The Influence of the Online Availability of USGS Topographic Maps on Weeding Decisions in Academic Libraries

This study looked at the degree to which the online availability of U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps affects academic libraries’ decisions to withdraw the print versions of those maps. Other factors in making the decisions, such as usage, user preferences, support of academic programs, user discovery, shelving location, and printing options, were also investigated. Results show that while in 40% of the cases the online USGS historical topographic maps influenced the decision to weed, the need for space was the overwhelming driver of print USGS topographic map collection weeding within the past ten years.