AMPUTATION: BY CONSENT?: SCOTTISH UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FINANCES SINCE ATKINSON Available to Purchase

Recession, inflation, cuts — these and related keywords have dominated the international literature of librarianship in recent years. The academic library community has been implored to change its “mission”, redefining its basic priorities, and substituting service for stock, access strategies for holdings strategies, collection management for collection development, undergraduate needs for postgraduate needs (or vice‐versa), and management skills for professionalism. While the production of prescriptions, frequently radical ones, has become an industry, analysis and, above all, measurement of the underlying problem has been strictly limited. Descriptions of cuts have tended to paint a qualitative rather than a quantitative picture. Statistical analysis of aspects of recession has usually been restricted by time‐span, subject coverage, type of material, or a combination of these.