Icebergs

Rick Anderson's article "Away from the icebergs" is written from his perspective as a director of resource acquisition at an academic library.

One of the three "icebergs" (traditional library aspects he thinks should be reconsidered) is the "just in case" collection (print collection), and he cites a 55-percent drop in circulation of the print collection at his library. I noticed a similar circulation trend when I returned to the University of Illinois for library school after a nine-year absence, but his statistic does not apply to public libraries.

Another iceberg mentioned is the "'come to us' model of library service.'" At Illinois last year, the students did most of their research in front of their laptops in dorms and apartments, and on-campus libraries that were teeming with students previously were nearly empty. It hurt the campus' atmosphere, and made for less walking and in-person interaction with other students and librarians.