The Survey of Academic Library Subject Specialists: Political Science & Public/International Affairs

This report examines academic library purchasing policies in public affairs and political science/government with data based on a sample of 60 academic libraries in the United States and abroad. Comprehensive data details the budgetary allocations for political science and related departments over the past two years as well as projected budgets for the coming year, including itemized spending on print books, ebooks, databases, and scholarly journals and special allocations from endowments and grants. The report investigates the library's relationship with its patrons and how patrons affect decision-making concerning acquisitions and library technologies. What impact have ebooks and digital repositories had on collections and collection strategies? What are the most popular databases in political science utilized by college libraries today? What areas of knowledge, authors, or publishers have become "must-haves" over the years, and how are collection needs and deficits assessed? The 78-page report answers these questions and more, with benchmarking data broken out by enrollment size, type of institution, and budgetary allocation.