From: Thomas Izbicki <izbicki_at_jhu.edu>
A few points:
1. Not everything worthwhile is digitized, & there is no reason to
presume it will be. [And en masse digitization can produce an
unmanageable glut of material.]
2. Every collection has materials of artifactual value that should be
preserved even if they do not fit criteria for Special Collections.
[Victorian pictorial covers are examples of this.] These should be
protected off-site, not shoved around in that Stacks.
3. There are scholars who study the physical artifact & need access to
it, e.g., for History of the Book courses.
4. Interlibrary Loan costs are not negligible even for low-use titles.
My rule is that if we borrow it three times or more we should have
bought it. [That's why I bought the Harry Potter books.]
Needless to say, the counter arguments are:
1. Lack of space;
2. Costs of an off-site facility.
3. Desirability of Access when a program in a particular subject area
does not exist on your campus. [We do not teach Medicine or Music on
the Homewood campus & depend on other libraries, especially our own
Hopkins partners, for Access.]
Tom Izbicki
Thomas Izbicki
Collection Development Coordinator
Eisenhower Library
Johns Hopkins
Baltimore, MD 21218
(410)516-7173
fax (410)516-8399
Received on Thu Feb 10 2005 - 03:13:05 EST