Here’s an interesting and timely metaphor.

I have some old coins and bills from my grandparents. These include things that no longer exist.  I have old 25 cent paper money and Canadian halfpennies. I have British tuppence and a ha’penny.  I have old UK coins before decimalization.  I even have a full uncut sheet of dollar bills and few two dollar bills in a drawer.

Sometimes there are reasons to abondon tried and true ways of doing things.  Perhaps inflation has made something irrelevant.  Perhaps it has become more costly than its value.  Perhaps it’s no longer as useful a solution given changing times.

So, Canada ended production of the penny or one cent piece on Feb. 4, 2013.  RIP.  We’ve sort of done this before when the one and two dollar bills were made into coins. $5 coins are being discussed.  It’s been many decades since we discontinued an actual coin denomination.

So, what’s the metaphor?  What is your library still doing that it could or should stop? What reasons might cause you to choose to stop something?  Has the world changed?  Have users changed?  Has the cost of doing it in effort or dollars now exceeded its value?  Are you doing it too many ways and you just need to simplify?

Anyway, how does one sacrifice a library service, collection, format, or whatever that has nostaglia value, associated tradition, or whatever?  Is there a good process?

Royal Canadian Mint stops distributing the copper-coloured coin on Feb. 4

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2013/01/31/f-penny-obit.html?cmp=rss

A penny for your thoughts?

Stephen