CLASS RELATIONSHIPS: Circulation Data, Collection Development Priorities, and Funding for the Future

Every year the gap widens between materials published in almost every subject and the number of books and journals that even the wealthiest research libraries are able to acquire. Yet, despite the low percentage of acquisitions, it seems unlikely that the rate is going to improve in the foreseeable future. Collection managers in today's research libraries face the increasingly impossible task of building a collection that represents humanity's accumulated knowledge while also meeting the demands of current users. Although tradition favors the first part of this twofold mission, economic reality dictates the second. Ross Atkinson has summed up the problem: