Assessing blanket order effectiveness: A neglected task in collection development

Abstract

The assessment of the performance of blanket order vendors has often been entrusted to subject specialists, who in the process of inspecting the books in their respective subject areas are expected to determine how well the vendor is performing. Although this form of assessment provides important information about the vendors' performance in each individual subject area, it does not yield enough data for an overall, cross-disciplinary picture of the library's blanket order contracts. This study makes a quantitative and qualitative assessment of two European blanket order vendors supplying the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The resulting assessment model yields information about the resources being spent by the library, how closely the vendors are abiding by the profile, and how long-term trends in acquisitions are affecting the collection. This study shows that for libraries to enjoy the full advantages blanket orders offer, they need to devise a better method of assessment than what subject specialists alone provide.