Listening to historians: Using a listening tour to improve library support for foreign language researchers

Abstract

As at many other libraries, the University of California (UC)-Berkeley Library’s budget has not kept pace with student enrollment. Yet our faculty and students continue to expect extensive research holdings and personal care. To improve our ability to meet researcher needs amid constraints, our team recently surveyed social science faculty on their use of foreign language materials and followed up by meeting several historians for a “listening tour” of their needs from a research library.