Lavery\u27s Collection Development: at the corner of library wide assessment and value added services

St. John Fisher College’s Lavery Library is focused on assessing value. One area being examined is the value of library collections in support of the library’s mission. In an effort to develop our collection at a user level, Lavery instituted a purchase on demand (POD) program in 2009. Increasingly, academic library POD programs are set up to automate the process based on specific criteria that will trigger a purchase, as a way to save time and streamline the process. In Lavery’s case study, Acquisitions has gone completely in the opposite direction, focusing on the service experience for our patrons instead. We build upon ways to enhance the material request transaction that align with the library’s assessment initiatives, specifically our information literacy goals. Our material request process utilizes ILLiad software to communicate between the Interlibrary Loan and Acquisitions departments. We frequently add the patron back into the conversation through the use of email for feedback on their material request. These emails may include suggestions directing the patron to resources already owned while waiting for the ILL request to be processed, emails asking for clarification, or emails directing the patron to the librarian for their major. Most recently we began to fold our already strong liaison program into the conversation. Continuing to utilize ILLiad software features enables us to ask for insight from liaison librarians, share course information input by patrons at the time of request, review trends in department or class requests, and so much more