Finding a Seat at the Table: What Access Services Brings to the Changing Models of Collection Development

Abstract

In recent years, the Access Services Department at the University of Nebraska Lincoln Libraries has been instrumental in developing new models of collection development. Historically, the exclusive domain of Technical or Reference Services, Access Services is actively pursuing an increased role in both acquisitions and withdrawals. To illustrate this, we examine two of the most significant successes, our ILL Purchasing Project and the mass weeding and movement of over one-third of the libraries collections. Both of these operations have come to rely almost exclusively on Access data, through both its retrieval, analysis and implementation. This shift in collection development has seen significant increases in budgets, staffing and roles for Access Services within the UNL Libraries.