Easier access to content
The libraries place the user at the heart of their collections. Under this approach, they work hard to optimise their offer, promote their content and make it easier to access. Their many different partnerships have enabled them to extend their documentary network beyond the university libraries, as this network now includes public librairies and museums.
Dedicated professionals
With their subject area specialisations, acquisition staff, regardless of the medium, are in a position to promote the collections they generate while at the same time developing a close relationship with renowned researchers and lecturers in their field. This involves:
- formalising collection management policy with close collaboration between associate libraries and the university libraries/Learning Center ;
- determining procurement needs with teaching staff and researchers ;
- promoting collections that extend beyond thematic boundaries and can be showcased externally at conferences, exhibitions and on social media ;
- contributing to user training with resources specific to their discipline.
Optimal oversight of digital technologies
Any collection management policy must be built on knowledge of the collections and the needs of users but also on statistics. To compensate for the heterogeneity or absence of statistics provided by publishers, the libraries rely on a proxy server to develop local data for a refined approach to the way e-resources are used.
This collection management policy should also include the development of open archives, essential infrastructure if we are to work towards open science as well as Open Access publishing.
The libraries must do this against the backdrop of emerging article processing charges (APCs) which now replace (in the case of open access journals) or are in addition to subscription fees (so-called “hybrid” journals). Ensuring a balance in this expenditure is the subject of careful consideration at the libraries.
A dynamic network with multiple partnerships
The libraries contribute to several conservation plans in the national interest (performing arts, germanic studies, mediaeval history, antiquity, physics, chemistry) under the auspices of national operators.
At a local level, the libraries also participate, in partnership with AR2L, in a shared conservation scheme of periodicals in the region, with the aim of offering Hauts-de-France library users streamlined collections. Indeed, the regional centre for serial publications in the university documentation system (CR SUDOC-PS) is piloted by the Humanities & Social Sciences BU, which, under the authority of the ABES, oversees the recording and identification of all collections of periodicals stored across the region’s documentary structures, regardless of their size or the scope of their usage.