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As part of a larger collections analysis study, this project outlines why a particular, underserved museum unit at the Smithsonian Institution is underutilizing the Smithsonian Libraries' facilities and resources, and how the library can better support this unit's unique research needs. Using a holistic methodology that weds quantitative and qualitative approaches, this study highlights the unit's distinct research profile that includes the various logistical, emotional, and collectionrelated barriers that impede their usage of the Libraries. Findings from this study signal the utility of a holistic, user-centric methodology to gather pertinent data and facilitate ongoing, interpersonal dialogues between the Smithsonian Libraries and its diverse internal users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the challenges and opportunities presented by mobile applications in the context of an academic library collection. This emerging format raises important questions about selection, acquisition, access, instruction, outreach, and evaluation as these practices have been applied to traditional resources. A more nuanced understanding of the content and format of mobile applications informs a collection development strategy for discovering, acquiring, and maintaining these resources. The development of an outreach program that includes liaison activity, instruction, and research consultations is also explored as a way to drive users to these new resources. Using Stony Brook University Libraries as a case study, this paper discusses the potential of mobile applications as academic library resources plus practical ways to promote usage and enhance academic engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic libraries face many challenges in collecting and maintaining streaming videos, particularly as demand for this unique format continues to increase. At the Oviatt Library at California State University, Northridge, it was determined that streaming video activity needed to be examined and that there was a strong need to develop a workflow for incoming video requests. A Video Streaming Decision Tree Committee composed of librarians and staff from various units within the library including collection development, acquisitions, cataloging, and music and media. Its charge was to create a decision tree workflow for incoming streaming video requests. The committee designed and implemented a detailed decision tree that accounts for many of the complexities of streaming video. This paper discusses various factors involved with collection development for streaming video and provides a detailed description of the committee's workflow for the format. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyzes the circulation of materials at the University of León Library to determine the evolution of the circulation data, identify the main users of the collection, to determine the periods of greater and lesser usage of the collection, and to identify the document types that are most often borrowed. To do so, circulation statistics from the library’s Innopac Millennium ILS from the 2011–12 to the 2013–14 academic year were studied. The results show that the use of print collections is decreasing due to the abundance of electronic content to which the university library subscribes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To better determine how e-book acquisitions might affect future collection development decisions, a team of librarians from the University of Florida (UF) launched a project to assess cost and usage of e-books purchased using three different acquisitions methods: e-books acquired in large publisher packages; single-title e-books selected through firm orders; and e-books purchased through two patron-driven acquisitions (PDA) plans. The cost-usage data were then sorted into three broad areas of subject disciplines--humanities and social sciences (HSS); science-technology-engineering-mathematics (STEM); and medicine (MED)--and the results were reviewed and summarized. The authors compared the cost-usage data of e-books acquired by the acquisitions methods across the three subject areas and describe how the findings are affecting current and future acquisitions, traditional collection management, and budgeting at UF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Publishers attract readers to books and inform them about the books' contents by adding information to the books' covers. In many academic libraries, the dust jackets of cloth-bound books are discarded. This study was a physical inventory of 1,319 recently published books in an academic library, and comparison of circulation statistics between different cover types. By every measure, books with publisher-supplied information on the cover circulated at a higher rate than books with plain covers. The implications of our findings for collection management are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The OhioLINK consortium and OCLC Research collected and analyzed circulation data for libraries within the consortium. The study, which examines the circulation of 28,475,701 items from more than 100 academic libraries, is the largest and most diverse compilation of academic usage data for books ever collected. The authors outline the study methodology, analyze the data, and offer insights into the consortium wide collection usage. Circulation patterns analyzed include subject and language usage, as well as scattering, obsolescence, and duplication. The study results and conclusions offer valuable insights for library collection planning including library purchasing, storage considerations, and future usage prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, a great deal of literature on patron-driven acquisition (PDA) has been published that addresses the implementation and results of PDA programs at academic libraries. However, despite widespread worries that PDA will lead to unbalanced collections, little attention has been paid to whether patrons' and librarians' purchasing differ significantly. This study analyzes librarians' and PDA patrons' acquisitions at an academic library by relative collecting level and by subject (that is, Library of Congress class and subclass) to determine whether concern over patrons' collecting are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial discusses trends and recommendations for future innovations in academic library support for international studies. Introductory details are given describing the state of library services for international and area studies as of 2012, highlighting methodology questions in library-led collections research. Concluding suggestions are offered for progress, including increased attention to library consortia and inter-library loan services, digital resources, and global datasets.

