THE SELF-SUFFICIENT LIBRARY COLLECTION - A TEST OF ASSUMPTIONS

Modern academic libraries are experiencing a paradigm shift from attem pting to build self-sufficient collections to providing electronic acc ess to information stored elsewhere. This shift challenges long-held a ssumptions about collection self-sufficiency. This assumption was test ed by replicating the correlational analyses conducted by Paustian (19 81) on data for Australian libraries. Inter-library borrowing statisti cs were correlated with collection size. A stronger positive correlati on was observed in the later Australian data than Paustian had observe d in the earlier American data. It is concluded that the concept of co llection self-sufficiency is a fallacy, but that the information acces s paradigm is likely to co-exist with collection building for some tim e.