The purpose of this paper is to consider the term “legacy collections” and aspects of their present and future states. This is a personal viewpoint.
Examples of the use of the term are given in the paper and the implied meanings are discussed. Issues surrounding future retention and disposal of such collections are highlighted including the ambiguity resulting from heritage versus inheritance perspectives.
The paper calls for more in‐depth consideration of these issues and perceptions among library professionals both academic and practitioner.
The paper seeks to highlight issue for discussion rather than offer solutions.
It is timely to raise these questions as the shift from print dominant to digitally dominant libraries escalates.
The Boole Library at University College Cork has been used as a study model and many of the questions which have led to this paper have been composed in the context of the particular bibliographic heritage which it holds.
