Compiling the evidence to chronicle the state of the international veterinary library landscape

Abstract

Objective: This research, in progress at the time of this abstract, surveys the current state of academic veterinary libraries and documents recent changes across the international academic veterinary library community. Specifically, it will gather evidence from veterinary colleague libraries that are listed in the international veterinary libraries directory, maintained by the Veterinary Medical Libraries Section of the Medical Library Association, to document any closing and merging of academic veterinary libraries, to compile all evidence and descriptive information concerning changes in space, collections, reporting relationships and librarian assignments. Methods: Principal investigators developed an online survey, administered using Qualtrics, to gather data from current and recently retired veterinary librarians. Additionally, Qualtrics provides standard reporting and analysis tools. The survey is scheduled for distribution in January 2015. Responses will be compiled and analyzed during the spring. Results will be shared with participants and other colleagues. The survey will be repeated triennially using the 2015 survey as a benchmark. Results from the separate surveys and trends analyses across multiple survey iterations will be provided as longitudinal data increases.