“University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries Answer Needs by Switching to More Electronic Materials Than Print”

From The Daily Nebraskan (Student Newspaper):

Nancy Busch knows how some students and faculty feel about the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries’ plan to remove books from on-campus facilities.
“I know that this is an emotional thing for people who have an attachment to what they think a library is,” said Busch, the dean of libraries. “But this is the direction we are going.”
And it’s a direction that is sorely needed, she said, as evidenced by rapidly declining circulation numbers at the libraries. The total circulation number from the seven library branches this year is a third of what it was seven years ago – the number of checked out materials dropped from 418,779 in the 2005-2006 fiscal year to 141,603 this year.
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Though the numbers of print materials have decreased, students and faculty are increasingly turning to the libraries’ online resources. The e-journals have had nearly 2.5 million downloads and more than 24 million searches have been done in databases licensed to UNL libraries, said Joan Barnes, community engagement librarian.

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Filed under: Libraries, News