Libraries invest in digital sources

Propelled by Hurricane Katrina and a growing national trend to change the methods students use to conduct research, Tulane’s libraries have dramatically increased its digital collection in recent years.

Prior to 2005, the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library seldom purchased online databases. Tulane students and faculty have just begun using the databases — which may cost thousands of dollars in subscription fees — as a research tool.

“One of these [databases] would have been a major purchase for us just a few years ago,” Associate Dean Andy Corrigan said.

In the aftermath of Katrina, more than 700,000 of the library’s print volumes were submerged, along with 1.5 million individual pieces of microfilm. All recordings from the Maxwell Music Library were lost. After receiving relief funds, the library immediately reinvested in online facsimile collections, eJournals and eBook back files to replace and digitally preserve destroyed materials. Through the generosity of the collections’ publishers, Tulane purchased roughly $10 million worth of online resources for only slightly more than half of the actual cost.

“We were able to get some one-time money from Katrina that we used to buy facsimile collections of rare things in digital form and science files,” Corrigan said. “Generally, we’ve spent a lot of money out of our annual budget that we get from the university each year on digital resources and that, leveraged with some of the money that we got as a result of Katrina for the replacement purchases, has given Tulane some very large collections in digital form.”

Corrigan said he considers books no less important than the university’s database collection. A significant portion of the library’s funding, however, is now dedicated to online resources.

Howard-Tilton currently invests more than $8.1 million annually into library acquisitions. The library allocated $2.9 million for digital resources in 2010, which mostly includes subscriptions to online journals. A separate $2.1 million is allocated for serials, which includes both online journal subscriptions and print backups. In all, 41,670 unduplicated digital subscription titles are currently listed in the Tulane Libraries online catalog and eJournals list.

“The books or the resources themselves, the content, can be accessible to anyone anywhere on the campus network, and searching the databases for the information is much easier in digital form,” Corrigan said. “It’s a tremendous advantage now that you didn’t have back in the day of just browsing the tables of contents in books individually.”

Corrigan said that the challenge in maintaining these numerous journals online is preserving them over time in the way libraries have historically been able to do with print.

The new online materials allow Tulane students to utilize restricted online materials not available through a simple Google search, and they have more input than ever concerning what research materials the libraries will invest in next. The library aims to provide new materials that members of the university find relevant to their research.

“If someone says that they really want this journal, [the library] is going to look into buying it,” said Chelsea Cipriano, a member of the University Senate Library Committee. “It’s awesome how much the deans of all the libraries really respect the needs of the faculty and the students.”

Cassady Adams, USG senator and executive vice president-elect, believes that even as students utilize online journals, it is important to continue to recognize the importance of printed resources.

“I think that it’s important that we don’t pull focus from printed volumes toward online resources,” Adams said. “It’s a matter of keeping a helpful balance. Different students research in different ways. Both hard copies and [online] journals are valuable resources.”

Cipriano said she agrees.

“Because our university is so invested in our students, we definitely have online resources to sustain the needs of everyone,” she said. “We’re definitely maintaining a sufficient balance between books and online resources.”