[The following summary is in response to this question:
From: Thedis Washington <thedis_at_canes.gsw.edu>
Could anyone please tell me if you have ever
developed a collection analysis for your library? If so,
how did you get started?
Thanks in advance
Thedis Washington]
===========================================================================
From: Thedis Washington <thedis_at_canes.gsw.edu>
Hello Everyone,
I have received numerous of responses on how
to get started on developing a collection analysis.
The summary may seem long, but every detail is
necessary. Thanks to Chuck Malenfant, Sally Loken,
Paul Metz, Krystyna Matusiak, and Nancy Myers.
Sally Loken wrote"
I saw your posting on the collection development list
andthought you might be interested to know that OCLC/WLN
provides collection analyses for libraries on CD-ROM. Also,
you might want to check with Alan Lebish at Kennesaw State,
for whom we provided a collection analysis last winter.
*****************************************************************************
Chuck Malenfant wrote:
I just read your message to the collection development
listserv.
1) Start with a thorough literature review. You need to
find out what other libraries have published recently
about collection analysis.
2) Contact ALA's Association for Library Collections &
Technical Services. http://www.ala.org/alcts/ They have
a Collection Management Section. ALA
publishes manuals for all kinds of Library procedures that
include step by step instructions which you can tailor to
your own institution's needs. You can either buy the
manual from ALA or try to ILL it.
3) START SMALL. Your first collection analysis is NOT going
to be comprehensive. Pick 3 or 4 aspects of the collection
you think need looking at and write clearly defined
objectives for them. Collection analysis is something
that needs to be done every 3-5 years or so on a
regular cycle. This time you'll have 3-4 objectives,
next time you'll add 3-4 more, and so on.
4) Make a schedule and stick to it. In August plan to do
your literature review. In September and October you'll
define your objectives, and so on.
5) Look at your contract with OCLC and talk with your OCLC
representative. Collection analysis is one of their
flagship services. If your contract
doesn't already have some services written into it, your rep
may be able to arrange something for you for a reasonable
price.
6) Talk to someone at SOLINET as well. SOLINET does a lot
of training for library procedures. They may be having a
training soon that you can get sent to, or they may
be willing to send you the materials.
Every SOLINET training I've attended has been outstanding.
************************************************************
Paul Metz wrote:
I found the Amigos Collection Analysis Program well worth
the money.
We used it two ways:
macro -- how do we compare, overall, vs. our peers?
Since the best peer group we could pick (there are about 15
off-the-shelf but you can pay extra and tailor your own) was
ARL's, we looked to see if we were high in agriculture,
engineering etc. as we would expect;
micro -- you can get it to report all books that
more than X percent of your peers have, but you don't.
Granted it looks at OCLC numbers so it's possible you just
have a different edition from the majority, but it sure
gives you a good picking list for obvious stuff you
missed.
**********************************************************************
Krystyna Matusiak wrote:
Currently I am an interim Electronic Resources
Coordinator at the Library of the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The last two semesters, however,
I worked in the collection development department almost
exclusively on collection analysis. We didn't do an
evaluation of the entire collection, but rather
concentrated on specific subject areas. The three projects
that I worked on included water resources, Spanish language
and literature, and library and information science.
Before I started each project, I conducted a comprehensive
literature review on collection evaluation in Library
Literature and read quite a bit about methodology and
other similar projects. There are some standard
sources, such as Guide to the evaluation of library
collections published by ALA, Michael
Gabriel's Collection development and collection evaluation.
If you are interested in a more comprehensive bibliography,
let me know. For each project I wrote a brief methodology
describing the goals of the project and
methods that we were going to use.
We tried to apply both collection-centered methods and
use-centered methods.
Some of the methods that we used in our projects included:
1. recording the number of items per LC subject
headings and comparing our collection to peer libraries and
other libraries that have strong collections in the subject.
2. comparing the collection to some standard lists and
bibliographies in the field.
3. evaluating by format, language, publication date,
etc.
4. analysis of interlibrary loan statistics to identify
frequently requested items that we don't own.
5. comparing our serial collection to the list of
journals indexed by major indexes in the field.
A combination of various methods will allow you to identify
the strengths and weaknesses of the collection.
******************************************************************
Nancy Myers wrote:
The "Guidelines for Collection Development" by the
Collection Development Committee of the Resources and
Technical Services Division of the ALA is a good place
to start. Gives you the basic guidelines. Then find
some good books on collection development that include
examples of actual
policies. Then factor in your own unique
library curriculum.
***************************************************************
[I'll add, look at
White, Howard D. 1995. Brief Tests of Collection Strength: a
methodology for all types of libraries. Greenwood Press.
-John Abbott]
*************************************************************
I hope this information is as helpful to you as it is for
me.
Thanks Thedis
* Thedis S. Washington
* Collection Development Lib.
* James Earl Carter Library
* Georgia Southwestern State University
* 800 Wheatley Street
* Americus, GA
31709
*Email: thedis_at_canes.gsw.edu
*Work : 912/931-2789
*Fax: 912/931-2265
*http://www.gsw.edu
******************************
Failure is not falling down, but staying down.
-Mary Pickford
Received on Wed Jul 26 2000 - 13:07:57 EDT