Scholarly publishing is the information marketplace in which academic libraries function, and major shifts in traditional publishing and pricing models are in process. Library consortia have long been viewed as a means of increasing purchasing power and reducing costs. In late 2010, the Five College Libraries (FCL) hired R2 Consulting, LLC to investigate and make recommendations regarding how the Libraries cooperate more closely on the acquisition, management, and delivery of electronic resources. This study examines and evaluates how other academic library consortia are licensing and acquiring electronic books, databases, journals and streaming media. The organizations, activities, processes, history and trends of e-resource acquisitions and collection development at the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (CARL), Orbis Cascade Alliance (OCA), Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN) and Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC) are presented with data collected by the author. Additional context is provided through a literature review, and a discussion of current practices provides a sampling of the new directions academic library consortia are taking and the challenges they face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systematic evaluation of a library's collection can be a useful tool for collection development. After reviewing three evaluation methods and their usefulness for our small academic library, I undertook a usage-based evaluation, focusing on narrow segments of our collection that served specific undergraduate courses. For each section, I collected data on the number of books owned, number of checkouts in the past four years, and number of unique books used. Using examples from the data, I discuss possible ways to interpret and act on the data. I also note how the knowledge gained from this evaluation fits into the larger toolkit of librarian competencies for collection development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current status of multicultural and diversity efforts suggests the need for incorporating into the discussion of librarianship an understanding of previously underrepresented populations such as the American Indian. American Indian Studies speaks from the American Indian perspective and addresses the contemporary condition of American Indians. This article discusses the nature of American Indian Studies and provides suggestions for what librarians can do to support American Indian Studies programs and American Indian students. This example illustrates the importance of acknowledging the validity of diverse worldviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a quantitative and systematic investigation exploring online e-book usage at the J.N. Desmarais Library of Laurentian University over a 9-year period. The size of an e-book collection was determined to show evidence of an extremely strong relationship with the level of usage e-books experienced. Of all factors examined during the course of this study, it was the size of the collection that exhibited the strongest association to usage levels and would suggest just how important the size and content of a collection can be to patron acceptance and utilization. Of all student academic levels, doctoral students exhibited the strongest relationship with e-book usage, while undergraduate students showed signs of the weakest. Faculty demonstrated the overall weakest relationship with e-book usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In September 2009, the University of Iowa Libraries embarked on an experiment with patron-driven acquisition (PDA) of e-books with ebrary and YBR. An e-book-only PDA plan was initiated, entirely unmediated and with instantaneous access to the content. MARC records were loaded for each title, determined by our YBP approval profile and other limitations, for a total of 12,000 PDA records. Usage, cost, subject, and publisher data were analyzed for 850 purchased PDA e-books and thousands of other ebrary subscription titles. Results indicate that PDA can be a useful and effective tool for meeting user needs and building the local collection, but the role of PDA in the library's collection management program presents challenges as well as opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focused on determining the extent to which collections of the Hesburgh Libraries of Notre Dame met the needs of graduate students. This study data (2005-2007) consisted of a citation analysis of 248 dissertations and focused on the following questions: What were the graduate students citing in their dissertations? Did the library own the cited items? How did the disciplines compare in their citation patterns? The data showed that over 90 percent of the 39,106 citations were to books and journals. The libraries owned 67 percent of the items graduate students cited in their dissertations. The libraries owned 83 percent of the Arts & Humanities, 90 percent of the Engineering, 92 percent of the Science, and 75 percent of the Social Sciences sources in the top 1,000 most cited titles, indicating a need for funding for further development of Social Sciences collections in the Hesburgh Libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to describe the scope and depth of the historic corporate annual report collections in twelve academic/research libraries in North America. For many decades, a few major academic business libraries have been collecting and preserving corporate Annual Reports (ARS), the reports sent to shareholders documenting the financial status and future plans of the company. Today these historic collections provide more than a record of the companies' finances; they provide a glimpse into the social and cultural thoughts from the past and the corporate stories of individual companies. Digitization of these reports has only just begun; so, except for fewer than 900 companies (most of which have been on the Fortune 500 list), the companies included in these historic annual report collections are