Giving them what they want, when they want it: Using in house resources to build a request service for multimedia devices.

Abstract

Since 2006, our public services department has circulated an increasing number of electronic devices to students working with digital/multimedia based projects. As a technology driven institution, our students thrive on using cutting edge tools to create and share ideas. Gadgets now make up roughly 15% of overall circulation statistics, but budgets are still finite and making informed purchasing decisions is paramount. , , To better understand user needs and acquire data for purchasing decisions, stakeholders from circulation and library IT collaborated in summer of 2014 to create a Web based request form for our gadget Lib-Guide. The form provided a means of collecting user requests, along with basic demographic information from the requester (item, user group, and college). The request service debuted in fall 2014 and has proven invaluable as a means of efficiently meeting on demand user requests for popular items, and also for collecting data to justify future purchase requests. ,