In preparing for a five-year president‘s advisory review of the university library, we examined how users drew on the library collection and how they wanted to use information. We graphed the ways faculty and students found and used information. In the library, circulation, interlibrary loan, and documented use of electronic resources provided one snapshot on the different ways that faculty and students used information.

Drawing on a 2002 study, we extrapolated how much information for scholarly and research purposes were drawn from the free web. For the advisory board review in late 2010, we again recreated this information with interesting results showing a larger web (no surprise) and an increased use of electronic information and free web, a decline in circulation and a small rise in interlibrary loan. Based on use patterns—a decline in circulation and an overall increase in the use of electronic resources—questions about staffing service and operation services and the tasks in different library staff positions need to be examined in order to understand.

In the summer of 2011, we began to explore these changes in order to understand the practical and operational ramifications of this change in information use. One line of inquiry was to reexamine the data collection process and collected data. Monographic circulation was extrapolated from all circulation data so that this type of use could be examined in more depth. Was the decline in circulation as dramatic as first thought?

A second initiative—to put selection in the hands of users was initiated to test and understand user behavior. Thus in fall 2011, a demand driven monographic acquisitions pilot project in computer science and electrical engineering was begun.

This paper will report on the outcomes of those initiatives and initial steps taken to align collections and services.

Erika Linke
Erika Linke Carnegie Mellon University

Ms. Linke holds the rank of Principal Librarian and is Associate Dean of University Libraries at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, where she has responsibility for library-wide reference, public and user services, technical services and collection development including the CMU library in Doha, Qatar. Ms. Linke is past President of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). Currently she is the chair of the ACRL conference that will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana in 2013. Professional areas of interest include digital libraries; digital library management and collection issues; copyright, intellectual property and scholarly communication; and access to information and research resources.