Comparing Approval and Librarian-selected Monographs: An Analysis of Use

Abstract

This chapter will demonstrate that monographic material acquired at the University of Kansas (KU) through the approval plan and firm orders are, in some cases, being used for research more extensively than originally believed. A circulation analysis of approval plan and librarian-selected monographs, and a review of use by different user groups, reveal a surprising mixture of monographic usage patterns among the disciplines under consideration. Additionally, departmental dissertation output provides further indication that some of these disciplines still make substantive use of monographs. In this chapter Business, Psychology, Religious Studies, and Sociology collections are compared and discussed. Further, this chapter describes our analysis methodology, presents potential implications for approval and firm ordering, and makes suggestions for using and collecting similar data in the future.