Rethinking Collection Development: Selecting More with Less

Abstract

A little over two years ago IUPUI University Library’s Dean set up a Task Force to look at collection development in their changing environment and make suggestions as to developing a more innovative collection development strategy. This process led to some very concrete suggestions which have been in the process of being adopted over the last two years. This session will outline IUPUI's new approach to collection development. The approach consists of a three pronged strategy designed to support undergraduates, graduate students and faculty. Additionally this approach was intended to free librarian time to enable them to provide more support for research and instructional activities on campus. It includes a core approval plan for undergraduates, a Patron Driven Acquisitions for electronic monographs and an Articles on Demand program for journals to which the library doesn’t subscribe. It is the goal for this three pronged approach to collection development to result in providing a collection that is more responsive to user needs but also continues to provide the required content to enhance learning outcomes teaching and faculty research. The session will provide an analysis of the results of the PDA for electronic books, the core approval plan for print materials and the Articles on Demand program. The objective of the session is to explore the budgetary pressures on academic libraries and innovative responses to those pressures. We will correlate the way in which we have reduced or expect to reduce the pressure on the library’s budget through adapting this program. Although this is IUPUI's approach, other academic libraries may have alternative approaches to share with the audience. Attendees will be encouraged to share their own situations and their own innovative responses to their budget pressures. The attendees will learn various techniques for reviewing their own collection development processes. Additionally, they will be able to examine ways to identify both basic and hidden costs of traditional collection development.