Subject librarians at a medium-sized public university have developed an online application that enhances collection development collaborations between librarians and department faculty. Our subject librarians strive to develop collections that support academic programs without subject expertise in assigned areas. Consequently, we rely upon faculty colleagues to assist with ordering. Faculty recommendations help librarians to keep library collection quality and relevance high. However, encouraging department faculty to contribute remains a challenge. National library services survey reports corroborate this ongoing challenge, further indicating that communication is confined to email and spur-of-the-moment in-person interactions. To streamline this process, a subject librarian and Technology Librarian developed the Materials Request System. The web-hosted MaRS platform allows departments and their faculty to view and plan requests around budgetary information, submit requests for materials that faculty will use for teaching and research, submit “rush” orders and place materials on Course Reserve, view inter-departmental requests, and more.
