Impact of remote library storage on information consumers: “Sophie’s choice”?

Most large academic and research libraries have placed parts of their collections in off‐site storage. The author discusses the full range of decision‐making criteria used in selecting materials to be transferred into such facilities, their rationale and liabilities. The physical impact of remote library storage includes closed/limited access, collection disassembly, user inconvenience/lower productivity, and usage decline. Intellectual impact may encompass undermined scholarship, diminished graduate education, and inhibited library services. Although digital storage and electronic publishing hold some promise of relief for these problems, it’s still too early to tell just how much. Has the ubiquitous use of remote library storage taken collection development into the era of de‐construction?