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The purpose of this paper is to consider the term “legacy collections” and aspects of their present and future states. This is a personal viewpoint.

Examples of the use of the term are given in the paper and the implied meanings are discussed. Issues surrounding future retention and disposal of such collections are highlighted including the ambiguity resulting from heritage versus inheritance perspectives.

The paper calls for more in‐depth consideration of these issues and perceptions among library professionals both academic and practitioner.

The paper seeks to highlight issue for discussion rather than offer solutions.

It is timely to raise these questions as the shift from print dominant to digitally dominant libraries escalates.

The Boole Library at University College Cork has been used as a study model and many of the questions which have led to this paper have been composed in the context of the particular bibliographic heritage which it holds.

Upcycling is conceptualised as a digital historical research practice aimed at increasing the scientific value of historical data collections produced in print or in electronic form between the eighteenth and the late twentieth centuries. The concept of upcycling facilitates data rescue and reuse as well as the study of information creation processes deployed by previous generations of researchers.

Based on a selection of two historical reference works and two legacy collections, an upcycling workflow consisting of three parts (input, processing and documentation and output) is developed. The workflow facilitates the study of historical information creation processes based on paradata analysis and targets the cognitive processes that precede and accompany the creation of historical data collections.

The proposed upcycling workflow furthers the understanding of computational methods and their role in historical research. Through its focus on the information creation processes that precede and accompany historical research, the upcycling workflow contributes to historical data criticism and digital hermeneutics.

Many historical data collections produced between the eighteenth and the late twentieth century do not comply with the principles of FAIR data. The paper argues that ignoring the work of previous generations of researchers is not an option, because it would make current research practices more vulnerable and would result in losing access to the experiences and knowledge accumulated by previous generations of scientists. The proposed upcycling workflow takes historical data collections seriously and makes them available for future generations of researchers.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a snapshot of some major collections-related trends and issues in current academic libraries today. These include using collection development policies; demand-driven acquisition (DDA) models; big deals; using the collections budget; rationalizing legacy print collections; stewarding local digital collections; and demonstrating value.

A web survey was developed and sent to 20 academic librarians via e-mail during the summer of 2016, along with a statement on the purpose of the study.

The findings are as follows: the collections budget is used to fund many costs other than content (such as memberships and MARC records); most libraries are experimenting with DDA in one form or another; most libraries financially support open access investments; most libraries participate in at least one collaborative print rationalization project; and libraries have diverse methods of demonstrating value to their institutions.

This was a very selective survey of North American academic libraries. Therefore, these findings are not necessarily valid on a broader scale.

Within the limitations above, the results provide librarians and others with an overview of current practices and trends related to key issues affecting collection development and management in North America.

These results are quite current and will enable academic librarians engaged in collection development and management to compare their current policies and practices with what is presented here. The results provide a current snapshot of the ways in which selected libraries are coping with transformative challenges and a rapidly changing environment.

Effectively accessing government documents is often a challenge for frontline reference staff working in a merged public service environment. The purpose of this paper is to build a case for establishing sustainable information literacy that incorporates government publications information into research and reference services.

The paper describes the reasons for, and challenges of, incorporating government documents training for reference staff, and suggests suitable strategies and techniques.

Keeping up with knowledge in related fields other than a chosen specialty is a challenge facing librarians today, but knowing how to find print and online government resources is critical for reference desk staff to help meet the information needs of the public. A variety of techniques and strategies may be employed to help mine these important resources. Web 2.0 tools and internet‐based tutorials on government publications may be used to facilitate training.

Staff are encouraged to develop collaborative training relationships to motivate, teach, facilitate, and equip others for self‐sufficiency and competency.

The paper shows how reference staff knowledge of government publications can be enhanced through training with both traditional and new technologies. Training can be accomplished through self‐motivation and partnering and need not be always formal.

This paper aims to explore two separate legacy oral history digitization projects at one institution and how the project teams approached the different issues and challenges these projects presented.

The approach compares two case studies of how digitization of legacy oral history collections was carried out. The paper discusses these projects utilizing a lifecycle model approach and reveals how archival and digital humanities perspectives drove some of the projects’ differences.

The authors find that when working with digitizing legacy oral history collections, each collection will require different approaches and methods of problem solving. In large institutions with multiple repositories, it can be useful for project teams to consult each other to develop best practices.

The two case studies presented in this paper can serve as models for other institutions digitizing many oral history collections and serve as a model for communication and collaboration in larger institutions with multiple repositories.

This paper compares and contrasts two case studies of digitization projects involving legacy oral history collections in different units of one large institution. Project teams were influenced by different approaches. One project was conducted by archivists and the other led by a digital humanities librarian. Differing professional foci provided different perspectives about collection characteristics and, subsequently, led to different approaches that impacted implementation of the projects.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the Texas A&M University (TAMU) Libraries’ policies that effectively reduced the size of onsite print collections, with minimal impact on the library user community. The paper also aims to examine some of the challenges encountered during the underlying collection assessment process.

Investment in electronic resources, digital preservation initiatives and local print repositories are reasonable solutions for academic libraries that need to responsibly relocate legacy print collections from their open stacks.

Balancing trust issues with local needs and embracing the opportunities offered by digital archives and local print repositories are key elements for successfully implementing collection management decisions.

This article examines local best practices for downsizing local print collections and recommends strategies applicable to any large academic library for addressing collection assessment challenges.

This paper is a thought experiment that investigates the possibilities of moving from the typical “just-in-case” model of managing legacy collections of printed monographs to a centralised “just-in-time” model.

Reliable published statistical data have been used; the core of these are the annual library statistics for UK research libraries collected by SCONUL. From these and other sources, the costs of monograph storage across UK research libraries have been determined.

Establishing a centralised collective collection would bring a large return on investment.

This is not an empirical study.

The value of this study is high.

This paper seeks to record a collaborative project in the management of legacy collections.

The eight New Zealand university libraries have a history of collaboration and sought a shared storage solution. It was agreed that a single copy of low‐use print serials would, in most cases, be sufficient for the country's research communities. The libraries have chosen to outsource storage to a commercial provider with facilities throughout the country.

The paper describes the background to the New Zealand situation, the process of reaching this decision and the challenges of implementation across a group of libraries, including the rationalisation of the eight collections to retain a single shared copy.

The case is relevant to library consortia undertaking collection management projects.

A description of the Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan, that began in 1911, with a sizable donation from Joseph A. Labadie, an anarchist and printer, and has continued to develop as a special collection of materials on “social protest”.