Suzanne M. Ward

Collection development based on patron requests: collaboration between interlibrary loan and acquisitions

Libraries are exploring new models of collaboration between interlibrary loan, collection development, and acquisitions. This paper presents two models in which libraries set aside acquisitions or other funds to purchase books requested by patrons through ILL processes. Workflows, scope criteria, and departmental relationships are described. The article reports on several aspects of the effectiveness of these models, such as turnaround time (comparable to traditional ILL loans), average cost per book (

Patron-Driven Acquisitions: An Introduction and Literature Review

37.00), and patron satisfaction (very high). The authors also address the subsequent circulation of titles and report on the bibliographers’ analysis of the relevance of the titles to the collection of one of the libraries.

Patron‐focused services in three US libraries: collaborative interlibrary loan, collection development and acquisitions

Libraries exist for their users, so librarians take user needs into consideration when building collections. In the past, this consideration took many forms. Past use suggested that more books of a similar nature would receive future use. The librarians’ knowledge about a particular user community’s interest in certain topics drove other choices; a public library collection in a rural area would include books on some topics unlikely to interest urban dwellers, for example. Academic libraries would emphasize subjects taught or researched at the institution. A small liberal arts college’s collection would focus on some different subject areas than a polytechnic institution. A museum library might buy few titles outside the field of the fine and decorative arts. Traditionally, librarians relied on book reviews, publisher reputation, and professional intuition to guide them in the selection of books for their patrons. While most librarians seriously considered users’ requests for specific titles if they met the library’s collection development policies, in general librarians selected the vast majority of titles. To borrow a term from industry, librarians historically built collections on the “just in case” inventory model. Starting in the late 1970s, the results of several studies showed that users in major academic library collections checked out an astonishingly low percentage of these largely librarian-selected books (Kent 1979). One frequently cited study revealed that 20% of the collection receives 80% of the use (Trueswell 1969). These studies suggested that the traditional model of librarian-selected titles does not serve users, at least not at academic institutions, as well as librarians expected. At the same time, skyrocketing interlibrary loan (ILL) figures from the Association of Research Libraries member libraries also indicated that local collections do not meet needs adequately (Libraries 2009, 9). Certainly some of the ILL traffic is for unusual, obscure,

Liberal Arts Books on Demand: A Decade of Patron-Driven Collection Development, Part 1

To improve service and increase user satisfaction, some libraries are exploring new models of collaboration among the Interlibrary Loan, Collection Development and Acquisitions departments. One public library and two university libraries present models in which funds were set aside to purchase materials requested by library users through interlibrary loan. The models differ in some details but in all cases interlibrary loan staff select the titles to be purchased and acquisitions staff rush order the requested titles. Titles are then either rush processed in technical services and circulated to the user, or are received un‐processed in interlibrary loan for immediate patron use and are cataloged later. All three models have been in operation for two years or more and have moved from the pilot project stage to permanent implementation. Data are presented on the effectiveness of these models, including turnaround time, average cost per title, user satisfaction, and subsequent circulation of titles.

Some Thoughts on Opportunities for Collection Development Librarians

The Purdue University Libraries was an early implementer of purchasing rather than borrowing books requested through interlibrary loan. This pioneering user-initiated acquisitions program, started in January 2000 and called Books on Demand, is managed by the interlibrary loan unit. Now that the program has reached its tenth year, the authors revisit their initial 2002 study to analyze books purchased in the six top subject areas across the whole decade. In their review of the liberal arts titles selected, subject librarians found that the books were appropriate additions and that these titles expanded the cross-disciplinary nature of the collection. The Books on Demand service offers a seamless method for all users, especially graduate students, to provide input into the collection building process.

The Dark Side of Collection Management: Deselecting Serials from a Research Library's Storage Facility Using WorldCat Collection Analysis

New and emerging roles are transforming the landscape of academic librarianship. This paper focuses on the changes facing academic librarians whose activities and responsibilities in collections are shifting, particularly in the face of greater emphasis on user-driven collection development. Librarians’ reduced role in routine collection development translates into gaining more time and support to move in other directions. Among many exciting and interesting opportunities, librarians apply their subject expertise in such strategic initiatives as information literacy, research, e-science, digital humanities projects, and collaborative print retention efforts. They can also participate more in campus affairs.

Library fee‐based information services: financial considerations

ABSTRACT To address the situation of its nearly full storage facility, the Purdue University Libraries developed guidelines for the deselection of very low–use serial titles and conducted a pilot project to identify material for withdrawal. The library school intern hired to conduct the pilot used WorldCat Collection Analysis to create subject lists of titles to be considered for withdrawal. These lists also contained value-added information about how many benchmark institutions owned and duplicated the local holdings of each title. Working with subject specialists, the intern developed criteria to guide a major serials deselection project. After the success of the internship in six subject areas, the libraries funded a longer-term position to complete the deselection project.

Emerging trends in fee-based information delivery

Fee‐based services in libraries offer research and document delivery services to non‐primary clientele on a cost‐recovery basis. Highlights services at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Rice University and Purdue University. Explores the major financial considerations involved in starting a new fee‐based service, including planning, staffing, pricing and marketing. Relates several special opportunities to which the libraries could not have responded without having had an existing fee‐based service with experienced staff in place. Also examines Internet opportunities.

The Other Side of the Coin: De-Selecting Material from a Research Library's Storage Facility

Abstract Fee-based information services in libraries will face many challenges in continuing to offer value-added, cost-effective services to customers during the opening decade of the new millennium. Some of the challenges are similar to those faced by other library units, but others are unique. Many of these are related to the proliferation of electronic resources and to the “do-it-yourself” approach customers have toward them. Other issues that must be addressed include shifts in client expectations; the demand for new types of information services and products; unresolved intellectual property issues; evolving means of providing access, delivery, and distribution; the need to form innovative partnerships; and the increasing globalization of the customer base.

Wrap-Up: Fourth International Conference on Fee-Based Information Services in Libraries

Most large research libraries maintain storage facilities containing low-use material. Many of these facilities are filling rapidly as libraries repurpose space on central campuses and rely more heavily on digital collections. Many of the same low-use titles are being stored in multiple storage facilities, but in the current environment of rapid delivery via resource sharing networks, it may no longer be as necessary to maintain all low-use print material locally since libraries can rely on partners to supply occasionally-needed material if it is not already available digitally. The paper summarizes successful projects at the Purdue University Libraries that withdrew low-use serial titles from a storage facility, and covers a current project that identifies monographs as candidates for de-selection. Using the WorldCat Collection Analysis, circulation statistics, and selector input, these projects sought to reduce the amount of material in storage. Building library collections to meet user needs has long been a cornerstone of effective library service; learning what to discard from physical collections may soon be equally important.