2012 Charleston Conference

The 754 volume NUC presents several challenges for mid-sized academic libraries: The NUC is an iconic, pre-digital masterpiece; contains unique bibliographic information; occupies a very large footprint in the stacks; and is lightly or never used by librarians, faculty, and students. Mid-size academic libraries face collection challenges unique to a mission that falls somewhere between that of the large research institutions and smaller liberal arts institutions. Where do they draw the line on depth of the collection? Should older now somewhat esoteric paper reference sets like the NUC be withdrawn to make room for more pressing needs? How does one decide? What are other libraries doing? The presenters share findings of a survey of 60 mid-size academic libraries on their perception of the continued utility of the NUC pre-56 set and their ultimate decision on whether to keep or discard the venerable NUC. The presentation is followed by a discussion of the considerations surrounding retention of many large, older finding aids (e.g., national bibliographies, Cumulative Book Index, etc.) by mid-sized institutions not mandated to have a comprehensive collection.