Something’s Got to Give: What Can We Stop Doing in a Time of Reduced Resources?

Abstract

Articles in our professional literature and conference presentations reporting on new initiatives are quite common. In presenting the brave and the new, however, librarians rarely discuss activities they have stopped doing. Since 2008, when libraries began to face budget cuts in the face of the recession, I have heard anecdotally about furloughs, hiring freezes, and layoffs, but not about attendant elimination of services or other existing functions. When reaching out to speakers for a seminar on “What to stop doing,” at the RBMS 2010 preconference in Philadelphia, I envisioned finding speakers who would report on the ways in which cessation . . .