ABSTRACT
Personalising library services in higher education does not have to be costly and it does not have to take up more time. It has the potential to deliver highly rewarding and occasionally surprising change, at a time in information and library work when we need to adopt a new approach more than ever. We do not see boutique as the province of the small separate library alone but as a mindset with considerable potential for wider application across an entire library service. If academic libraries are to continue to be relevant, it seems obvious that we have to key into this mindset and actively tailor our offering in order to meet these individual needs and wants. Personalisation strategies may have the potential to be curtailed due to the inevitable constraints of centralisation the size and structure of large centralised services can limit flexible work practices and/or the lack of autonomy of the librarian wishing to implement it.
