Access to print materials – role of print repositories. The development of the concept
| Date | 01 January 2005 |
| Published date | 01 January 2005 |
| Pages | 42-48 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120510572851 |
| Author | Pentti Vattulainen |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Access to print materials – role of
print repositories
The development of the concept
Pentti Vattulainen
National Repository Library of Finland, Kuopio, Finland
Abstract
Purpose – To highlight the role of print repositories in accessing print materials.
Design/methodology/approach – Highlights the repository library in the professional literature.
Provides an overview of the National Repository Library (NRL) in Finland and the Kuopio conferences.
Offers some calculations on the economics of access to print materials, with particular focus on Finland.
Findings – The role of the repository library creates savings in total storage costs on a national level.
The NRL is a vital link in the Finland library network and acts as a bright signpost of cooperation on a
national level. Libraries continue to function on local level in universities, polytechnics, research
institutions and in communities while the NRL creates savings in space costs. By transferring material
to the Repository Library libraries can free space for IT-services, new acquisitions and active
collections. As libraries get access to a growing number of de-duplicated materials each library has a
potential to become a zero growth library.
Originality/value – One of the important consequences of the success of the NRL is that the zero
growth library has to rely more on resource sharing and must develop its ILL systems for better
services for its patrons.
Keywords Libraries, Collections management,Finland
Paper type General review
... to spend enormous amounts of money assembling book collections and then to make
access to them only superficial, partial, incomplete, and haphazard is to throw money away
rather than to use it prudently (Thomas Mann).
Repository libraries in the professional literature – some highlights
IFLA’s Universal Availability of Publications programme (UAP) made a survey on
repository plans and models in 1982 (IFLA, 1982). The survey was a part of the provision
of basic data of the elements of UAP program. These elements cover the whole “story” of
publications in libraries, starting from acquisition policies through inter-lending models to
repositories. This survey states that “repositories are needed simply because libraries run
out of space and because, even when this condition does not apply, some have continuing
policy of withdrawal”. The survey also states that a national repository model “presents
relatively few problems since it is immediately obvious that it corresponds to the
geographical entity recognised as a sovereign state”. The survey further indicates that
“the function of a repository is to ensure that books and other materials acquired by
libraries in a country (or region) continue to be available for use even though local
libraries may no longer be able to retain them”. This study has proven to be seminal in the
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister www.emeraldinsight.com/0143-5124.htm
LM
26,1/2
42
Received 28 September 2004
Revised 5 October 2004
Accepted 9 October 2004
Library Management
Vol. 26 No. 1/2, 2005
pp. 42-48
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0143-5124
DOI 10.1108/01435120510572851
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