2017 Charleston Library Conference

What does it mean for a library to have an “approval plan?” The answer used to be simple enough: Approval plans were arrangements between book vendors and academic libraries primarily intended to regularly and automatically identify and deliver pertinent new books via a jointly maintained “profile” of the library’s collecting interests.

While plenty of libraries maintain “approval plans” in 2017, what that means is no longer as clear. Intricate as those profiles could be, they never said much about the likelihood of usage for the books delivered. Today, with usage a key measurement for most libraries in assessing their collections; with the rise of ebooks; the need to repurpose space; a renewed focus on service to users; and sustained, relentless pressure on materials budgets, what libraries call their “approval plan” is often a primarily demand-driven mechanism, rather than a vehicle to generate large numbers of automatic purchases.

Please join three librarians who will discuss the current structure and purposes of what were once, at their libraries, robust, traditional approval plans. What changed for these libraries, and why? What is their thinking about today’s book collections? What do they see for the future?

Steve Bosch is Materials, Budget, Procurement, and Licensing Librarian at the University of Arizona. Trish Chatterley is Collection Strategies Librarian at the University of Alberta. Gracemary Smulewitz is Head of Collection Services and Resources Sharing at Rutgers University. Bob Nardini, who will moderate the panel, is Vice President, Library Services, ProQuest Books.