RE: [ALCTS-acqnet] [External] Popular Reading Collections at Academic Libraries

Hi Mark and any interested,

At my library, we enjoy our small Popular Reading Collection. We are a health sciences library and have very few print books, but the Popular Reading Collection gets good use for the price of the books. We order some of the books from our medical book vendor, but the majority are coming from Amazon. We created a specific item type for our Popular Reading books so we can track circulation statistics much easier. For the past few years, I have selected books primarily by reviewing author descriptions from a couple of scientific podcasts and selecting some works from those and also from some Amazon referrals that look interesting for our collection. I also look for books related to upcoming talks in our history of medicine lecture series. Sometimes, I move books from our regular print circulating collection to the other collection to make those books more visible if they fit within what can be considered “popular”. The Popular Reading Collection at our library are fiction and nonfiction works typically with themes of health sciences/some kind of medical topic or other scientific themes. The collection includes some biographies and cookbooks, as well.

This is our current list of books in our Popular Reading Collection:
https://librarycatalog.ecu.edu/?f%5Bcollection_facet%5D%5B%5D=Laupus+Popular+Reading&f%5Blibrary_sm%5D%5B%5D=Laupus+Library&per_page=100


This is a poster I co-authored about our collection a few years ago. You can see the circulation is low (all print circulation at our library tends to be low, particularly compared to our online collections), but it was interesting to see what books people were reading the most.

Developing our collection of these types of works is still a fairly recent undertaking (began in 2011):
http://thescholarship.ecu.edu/handle/10342/5406


Marlena

Marlena Barber
Assistant Director of Collections & Historical Services
Laupus Health Sciences Library
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC
(252) 744-2229
barberm_at_ecu.edu<mailto:barberm_at_ecu.edu>

From: acqnet-request_at_lists.ala.org <acqnet-request_at_lists.ala.org> On Behalf Of Jonathan Harwell
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2018 9:12 AM
To: acqnet_at_lists.ala.org
Subject: RE: [ALCTS-acqnet] [External] Popular Reading Collections at Academic Libraries

We pay $1980 per year for McNaughton, for a maximum of 200 books at a time, a number  we never quite reach.

Best,
Jonathan


****************************
Jonathan H. Harwell
Head of Collections and Systems
Associate Professor
Olin Library
Rollins College
1000 Holt Ave. – 2744
Winter Park, FL 32789-4499
jharwell_at_rollins.edu<mailto:jharwell_at_rollins.edu>
407-646-2148



From: acqnet-request_at_lists.ala.org<mailto:acqnet-request_at_lists.ala.org> <acqnet-request_at_lists.ala.org<mailto:acqnet-request_at_lists.ala.org>> On Behalf Of Deborah Hathaway
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2018 8:39 AM
To: acqnet_at_lists.ala.org<mailto:acqnet_at_lists.ala.org>
Subject: Re: [ALCTS-acqnet] [External] Popular Reading Collections at Academic Libraries

Would anyone be able to provide an approximate or range of lease pricing with Brodart? I've looked at the website and all it says is allowances without any amounts. Can you start small and then increase? Like database subscriptions, I'm sure there are a lot of variables to actually getting a price but before I put too much effort into this, are we talking >$500.00, >$1,0000, $1,000.00+
Debbie

On Mon, Nov 26, 2018 at 2:27 PM Kliever, Julia <jkliever_at_providence.edu<mailto:jkliever_at_providence.edu>> wrote:
Hello Mark!

So this is really interesting!  We have traditionally NOT purchased for popular reading; it does not align with our collection development policy. However, we know there's a demand, so we've finally decided to budget for Brodart's McNaughton Bestsellers Collection. We won't be buying books, just leasing them. We were planning to key off of the NYT Bestseller list as well, mostly for non-fiction. But, as you say, this may not align with the college-age demographic, I as well am not sure the NYT lists reflect that.

I'd be interested to see a summary of your responses, if you got any!

Thanks!

Julie


Julie Kliever
 Collections Services Librarian
 Phillips Memorial Library
 Providence College
 One Cunningham Square
 Providence RI 02918
jkliever_at_providence.edu<mailto:jkliever_at_providence.edu>
401.865.2241
www.facebook.com/pclibrary<http://www.facebook.com/pclibrary>




-----Original Message-----
From: acqnet-request_at_lists.ala.org<mailto:acqnet-request_at_lists.ala.org> <acqnet-request_at_lists.ala.org<mailto:acqnet-request_at_lists.ala.org>> On Behalf Of Mark Allan
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2018 7:01 PM
To: acqnet_at_lists.ala.org<mailto:acqnet_at_lists.ala.org>
Subject: [External] [ALCTS-acqnet] Popular Reading Collections at Academic Libraries

HI, All!

I was asked to post the query here as well as Colldv, so I apologize for any duplication in your inboxes.. I'm fleshing the question out a bit here, too.

I did a quick archives search for the past year on Colldv and found nothing on how librarians are purchasing for popular reading collections.  We really want to move away from NYT Best Sellers and concentrate on titles that the college demographic wants. Any thoughts? Any forums for sharing popular novels on various campuses with other potential purchasing academic libraries?

For example, the recent literature shows that college students want more science fiction and fantasy as well as other genres, these are things that the NYT BS list doesn't do so well and Amazon can help a little. (Ah for the old days of Book Circles on Amazon!). A friend suggest Book Riot (as well as Good Reads), but I think it would be useful to have communications between academic librarians with regard to what is flying off the shelves at individual campuses fiction-wise.. Or maybe it already exists! Or maybe that's just me!
Or maybe it's Maybelline?

Anyway, what tools are y'all using for collection development?


Thanks!

Mark
mark.allan_at_angelo.edu<mailto:mark.allan_at_angelo.edu>

This email originated from outside of Providence College. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.


--
Deborah Hathaway, MLS
Acquisitions & Collection Development Librarian
University of Dallas, Cowan-Blakley Memorial Library
1845 E. Northgate Drive
Irving, TX 75062
972-721-4122
dhathaw_at_udallas.edu<mailto:dhathaw_at_udallas.edu>

[https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=12L4babbfNUyFXsiQI9z90pVR0K7-G_fZ&revid=0B0E9D9PsLJLNVmh4cFMyN2hneHRyL0V5R1dJK25XY3Zkajc4PQ]