Library prioritizes digital material purchases
Millions of books and research materials residing in the digital realm will have students turning to their laptops over bookshelves in the years to come.
"You think about the library as a building, but most of the collections are virtual," said Matt Ismail, director of collection development for University Libraries. "The books on the floor are becoming less and less relevant."
Central Michigan University's catalog contains 118,262 e-books and 602,295 print records. E-book usage has increased over the past three years, and Associate Dean of Libraries Kathy Irwin said she anticipates e-book usage will equal or surpass print book checkouts in the next few years.
In 2011-12, students used print materials 71 percent more than e-books. Just two years later there was only 30 percent more print use than e-book use.
In his three years at CMU, Ismail has seen the number of electronic journals increase from 5,000-8,000 to 30,000. Ismail said CMU has only been buying e-books since 2010, but digital purchases have become a priority for future collections.
"If there is no stated preference we purchase an e-book so people off campus and those not even in this state can use them," Ismail said. "With Global Campus we want to make library materials as accessible as possible."
Global Campus library websites received up to 8,000 visitors per day last year, according to the University Libraries 2013-14 annual report. All digital resources are accessible online, allowing the same materials to be available to students at one of CMU's 50 Global Campus locations as those in Mount Pleasant.
The Charles V. Park Historical Library is only open 100 hours a week. Maintaining unlimited access to online materials especially important in the spring semester, when winter weather deters students who live off campus from traveling to the physical library location.
"Around 90 percent of the hits to our electronic resources happen outside of our building," Irwin said. "Of that 90 percent, half of those hits come from locations off campus."
An acquisitions budget is listed in the CMU Operating Budget for purchasing print and electronic materials. This year the libraries spent about $4.1 on materials. The libraries also receive $793,984 in acquisitions funding that is transferred from Global Campus and CMED budgets.
Of the total library budget, 42 percent is spent on acquisitions. A $3.8 million subscription services account also purchases 2,910 periodical & electronic resources.
These online resources are available through a variety of means. Documents on demand allows for a single chapter to be digitized and the Clarke Historical Library is digitizing their inventory that has expired copyright. Not only do student have access to electronic journals and e-books, but also streaming audio and video through the Naxos Music Library.
"The whole idea format is changing too," Irwin said. "Everything looks the same online, its about the value of the information and not how its packaged."
