A prescription for faculty librarian collaboration: Updating a pharmacy book collection and matching curricular changes

In the days of shrinking book budgets and increasing book prices institutio ns must make careful decisions for purchasing. In this paper, we show how c ollaboration between a librarian and teaching faculty works to define the l ibrary's needs and makes purchases that both reflect the changes in curricu lum and update an aging collection while remaining within a budget. We comp ared the existing collection to standard book lists such as the Brandon Hil l List of Books for the Small Medical Library and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Basic Resources List. Through collaboration we then decided on books to purchase, and compared the collection again. The findi ngs showed that our collaboration was successful and our book collection ha d improved. Collaboration between librarian and teaching faculty is a relia ble way to update an aging collection as well as to assure new purchases ar e in line with the curriculum.