Search

In the academic library field it is an all too common reality that budgets are either stagnant or decreasing. Lea Currie has faced this reality since she started in her role as the Head of Content Development at the University of Kansas (KU). Since 2008, Currie and the KU Collection Development team have taken strides to implement rigorous review processes and conservative policies to counteract the stagnant budget. Currie’s presentation focused on the considerable challenge her library faced in 2016 as inflation made it necessary to find $200,000 in cuts to the collection development budget. This mandate marked the beginning of the deep data dive. The Collection Development team was charged with the task of deciphering which resources could be cut with the least amount of impact to the student and faculty. Negotiations with publishers have proven to be the most static stage of the entire process and remain ongoing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a response to the University of Kansas' (KU) strategic planning process and the need to identify budgetary efficiencies, the KU Libraries created a strategic plan and underwent a structural reorganization. In the new structure, the libraries went from thirty librarians doing collection development to seven selecting library materials for the core collection. The new, smaller, more agile department is responsible for all tasks related to collection development as the library moves from being a collection-centered institution to being user-centered. The new organization shifts the collection development paradigm from one based on academic disciplines to one that embraces a holistic view. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In March 2009, the University of Kansas (KU) Libraries began a yearlong subscription to OCLC's WorldCat Collection Analysis (WCA) tool, which was recommended by the associate dean of Technical Services and the assistant dean of Collections and Scholar Services. KU Libraries bases many of its collections decisions on collected data, including usage statistics, overlap analysis, and interlibrary loan statistics. The WCA was perceived as another method of collecting data to make collection development decisions. An implementation committee was appointed by the deans and led by the authors, the head of Collection Development and a social sciences librarian who had experience with the WCA at another institution. The implementation committee set institutional goals and priorities for the project as well as prepared informational documents and conducted training sessions for subject librarians. Librarians submitted reports for each of their collections. Although the project coordinators dealt with the many frustrations experienced by the subject librarians because of the flaws associated with the tool and would change the process for future WCA projects, overall, KU librarians were pleased to discover that the quality of the collections at KU is very high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]