The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Library has run a user-initiated request service for new academic books that fits the same profiles used by the subject specialists at the library for many years. Books not bought by a subject librarian can be requested for a rush purchase by an affiliated user on campus. This service has run smoothly for over six years and the older records have been allowed to sit in the OPAC as demand has been stable but not overwhelming. The service compliments all the other ordering mechanisms in place at the Library to be sure that users have options to obtain newly released titles. The longitudinal data reveals a lot about users preferences over those of the subject specialists and covers their subject areas and the publishers for the material on demand. It shows how one can build an easy profile that is both sustainable, well-utilized and well integrated into other purchase models. It also reveals book availability issues, surprising title price variations and good data on turnarounds per vendors. Print books are sometimes requested after an eBook has been made available or because an eBook is not or may not ever be an option for a library purchase. New book demand is high when eBooks can’t be shared or when libraries can’t purchase books to share due to budget constraints. This poster session will provide an analysis of the six full years of data to help address these questions and pose others to better understand print book use and availability from a user perspective.
