Library Collection Management 101

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Library Collection Management 101

• Instructor Julie Italiano
• jitalian_at_ccclib.org
• An InfoPeople Workshop
• Spring 2006

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This Workshop Is Brought to You By the Infopeople
Project
Infopeople is a federally-funded grant project
supported by the California State Library. It
provides a wide variety of training to California
libraries. Infopeople workshops are offered
around the state and are open registration on a
first-come, first-served basis. For a complete
list of workshops, and for other information
about the project, go to the Infopeople website
at infopeople.org.
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Introductions

• Name
• Library
• Position
• Why are you here?

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Workshop Overview

• Types of materials
• Community needs assessments
• Budget considerations
• Evaluating and selecting
• Collection assessment
• Collection maintenance
• Challenges
• Future trends

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Types Of Materials

• Adult
• Youth
• Reference
• Electronic

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Adult Core Collections

• Adult Fiction
• current
• retrospective (modern/classic)
• Adult Non-Fiction
• self-help or legal
• test guides
• personal finance and job searching
• health
• travel

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Youth Core Collections

• Teen
• contemporary fiction
• teen topics
• Childrens
• picture books, easy readers
• homework assignment material
• animals
• biographies

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Reference Core Collections

• Almanacs
• Dictionaries
• Encyclopedias
• Others?

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Electronic Resources

• Ebooks
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Databases
• Digital formats
• audiobooks
• music
• videos

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Collections Should Be

• Appropriate
• Diverse
• Circulating
• What people want

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How Do You Find Out What People Want In Your
Library?

• Conduct A Community Needs Assessment

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Why Do A Needs Assessment?

• To identify gaps in service and collections
• Find out who uses the library and materials
• How the community is changing
• Determine if staffing patterns and library hours
  are adequate
• If space and building are adequate

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Needs Assessments Include Info That Is

• Descriptive
• Allows the library to use information to create
  collection profiles based on community interests
• Statistical
• Enables an objective approach to building
  collections based on data and trends

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Descriptive Information

• Historical interest
• background of community
• Cultural organizations
• social groups
• Educational institutions
• values in community
• Recreational opportunities
• community interests

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Statistical Information

• Demographic data
• ethnicity
• race
• language
• Geographical data
• growth patterns
• population distribution
• transportation routes

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Ways To Collect Needs Assessment Information

• Surveys
• user surveys
• non-user surveys
• Groups
• key informants, such as educators, public
  officials, business leaders
• community forums involve groups with shared
  interests

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Share OutcomesWith Community

• Communicate
• post results of surveys online
• display questionnaire in library
• Report
• attend faculty meetings at schools
• Chamber of Commerce luncheons

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Small Group Exercise 1

• Community Needs Assessment

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Budget Considerations

• When Can I Start Spending?

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Budget Decisions

• Distribution
• past spending patterns
• circulation
• turnover rates
• Standing Orders
• formats
• subjects

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Alternative Budget Funding

• Friends/Foundations
• Grants
• governmental
• private
• Gifts
• memorials
• trusts

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Evaluating Gift Materials

• Acceptable gifts for the collection
• replaces a missing copy
• replaces a copy in poor condition
• replaces an older edition
• Unacceptable gifts for the collection
• shows excessive wear
• format not consistent with collection
• previous rental store use or ownership

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How Much Does A Gift Cost?

• Evaluating
• Cataloging
• Processing
• Weeding
• Disposing

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How Do You Handle Gift Donations In Your Library?

• Unique Stories To Share?

