Embedding resource sharing evidence in cooperative collection development

Although much has been written about cooperative collection development and area studies collections, little research exists that assesses the effectiveness of these programs or their impact beyond their home institution. Items in these collections are often scarcely held or “hidden” due to either a lack of specialized knowledge to facilitate their discovery or the financial resources required to maintain them. This session will examine lending history of developed area studies collections in order to evaluate the impact of resource sharing and cooperative collection development. By examining five years’ of a major research library’s resource sharing data for outgoing materials in Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL) and outgoing materials published with a foreign imprint, the authors will seek to draw conclusions about a cooperatively stewarded collection and make recommendations about the directions that research libraries should pursue in order to provide service at a regional and/or national level.Ope