The flow of scientific books as a source for scientific library collection development: The problems of completeness and accessibility

Abstract

Purpose. The authors analyze the trends in the national flow of book publications in science for the period 2012–2021 and its impact upon scientific library collections.Sources and methods. The study is based on the statistical data of large information systems, i.e. the Russian Book Chamber and scientific electronic library eLibrary.ru), and State Public Scientific and Technological Library of the Russian Academy Siberian Branch (RAS SB SPSTL). The data of the Higher School of Economics characterize scientific focuses of Russian researchers.Findings and conclusions. The data on the flow of scientific book publications were analyzed to confirm that after 2014, the volume of science publications has been continuously decreasing. It is especially true for academic book publishing. The trend for a disproportion in the discipline structure of scientific book flow, and for scattering information on scientific book publications, is revealed. It is due to the lack of coordination between scientific content creators and institutions intended to acquire complete data on scientific document flow. Science information support and knowledge generation require special infrastructure necessarily embracing scientific and academic libraries.