COORDINATING COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT AND USE - PSYCHOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY-OF-FLORIDA-LIBRARIES

Five years ago the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, the Marston Science Library, and connected branches in the University of Florida Libraries system began a collection management program using subject specialists. It is postulated that this approach to collection development could lead to isolation of the specialists and unnecessary duplication in the collection. Samples were taken of both serials and monographs to test this notion, and it was found that there was considerable overlap in serials, but little to none in monographs. Title-by-title negotiations reduced the overlap in serials, but a much broader approach has been necessary in dealing with monographs. Efforts to coordinate collection development have been complicated by both physical separation of the units and the autonomous status of two campus libraries, the Health Science Center Library and the Legal Information Center.