Collecting Ourselves: An Analysis of holdings in North Carolina libraries of selected categories from the "North Carolina Bibliography"

Abstract

Despite the Electronic Age’s impact on libraries, blurring the lines between brick and mortar and the Web, the value of collecting locally and regionally focused works remains high. Of equal importance is a deeper understanding of the choices which local and regional institutions make when collecting information about their geographical areas. As the use of bibliographies is critical to identifying resources for acquisition, this initial study was accomplished by compiling holdings information in OCLC’s WorldCat for titles listed in three sections of the “North Carolina Bibliography” to gain insight into how North Carolina libraries are collecting both North Carolina authors and state focused materials. This comparison will ascertain how widely held the titles are by both academic and public libraries from across the state and worldwide.