Don’t forget the qualitative: Including focus groups in the collection assessment process

To complement our ongoing quantitative collection evaluations based on cost and usage data, the UC San Diego Science & Engineering Library conducted a series of focus groups with graduate students and faculty in our core departments. Our objective was to learn more about how they use the collection for research and teaching, so that we could make more informed decisions about collection management, as well as how best to deploy our staff resources for increased promotion, outreach and instruction. Participants were asked about the resources they use, how they use them, and what gaps they perceived. We also probed their familiarity with the top licensed resources in their fields.In this presentation we will discuss our focus group methods, results and the next steps we have taken in this assessment, including a follow-up survey to the same departments to obtain more quantitative information about usage of the collection