Using easily available data to build collections and understand faculty research for subject librarians

Building collection and assisting with faculty research are two major responsibilities for subject librarians. Collection and research needs are unique to campuses and departments subject librarians serve for. How could subject librarians use data to inform their collection decisions and understand their faculty research without spending significant amount of time collecting data? This presentation will show what you can do with data that have already been collected or easily retrieved. Usage data, interlibrary loan data, faculty publication and citation data were used in four projects to help the librarian uncover the collection and research needs for school of communication at University of Houston. This presentation will focus on the research process so that the methodology can be applied to other subject disciplines.