Last copy depository RE: [Publib] re: donating discard books

[Judith Turner]

Hi, Kevin --

Back in the 1970's our 4-county multi-type library council investigated the possibility of establishing a last copy depository.  The cost of obtaining and equipping a facility was prohibitive so the idea was dropped.  Building additions and renovations at several of the largest  libraries during the 1980's temporarily eliminated the most pressing need as did the wider availability of OCLC's ILL program.  The installation of compact storage systems made a huge difference at my library (special, open to the public by appointment).

Through the 1990's and 2000's, the redirection of acquisition budgets to newer (and more fragile or ephemeral) media like dvd's and games provided some relief from the physical space demands of books and bound periodicals.  The spiraling costs of journal subscriptions and highly specialized books came into play at this time, too.  Projections of
collection size growth turned out to be optimistic as subscription  cancellations and the elimination of many internally-subsidized publications exchange programs reduced growth rates dramatically. 

My sense is that more recent initiatives like electronic journal subscriptions, digitization and programs such as google books would make last copy depositories a very hard program to sell at the local level, at least as far as public libraries go.  This would be an interesting question to pose for academic library systems and consortia and special library networks (medical libraries come to mind.)  

Every now and then, I wonder if the last copy of a book will wind
up in a recycling center somewhere but a check of OCLC and abebooks
and other online o.p. dealers does offer reassurance at least as far as U.S. imprints are concerned.  

One of my striking memories of filling in for a vacationing staffer and handling ILL was printing out an OCLC ILL request for an article in a German botanical journal published in the mid 1940's.  We'd received this regularly as part of a publications exchange with the scientific society publisher, and, although they were delayed, we eventually received all the issues published during WW1.  We actually had a serials holding record for this item indicating the gap but checked the shelves just in case. Alas, we had to inform the British Library the issue they needed was never received.

Judy Turner
Whitefish Bay, WI

"Donna Noble has left the library. Donna Noble has been saved." ---- "Silence in the Library"  (Doctor Who, Season 4, Ep. 8)  



--- On Thu, 4/30/09, Kevin Cherry <kcherry at IMLS.GOV> wrote:

> Does anyone on the list participate in a last copy center
> program?  Just
> wondering how prevalent they are . . .