Collections 2021: the future of the library collection is not a collection Research libraries are now operating in an environment that provides less funding, more competition and greatly expanded options for brokering access to high-quality resources. All of these realities suggest a need to rethink, radically, not just the ways libraries build collections, but the very nature of the library collection itself. If online resources can be purchased at point of use, does it still make sense to

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... hase them before need is demonstrated? If books can now be printed on demand, does it still make sense to buy them on the basis of speculation about future need? What might the practices of collection building and access brokering look like ten years from now?