction of a high-density facility with advanced climate-control systems. Materials stored in such a facility are considered important for research but are not used often enough to justify space in the prime-use area. Cooperative storage suggests some sharing of titles as there seems little point in storing multiple copies of commonly owned works. Dedicated remote-storage facilities have the potential for superior storage conditions because, in the absence of user interaction, the environment is much easier to control. If this trend continues, the next logical step is for libraries to develop cold-storage facilities and joint reformatting and conservation operations. Librarians, eager to cooperate in this fashion, have often been unable to because of political considerations.
Click on the link below to learn more about sharing resources.
