Despite the persisting notion that recreational reading does not have a place in the academic mission of college and university libraries, these libraries have a long history of providing pleasure reading for their patrons. During the latter half of the twentieth century, the idea of academic libraries meeting the recreational reading needs of students seems to have fallen out of favor, but a literature review of that time period shows that the collections themselves still existed. Discussion of—and justifications for—these collections, however, has enjoyed a resurgence in the library literature over the past decade. Given this renewed interest, this study seeks to assess just how common these collections are in US academic libraries today, and whether or not they are, in fact, enjoying a comeback from previous decades. This study surveyed the thirty-nine academic libraries that make up the Orbis Cascade Alliance in the Pacific Northwest, a diverse group of libraries in terms of size, type, budget, and student populations. The results of the survey show that a majority of libraries have a recreational collection and that these collections are valued by patrons and librarians alike. Recommendations are made for shifting the perspective on popular reading collections and their place in academic libraries, as well as for how to study them in the future.

University students, staff, and faculty read for fun and want their campus library to support this pursuit. We have the direct requests and circulation statistics to prove it. University of Oregon students expressed interest in the development of a Popular Reading Collection (PRC) at UO Libraries during a regular meeting of the Dean's Student Advisory Group in February 2011. Former Dean Deborah Carver brought the idea to Collection Managers, our collection development team, who subsequently undertook an investigation of how we might pursue and support this request. Now, more than four years later, we have a lively redesigned space and have honed our methods of building and circulating the collection. Our circulation stats show that our academic community is indeed using the PRC and is checking out more material as we revise the program. With this success, it's time to reflect on our implementation of the PRC and what we've learned. Supportive Research, Community and Strategic AlignmentThe concept of a PRC was not a new or original idea. Browsing Rooms were once common in academic libraries, but over the decades, students were increasingly directed to the public library for any non-academic interest. Julie Elliott writes, "Part of what may have led to the decline in students' extracurricular reading is an attitude of elitism and even hints of censorship in the name of selection on the part of the librarians recommending the books," (2007, p. 35). Yet, the (re)implementation of a PRC is a newer, revitalized idea based on recent

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