Understanding users' needs and making collections choices

Understanding user needs has always been the key to building relevant collections and designing appropriate services. The availability of electronic resources and the many choices of format and access methods have made understanding library users even more critical. Librarians can use formal and informal methods to gather information about users. Formal methods include surveys and focus groups. The information gathered can be used for selection and service. It should also be used to reshape the scholarly information system to better meet the needs of undergraduates and researchers, beginning users and sophisticated users' and users who are doing in-depth research and those who just want a small amount of information quickly. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd.