Visual Arts Library Plans for the Print Materials Collection

This study looks at how major art, architecture and other visual arts libraries are making plans for their print materials collections, including books, journals, directories, textbooks, artists’ ephemera and artists books, photographs, prints, images, exhibition catalogs, auction catalogs and other print materials. The study relates library plans for print vs digital giving detailed data for different subjects and information vehicles. Data is broken out separately for museum, college and university libraries. Some survey participants include: the Morgan Library & Museum, Avery Library of Columbia University, Clemson University, the National Gallery of Scotland, the Glasgow School of Art, the University of Auckland, the Birmingham Art Museum, the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the Savannah School of Art & Design, among others. Just a few of the study’s many finding are that: • More than 27% of libraries sampled said that their library patrons are highly uncomfortable with eBooks and have many problems using them. • A majority of about 55% of felt print formats should maintain its share of spending on architectural images; 4.55 percent said they believed print should increase its share of spending while 13.64 percent said they will spend about the same on print but increase their spending on digital representations of architectural images. • In 2015 (the 2015-2016 academic year) spending on print materials by the libraries sampled rose by 1.6%. • Fourteen of the survey participants said their print collections have grown over the past 5 years. • None of the museum libraries surveyed have any plans to decrease their spending on their print collections in photographs. Fifty percent of these libraries said print should maintain its share of spending. In contrast, 11.11 percent of college libraries said they will decrease their spending on print and another 11.11 percent said they will significantly decrease their spending on their print photograph collections. Twenty percent of research university libraries also said they will be significantly decreasing their spending on print photograph collections.

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