Preparing for the Best: Adapting Collection Assessment for an Era of Transition

Abstract

We all know that libraries, and more specifically our collections, have adapted to significant challenges as our world changes. Now, more than three years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that spotlighted economic crises specific to higher education, we find ourselves navigating a new type of aftermath. During, and post, pandemic, libraries have endured budget cuts while meeting the call to support or even extend remote services and have had to think more creatively about how to maximize un-paywalled access to the most important resources. Solutions not limited to prioritizing access over ownership and open scholarship see an increase of reliance on interlibrary loan, pay-per-view and linking services, and the adoption of transformative agreements and other open access (OA) resources. However, there is little attention paid as to how these increasingly popular methods are going to both change and complicate the process of collection assessment, especially as it relates to assessing quantitative usage data. Comprehensive assessment is complicated enough, and it is more important than ever to start asking questions about how these shifts in the scholarly communication landscape will impact these processes and those that are tasked with them.