Tracking Reserves Not Owned: Collecting Student Course Reserve Requests at Service Points Using a Web Form

Abstract

Assessing student needs in terms of course reserves can often be a challenge. Instead of reaching out to faculty to ask for reserves the Cheng Library flipped the model and instead began to track requests at our service points to collect requests for reserves not own directly from students using a simple app. From the data gathered over the course of the spring 2018 semester, the library was able to assess what areas of the reserves collection were lacking and in need of attention. Additionally, by reaching out to the faculty and departments for these requests we were able to increase our reserves collection with the donations. Out of the 108 requests collected from the app we obtained 20 print books from faculty. In turn, our print reserves processed in the department increased by 10%.