not available electronically. The combined collection of the twelve libraries includes reports from nearly 38,000 different companies. Stanford, Harvard, and Western Ontario have the largest collections. Harvard and Columbia have collections with significant historic depth, while Purdue has a collection with important late-twentieth-century holdings. The overlap of the collections is much smaller than was anticipated. The two largest collections, Stanford with over 18,000 companies and Harvard with over 11,000 companies, have only 3,668 companies in common. The overlap of companies between the largest five collections is only thirty-three companies. This research identifies these collections as unique and therefore valuable to the study of specific company histories and the industrial development in North America. Librarians need to preserve these collections and work toward digitizing them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers some of the major issues concerning collection management in academic libraries in a rapidly changing environment. Specifically, this paper reflects on core values, scholarly communication issues, acquisition activities, access and delivery issues, and innovation. The paper concludes with ideas for incorporating shifts in these areas into a sustainable, forward-looking approach to collection management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study investigated the feasibility of using reference questions as an important tool in the construction of study guides, instructional outreach, and collection development at a small, four-year university in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The premise for the study was based on the assumption that the content of the reference question and class from which the question came provide more valuable information than the metadata normally captured within reference classification systems (e.g., directional, research). Reference question subjects received at the reference desk were recorded over six months by the reference staff. The authors then analyzed and classified the data to discover patterns in collection use. The resulting report was then disseminated to the reference, collection development, and instructional outreach departments. The findings reveal that this method of reference data classification and timely reporting provides an excellent reference for planning in these library departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the extent to which ARL academic libraries collect graphic novels. Using a core list of 176 titles developed from winners of major comics industry awards and a library-focused "best of" list, the holdings of 111 ARL academic libraries were searched using the libraries' online catalogs. Results suggest that most of the libraries studied do not aggressively collect graphic novels. Also examined were associations between date of publication, prior serialization, overall collection size, monograph budget, and ARL ranking and graphic novel holdings. To better serve scholarly research in this area of increasing interest, libraries will need to reexamine their collecting policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphic novel collection and use has become a popular topic in the library community; most of the literature has focused on collecting in school and public libraries. The number of academic libraries that carry graphic novels has increased, but those collections and the few articles addressing graphic novels in academic librarianship have focused on serving the recreational reader or the pop culture historian. Meanwhile, the education community has begun to embrace graphic novels as a way to reach reluctant readers; engage visual learners; and improve comprehension and interpretation of themes, literary devices, and social issues, among other topics. As graphic novels are increasingly used in the classroom, students majoring in elementary and secondary education should have access to these materials as they prepare for their future careers. Making graphic novels a specific part of the curriculum and instruction collection supports the academic library's mission to meet the research and training needs of the faculty, staff, and students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Availability tests as traditional collection evaluation and library performance measures and their application to electronic resources are explained in this article. A 500-item sample of serial citations was drawn from scholarly journals in 50 disciplines, evenly divided among the sciences, social sciences, humanities, professional fields, and interdisciplinary areas to simulate the needs of Indiana University-Bloomington researchers. It was found that 65.4 percent of the items were electronically available through the library Web page. The electronic availability rate was highest for professional fields, items in the English language, and items published since 2000. The majority of instances of nonavailability occurred because the journal title was not accessible through the Web page. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic libraries supporting education and library science programs collect juvenile literature to support courses that teach students to evaluate and use books with children and teenagers. Graphic novels have not only become popular with teens but also are being frequently discussed in both the education and library literature. This paper discusses the literature on graphic novels for teens, explores the extent to which academic libraries supporting education and library science programs collect graphic novels for teens, and concludes that academic librarians responsible for juvenile collections should evaluate their graphic novel holdings and begin actively collecting graphic novels for teens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major review of the reference collection in Bowling Green State University's Jerome Library was made necessary by the decision to incorporate the materials from the reference