The Audacity of Hi-Fi: A Case for Lending LP Records

LPs are a format that were once headed for obscurity but have seen a remarkable resurgence in recent years. This study continues research published in 2018 on the circulation of LPs at the University of Colorado Boulder. This collection was moved off-site in 2015 and access to the collection was expanded to allow lending via interlibrary loan and via the local consortium, Prospector. Findings show a significant increase in use of the collection across multiple musical genres. In most cases, the University of Colorado Boulder was the sole owning library of the recordings that circulated. When additional copies existed, they often were not available to circulate. Additionally, newer formats of the recordings, where they existed, were often not available due to local use policies or restrictive streaming licenses. The author advocates for libraries to expand access to existing audio collections in order to help meet the needs of patrons.