Plans to Weed: An Investigation into the State of North American Reference Collections Supporting Art and Design

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to shed light on the state of the Reference Collection in post-secondary Art and Design libraries. Recent trends indicate that the availability of electronic research tools is a factor in institutions dismantling their print collections; however, others have argued for retaining them for their convenience, low cost, and even for their value as training tools. This research seeks to determine what types of reference collections art and design libraries are maintaining, how they are using and promoting them, and what considerations go into their removal.

KEYWORDS:

• Reference collections
• ready reference
• weeding
• collection development
• art and design libraries

Acknowledgments

This research was greatly helped by the following individuals: my OCAD University Library colleagues Kieren Bailey and Marsha Taichman who helped me think through the structure of the survey questions and adjust the project to an appropriate scope. I am also indebted to Nancy Snow, Chair, Graphic Design at OCAD University who advised me on research methodology. Finally, I want to recognize the efforts of University of Toronto Faculty of Information (iSchool) MI candidates Zixu Chang and Liwen Chen who provided research assistance in compiling the literature review.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).