The Suggest a Library Purchase Program at the University of Colorado Boulder

Abstract

This case study examines the workflow of “Suggest a Purchase” requests at the University of Colorado Boulder. The author collected data examining requests from July 2017 to December 2018. This study considers whether subject specialists use information in the requests to gather collection development information. The paper examines the information contained in the requests to make collection decisions, based on the criteria: Department of the requester, Affiliation of the requester, and Language of title requested. The author examines whether these fields offer data concerning collection gaps and subject trends, which may facilitate subject specialists’ collection development decision-making.

Keywords:

• Collection development
• specialists
• subject title suggestions
• university libraries