collection in the science library. The process of planning and implementing this collection review is described, emphasizing how this process has been affected by changes in technology and the demands made by library users. Suggestions that may help ensure a successful review are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving on ideas developed in Brief Tests of Collection Strength, this paper presents coverage power tests, an empirical method for evaluating collections in all types of libraries by means of ranked holdings counts from OCLC's WorldCat. The new method measures library coverage of subject literatures across levels of the WLN or RLG collection intensity scales that are increasingly difficult to attain. It defines literatures and collections unambiguously, permits objective comparisons of libraries, and is potentially automatable. Results of 38 tests in nine subjects at 30 libraries have high face validity in rating collections. Graphical analysis with the new method also clarifies the bibliometric relation between individual collections and subject literatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic libraries that use allocation formulas to divide monographic funds among academic departments frequently include the average cost of books per discipline as a variable. Published price indices provide average costs for some subjects, but for libraries serving interdisciplinary departments, purchasing nonbook materials with monographic funds, or purchasing foreign language materials, the published price indices may prove insufficient. This study investigates methods of determining average prices to be used in allocation formulas. As part of evaluating the allocation formula at Mississippi State University, the authors reviewed literature pertinent to library use of allocation formulas, surveyed Carnegie Doctoral/ Research Extensive land grant university libraries on their use of average price as a variable in allocation formulas, and calculated allocations using average price data from four sources: The Bowker Annual, previous acquisition cost data, Blackwell Price Reports, and Blackwell approval plan profiles. The pros and cons of each method of determining average price are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of knowledge, on the broadest level, is that the scope, specialization, and cross-disciplinarity of the research enterprise have long surpassed any overarching framework. The key question, on the campus level, is whether the development of research collections by the library is aligned with the university's strategic aims and overall institutional development. A straightforward (though uncommon) way to make the university/library relationship more effective in this regard is for the library to have a meaningful role in the academic program review process. This essay describes such a role, singling out the particular situation of some 40 predominately undergraduate institutions that have been reclassified as research-level in the Carnegie scheme. As a rule, when a university's institutional identity or ambition outstrips its library's capability, collection development is bound to become a campuswide concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an introduction to the acquisition of video media (DVD and VHS) in academic libraries, with emphasis on the policies and procedures most appropriate for undergraduate colleges. The article discusses several issues-collection development, copyright, identification and evaluation of video titles, acquisitions procedures, budgets and expenditures, and vendor selection and performance-drawing on data and examples from the video media acquisitions program of St. Lawrence University. Although the goal of developing a permanent video collection is not always compatible with the day-to-day operation of an instructional audiovisual service, even small colleges can build collections of lasting value by developing and applying systematic guidelines for the selection and acquisition of video titles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines ownership of best-sellers within a group of academic libraries from 1940 to 1990 in the United States. Higher percentage of older best-sellers in fiction than newer ones; Difficulties of selecting what to include and what to weed out in the collections.

Compares several methods used in accessing nonmainstream periodicals in academic libraries in the United States. Evaluation of traditional local subscription approaches, resource-sharing consortia and electronic full-text products; Demands of academic libraries on alternative press access; Effect of high subscription rates of periodicals on academic libraries.

Reports the findings of a study of community college collections in Florida with respect to median age and currency of monographic collections. Philosophy that college collections should emphasize the instructional and curricular needs of students; Major recommendation arising from the Florida Community College Collection Assessment Project.

Studies the serial cancellations from five academic midwestern academic research libraries. Increased rate of cancellations and cancellation overlap; Dynamics of serials collections in terms of the effects of the marketplace and the problems associated with science-based journals; Unbalanced cost of serial cancellations by orders in the sciences.

Presents information on a study conducted by the Academic Library, Saint Mary's University, San Antonio, Texas, which used various collection evaluation methods, to develop a basis for psychology journal selection in the library. Why the three collection methods utilized in the study were chosen; Purpose of the study; Results obtained.

Analyzes the evolution and expansion of the Research Triangle university libraries over six decades. Identification of the rationale and principles of successful cooperative collection development; Type of cooperation that work best for different subject and materials; Factors that promote cooperation over the long term.