The Idea of Order: Transforming Research Collections for 21st Century Scholarship (review)

The Idea of Order: Transforming Research Collections for 21 ^stCentury Scholarshipis part of a series of publications by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), which includes Library as a Place: Rethinking Roles, Rethinking Space(2005) and a follow up volume No Brief Candle: Reconceiving Research Libraries for the 21 ^stCentury(2008). The Idea of Orderis the first in an upcoming series that will concentrate on the library services, functions, and responsibilities that have helped shape research libraries. The authors, who come from a variety of backgrounds, have extensive experience and have all made previous contributions to the scholarly literature. There are four with university library experience (including two university librarians), an assistant director of a public library, two current CLIR staff, and an author from Ithaka S+R, a strategic consulting firm that deals with library and online research issues.

The Idea of Ordercontains three essays on the movement of print materials to the electronic arena where the "prevalence of physical objects fades into an environment of digital assets." (p. 4) The first addresses the feasibility of establishing an all-digital library and includes a review of the current literature, case studies from academic institutions, and an extensive and very useful works cited list. The all-digital library is defined as providing "only online access to its collections of journals, reference works, and books." (p. 7) This is an idea that has been all too frequently discussed at library conferences and in the literature. However, this essay provides an effective overview of the issues, obstacles, and areas for future research. The shift to digital collections is influenced by numerous factors including collection strategies, staffing, economics, and access and discovery, and this essay does an outstanding job identifying them. A particular strong point (and unique perspective) is the use of interviews of staff from "start-up" libraries that created new libraries from scratch. The end of the essay contains case studies of universities including the University of California Merced and the California State University Channel Islands.

The second essay focuses on the costs of storing, preserving, and using print books. Using a study from the University of Michigan Library and prior research reports and articles, it will help libraries plan for preserving and storing their books as they move forward in the digital environment. Providing an analysis of storage costs for print books, it includes an overview of the elements of storage and a cost comparison of print books to e-books. The final essay is an overview and analysis of large-scale digitization projects in the humanities. In 2007, CLIR and Georgetown University received a grant from The Andrew C. Mellon Foundation to analyze "the benefits and limitations for scholarship of text corpora made available through large-scale digitization programs." (p. 106) After completion, CLIR held a meeting of scholars in 2009 to analyze the implications of the study's findings and recommend improvements for future digitization projects. This essay contains an overview of the study, summarizes the research findings, and provides recommendations for next steps.

Overall, The Idea of Order: Transforming Research Collections for 21 ^stCentury Scholarshipis exceptionally well written and covers three very important and current topics for libraries. The research and literature cited is extensive and is extremely useful for academic librarians. I highly recommend this work and plan to use it myself as a resource guide.