“Is digitization synonymous to preservation?” This question lingers on my mind on our visit to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) last 4 October 2011.
The collection of IRRI is highly specialized and it is what gives its library a strategic and advantageous position in the library marketplace. But as I have noticed, there are only a few users of the library. This cannot be attributed to failure in marketing and promotions since as explained by the librarians of IRRI, most of their users utilize the organization’s electronic journal collection. This prompted me to ask why are they allocating so much space and expending resources in housing the print format of their journals when most of their users no longer physically visit the library. Isn’t it about time that the library moves closer to clients? Advances in technology have changed or affected our attitude and lifestyle. Hence, IRRI library must reinvent itself in order to adapt to changes, if it does not want to stagnate. The librarians should start digitizing their print collection and make it accessible to users through remote access since their clients have shown inclinations to it in the first place.
In relation to my initial observation, the IRRI Library also has to set its role in preservation and conservation vis-à-vis as a support research unit of the International Rice Research Institute. If the library intends to preserve this collection for archives purposes then it is doing a good job (since in archives study, the object of preservation pertains to the original medium of the document); however if it intends to preserve these materials for circulation, then it must start identifying the ones worth preserving and the ones for weeding, provided that everything has been digitized.
In the long run, the organization cannot keep all its collection. There will come a time when the aforesaid issues have to be addressed; so while there is abundance in resources, the IRRI Library ought to begin, now.
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