Collection Evaluation

LIB 630 Classification and CatalogingSpring 2013

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Collection Assessment Manual, Network of Alabama Academic Libraries

3What is collection evaluation?

• Try this one: – Collection assessment

• The systematic evaluation of the quality of a library collection to determine the extent to which it meets the library’s service goals and objectives and the information needs of its clientele. Deficiencies are addressed through collection development. Synonymous with collection evaluation.

4Another definition?

• Collection assessment is – “an organized process for systematically

analyzing and describing a library’s collection.”• Collection Assessment & Mapping

Defining the Concepts

5Why assess the collection?

• Reasons for Doing an Assessment– Collection assessment or collection mapping provides library

administrators with a management tool for adapting the collection, an internal analysis tool for planning, a tool to respond systematically to budget changes, and a communication tool and data for resource sharing with other libraries. Library staff can also benefit by having a better understanding of the collection, a basis for more selective collection development, improved communication with similar libraries, and enhanced professional skills in collection development. • Collection Assessment & Mapping

6Collection Assessment

7Example with a 5th grade science collection

http://murraylib630.org/Evaluate5thGradeSciCollect.pdf

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Some points to remember

• Sound familiar?

http://murraylib630.org/Evaluate5thGradeSciCollect.pdf

9Types of Collection Assessment?

1. Quantitative

– Another kind of quantitative measure looks at the number of items added to the collection in a particular subject area during the previous year.

– In academic or school libraries, another measure that is sometimes used is a measure of the number of items per student in a particular program or the number of items that would support a particular course of study.

http://lili.org/forlibs/ce/able/course2/05measures1.htm

10Types of collection assessment?

2. Qualitative

http://education.ky.gov/curriculum/books/pages/beyond%20proficiency%20 @%20your%20library.aspx

Balancing the

Spectrum of the

Collection

12Newtonian physics

• Newton first used the word spectrum (Latin for “appearance” or “apparition”) in print in 1671 in describing his experiments in optics.

• Newton observed that when a narrow beam of sunlight strikes the face of a glass prism at an angle, some is reflected and some of the beam passes into and through the glass, emerging as different colored bands. – Visible spectrum From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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13Spectrum requires a prism

• Estonian composer Arvo Pärt:– I could compare my music to

white light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener. • about his music: Alina 

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14Prism as a filter

• Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin:– The biographer finds that the past is

not simply the past, but a prism through which the subject filters his own changing self-image. • Goodwin, Doris Kearns (1979).

‘‘Angles of Vision’’, in: Mark Pachter (Ed.), Telling Lives: the biographer’s art. Washington, DC: New Republic Books. Cited in Debate and Reflection: How to Write Journalism History

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15The goal of collection building?

Amanda Credaro:

“. . . the ultimate goal of collection development must be to create a ‘balanced’ collection . . .”

• The Use of Reviewing Journals in School Libraries

balanced

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16What do you mean, balanced?

Credaro:“. . . there is disagreement as to what actually constitutes a ‘balanced’ collection.”

• equal numbers of print and non-print resources?

• materials that present the arguments for both sides on controversial issues?

• a combination of both “demand” items and quality resources?

17How can we tell?

How do we know when we have “a well-balanced collection that meets the needs of our users”?

“To evaluate the results of any particular intervention, we need to be able to clearly identify and define the desired state.”• T. Scott Plutchak, “

The art and science of making choices,” Journal of the Medical Library Association 2003 January; 91(1): 1–3.

18Define your desired state!

•What is your library’s mission?

•Where, then, will be your point of balance?–Popular or scientific?–Print or online?–What about controversial

subjects?

19A prism to view the full balanced spectrum

• Personal

•

•

19

Real

Invented

SMiley face

20Two Continuums

•Real Invented

•Personal Smiley Face

21Put ‘em together!

Personal

SMiley

Real

Invented

Application to Collections???

. . . And, for example, Dragons????