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Evaluating Collections

• Collection should reflect quality
• appropriate for community
• diverse opinions
• Collection should reflect demand
• circulates
• what people want

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Ways To Be A Good Selector

• Read reviews - Library Journal
• Preview publishers materials
• Consult bibliographies - Fiction Catalog
• Review patron suggestions
• Acknowledge staff recommendations

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Investigating What To Buy

• Bookstores
• online
• in town
• Award lists
• Caldecott/Newbery
• Popular Culture
• current events

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Making Purchasing Decisions

• Subject matter
• Construction
• Potential use
• Relation to collection
• Cost

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Selection Criteria For Material

• Accuracy
• Authority
• Currency
• Impartial
• Organization

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Unique Criteria for Electronic Selection

• Licensing
• Remote use
• Special equipment
• Technical support
• Telecommunications costs

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Small Group Exercise 2

• Evaluating and Selecting

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Assessing Your Collection

• How collections are measured
• Comparing collection with lists

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Quantitative Measurements

• Number of titles
• physical count of titles from shelves
• Age of materials
• range and distribution of publication dates
• Use
• circulation statistics
• turnover rate
• Per capita measurements
• how many titles per population

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Core Collection Lists

• Verifies selection decisions
• Comparisons with other collections
• Provides information for purchasing

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Collection Maintenance

• Weeding
• discarding
• withdrawing
• Changing formats
• Replacing materials
• Rotating collections

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Why Weeding is Necessary

• Uncovers gaps in collection
• Provides new space
• Increases circulation

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Criteria For Weeding

• Misleading or factually inaccurate
• Ugly (worn out beyond mending)
• Superseded by a newer edition
• Trivial ( no literary or scientific merit)
• Irrelevant to community needs
• Elsewhere (borrowed elsewhere)

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Why Weeding Doesnt Happen

• It takes too much time
• If tossed today, will need tomorrow
• Unable to throw away public property
• Wont have enough books
• Admits to collection mistakes

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How To Weed

• Discard damaged materials
• Withdraw outdated items
• Dispose of materials
• sell
• give away
• recycle/destroy

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Weeding Examples

• 004-006 Computers 3/1
• 025.04 Internet 3/1
• 030 Encyclopedias 5/x
• other 000s 5/3

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When Should You Change Formats?

• Demand
• Availability
• Durability
• Costs

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What Is A Replacement List?

• How do you create one?

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Replacement Options

• Subject areas
• Title suggestions
• Weeding reports
• Rotating collections
• Last copies

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Small Group Exercise 3

• Weeding Collections

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Challenges For Libraries

• Reach Out
• Research
• Respond

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Intellectual Freedom

• Who might be a censor?
• government
• community groups
• individuals (including librarians)
• Need materials representing all sides
• balance in collection

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Have You Faced A Challenge?

• What Was Your Experience?

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Types Of Censorship

• Labeling
• Obscenity
• Racism
• Gender/Sex
• Illegal acts
• Questionable truth
• Stolen items

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Defending Material Challenges

• Formal policy and procedure
• Promote Library Bill of Rights
• Communicate intellectual freedom

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Small Group Exercise 4

• Facing A Challenge

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What Are Some Future Trends In Collection
Development?

• Outsourcing selection
• Floating collections
• GIS software
• RFID
• WorldCat

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Why Outsource Selection?

• New materials arrive quickly
• time reduced between selecting/ordering
• Rely on expertise
• vendors stay on top of publishing world
• Necessary to place large order
• opening day collections
• special grant or gift that needs expenditure

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Floating Collections

• Materials that are shared by all communities and
  are moved by patrons and not a delivery system

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Benefits To Floating Collections

• Refreshes and revitalize materials
• materials are moved by demand
• Increases availability of items
• reduces time spent in shipping
• faster service for patrons
• Extends the shelf life of materials
• reduces workload for delivery and circulation
  staff

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GIS Software

• GIS (Geographic Information Systems)
• links tabular data to map coordinates
• provides analysis of information by layers
• translates data into latitude/longitude

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Collection Planning With GIS

• Collects cardholder use
• density rate
• checkout rate
• turnover rate
• segmentation analysis
• circulation rate
• items borrowed by service area

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RFID

• RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is
  technology that uses radio waves to identify
  objects

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RFID Portable Reader

• Locates improperly shelved volumes
• Fast, efficient inventory
• Searches individual item
• Weeds out materials

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Resource Sharing Options

• California Libraries Catalog
• WorldCat
• Open WorldCat
• inter-library loans
• shared catalogs
• support challenges

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Individual Exercise 5

• Collection Management Ideas to Take Back To Your
  Library