Nicholas Lewis

Whilst few institutions have moved to a completely electronic-only model, there is clearly considerable movement in this direction. Sometimes this is underpinned by a strategy or policy, but more often it seems to happening as a reaction to other pressures: ‘we are being forced along this route by shrinking bookfunds and lack of space,’ one librarian explained. There is perhaps a danger here of conflating two issues, problems of space and whether to move to electronic-only. It may be sensible to consider each of these issues separately. Otherwise, the short term benefits of saving space by moving to electronic-only may be outweighed by another set of problems in the longer term.

Most institutions seem to be adopting an incremental approach owing to constraints that vary in importance depending on local circumstances. Some of these constraints are external, such as the terms of the licence agreements, others are internal such as opposition from the users.