23Top Left Sector of Matrix

Up close and personal—and real!Real

Personal

Folklore: Folklore (or lore) consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales, stories, tall tales, and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. (Wikipedia)

Invented

24Dragons in folklore24

http://www.thewhitegoddess.co.uk/articles/mythology_folklore/dragons.asp

25Bottom Left Sector of Matrix

• Invented, but Personal RealP

ersonal Invented

Quality literature, sometimes adaptations, or else original

writing, with universal appeal and meaning for everyman

and everywoman

26An invented dragon who is very personal (if not exactly loveable!)

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http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Smaug

27A good invented dragon

• My Father’s Dragon– A Newbery Honor–winning title

and a favorite among children, My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett, is a humorous adventure story about a clever and resourceful boy named Elmer Elevator, who runs away to Wild Island to rescue a baby dragon.• My Father’s Dragon

28Top Right of the Matrix

• Real Smileys!

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Real

Recognizable stories, but unoriginal and shallow

29Dragon stories that are real smileys?

• . . . The tone and style suggest Saturday-morning animated films and will appeal to the same audience. For humorous adventure fantasy that is better crafted and more nourishing, try Jon Scieszka’s Knights of the Kitchen Table (Viking, 1991) and other works in the “Time Warp Trio” series.– Virginia Golodetz, Children's

Literature New England, Burlington, VT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.

– Review cited by Durham Public Library

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30Bottom Right of the Matrix

• Invented smileys [perhaps contrived?]

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Invented

Generic, unoriginal, impersonal, shallow

31An invented “smiley” dragon?

• What about the Dazzling Dragon?– When Princess Daisy hears that a real dragon is being

brought into the Princess Academy, she is terrified. What will her friends think of her being such a scaredy cat? But later Princess Daisy has a chance to show how brave she really is...

• Blurb from The Tiara Club website

32How to use this PRISM?

• Evaluation instrument– Part of inventory or selection/acquisition

• Create a scattergram

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Personal

Real

Invented

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• Especially controversial ones!

Balancing issues33

Personal

COUNTERISSUE

ISSUE

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Creationism

Evolution

Personal

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Print vs. online

Personal

Print Sources

Online Sources

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/ http://www.mugglenet.com

The originalnovels

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36Results of Collection Assessment

• Selection of new materials

• Repair of existing materials

• Deselection of existing materials

37Repairing library materials

• Questions to ask:– When to repair and when to remove the

item?– How much to spend on repair?– What techniques to use to repair?– Who pays for the repair?

• The user or the library?• Or does the user lose borrowing privileges or

receive some other form of punishment?

– Who decides?

38Deselection

• Definition?– In book and nonprint collection

s, the process of identifying titles for weeding, usually on the basis of currency, usage, and condition. The opposite of selection.• Deselection, ODLIS

39What is weeding?

• Weeding Your Library by Perma-Bound– Weeding is the periodic and continual evaluation

of your library’s resources with the goal of removing obsolete, damaged, and rarely used books. Weeding ensures that your library’s materials are useful, attractive, and accessible to your patrons. Every library’s print collection is limited by the space available, and collections must change over time to reflect changes in the community and in the library’s goals.

40A Useful Acronym

41Advice from Doug Johnson

• Weed!– Poorly weeded collections are not the sign of poor

budgets but of poor librarianship. Period. Only two things can happen if library material replacement budgets are inadequate. The collection ages if the librarian does not weed. The collection gets smaller if the librarian does weed. That’s it.

Small, but high quality collections are infinitely better.

• Weed! Head for the Edge, Library Media Connection, Sept/Oct 2003

42Additional advice from Johnson

• Keep accurate records of what you weed– This cover-your-butt tactic turned into a pretty fair

collection evaluation.  I did a book count by Dewey section and established an average age of each section before weeding.  . . . I also repeated the process after I physically removed the weeded books from the shelves.  When all the numbers were in place at the end, I threw them into a simple spreadsheet.  I also kept some “representative samples” of the materials I weeded in case the school board or the ilk were to call me on the carpet. • Weeding the Neglected Collection , School Library Journal,

November 1990

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The End