New program growth and its impact on collection assessment at the UNLV Libraries

Since its opening four years ago, the Lied Library has experienced many challenges, mostly driven by dramatic changes at UNLV. Specifically, new strategic initiatives and tremendous growth of the university’s student population have resulted in an increased number of new academic programs and degrees. These new academic programs have had a significant effect on Lied Library, impacting several areas of the library including staffing, training and collection development. This article will focus primarily on how the library’s has responded to the growth in new programs and initiatives at UNLV during the past four years. More specifically the authors will discuss the role of the Collection Development department in the university’s approval process for new academic programs and the role of subject librarians in assessing how well the