Does Title-By-Title Selection Make a Difference? A Usage Analysis on Print Monograph Purchasing

Evaluating Purchase Plans for Niche Collecting Areas

“…5 A comparison of firm order and approval plan titles acquired at the University of Houston from 2011 to 2014 found that firm orders were consistently circulating at a higher rate, but also expressed some concerns about whether librarians had been responding to curriculum changes through firm orders instead of revising profiles. 6 In 2018, Linden, Tudesco, and Dollar discussed Yale's changing collections model, mentioning that increasing focus on assessment had resulted in changes to their approval plans, but not going into detail on how they assessed plans. 7 Librarians at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln did a comparison of materials acquired via approval plan, patron-driven programs, and librarian firm orders, assessing scholarly interest in those titles based on number of citations found through Google Scholar; they found that their approval books performed poorly compared to librarian selections.…”

Connections, Conversations, and Visibility: How the Work of Academic Reference and Liaison Librarians Is Evolving

“…Certainly the reference librarians' role as connector to a printed collection of materials is in the past as they unbind themselves from their eponymous collections, 32 and the luxury of a subject bibliographer with time to do title-bytitle selection is quickly disappearing despite new evidence from one institution that firm orders circulate more than approval plan orders. 33 A 2012 survey of Australian librarians indicated that collection development would be less important in the future. 34 Others have predicted the future of collection development will look very different from its past, 35 and librarians will need to think creatively and add options such as print-on-demand to their collections toolbox.…”

Doing More with Less: Adoption of a Comprehensive E-book Acquisition Strategy to Increase Return on Investment while Containing Costs

“…2 A more recent study at the University of Houston found that the usage between the two acquisitions methods was not significant, although firm orders or those selected by subject librarians were again used more frequently than approval books. 3 Other studies reviewed the goals and purposes of approval plans to develop a more rounded collection and to simplify the acquisitions process. 4 Rossi collected literature from 1967 through 1986, creating a bibliography on approval plans that referenced material on both general plans and studies that attempted to evaluate them.…”