Building a comprehensive serials decision database at Virginia Tech

Although for many years academic libraries have relied on data on cost, lib rary use, or citations to inform collection development decisions respectin g serials, they have not fully exploited the possibilities for compiling nu merous measures into comprehensive databases for decision support. The auth ors discuss the procedures used and the advantages realized from an effort to build such a resource at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univer sity (Virginia Tech), where the available data included the results of a ze ro-based faculty survey of serials needs.