Getting to the Heart of the Matter: What Faculty Tell Us about How Our Collections Support Student Learning

In 2010, librarians at IWU's Ames Library embarked on a multi-year collection review process. This is an evaluation and prioritization project for our collection as a whole. Our purpose is to not only evaluate what we have now, but also identify what resources, in which formats, best support student learning. The centerpiece of the review is one-on-one interviews conducted by librarians with each full-time faculty member in their liaison subject areas/departments. We asked faculty to reflect on how our collections (in all formats, including electronic) meet their pedagogical needs and support student research, as a way of helping us improve our decision-making about our collections and anticipate future needs. This presentation will focus on what questions we asked our faculty, what we learned from the interviews, and how these data inform a number of collection-related initiatives (including a long-overdue weeding project, an assessment of our materials fund allocation practices, and revision of our collection development policy), as well as our information literacy program.