Are you awash in order data? This major ARL library has a long history collecting purchase data by discipline and publisher, circulation data, online use data, evidence based data, demand driven orders and use data. After several years of pilot programs and in looking at the most important academic books bought and used over five years from several angles - we merged it all. We combined that with user surveys and vendor plans to overhaul and automate book buying. The problems are many: fewer staff and fewer dollars, less shelf space, a large student population, and bibliographers too taxed for time to do title orders and an unpredictable book-publishing world. The goals: get users what they want and when they want it while making the best use of our time and collection dollars. The poster traces our data collections, analysis and final morphing into a coherent plan to automate more shipments and expand multiple demand driven plans with cost containment built in and anticipating users’ needs for print or e formats. We can’t always get what we want… but we can spent some time and use data to get what we need!
