In 2006 the Ottenheimer Library at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) completed a comprehensive strategic plan. One objective of the plan was to identify and develop a model to assess the collections. The University’s growing enrollment of graduate students and the University administration’s expectations of increased faculty research provided the impetus for investigating a model. For the last six years members of the Library faculty and staff have conducted the Collection Assessment Project (CAP), a self-study project developed by the Association for Research Libraries. The Library is currently implementing recommendations which emerged from the teams’ findings and preparing policies and procedures to measure and streamline collection development activities.
We will share our experiences in conducting CAP, in writing the Interim and Final reports, and in the first stages of implementing the recommendations. We will outline what we learned about ourselves, the mistakes we made, and how we plan to continue the analysis of how the Library can best provide what its users must have to teach, learn, and do research.