[original post followed by response.]
Subject: CDL: Published dates as a percentage of the collection, more
From: ann mccarthy <annlmcc_at_hotmail.com>
I to am interested in this subject as I am doing my master's thesis on
the the turnover rate of a collection as it relates to its relative
age. If there is anyone out there who knows of studies done on
determining the appropriate age of a collection as it relates to its
category, I would appreciate that information very much. My study
will involve a number of public libraries, I am trying to determine if
the most current collections are the ones with the highest circulation.
==#2==
Subject: RE: Published dates as a percentage of the collection, more.
From: Laurie Mahaffey <mahaffey_at_ctls.net>
I have hesitated to say anything about dates and collection
percentages because the original person who asked the question is from
an academic library (I believe) and my experience is only with public
libraries.
Those of you who work in public libraries may have heard of the CREW
Manual, written by Joseph Segal, a reference librarian at the Fort
Worth Public Library, in the 1970s and revised in the 1990s by Belinda
Boon, formerly of the Texas State Library. Belinda & I are working on
a revision of that manual, and I have used it extensively in assisting
public libraries in our system with collection development.
From my experience, the newer collections do have a higher turnover
rate. I can point to a specific library in our system which had not
been weeded in many years. The staff and I did a weeding project &
removed a high (about 30%) percentage of the collection. The
circulation shot up by double digits.
It would not be correct to say "newer is always better," but there are
many fields in which the latest information is the most accurate. The
CREW Manual/CREW Method points to specific areas in which the oldest
information should not be more than 5 years old: medicine and many of
the science fields.
We can all think of subjects in which materials much older are still
useful: literature, history, philosophy, some biographies. It is just
hard to get a handle on many of these. The real question is: how
quickly does information in a specific field become obsolete?
The turnover rate is found by dividing the circulation by the
collection size. A number under 1 is low and indicates that the
materials do not move very much (an average of 1 circulation or less
per year overall). A number higher than 1 is more desirable,
indicating that each book circulates several times per year.
Please e-mail me at the address below if I can be of further help.
Laurie
Laurie Mahaffey
Adult Services/Collection Development Specialist
Central Texas Library System
P. O. Box 2287
Austin TX 78768-2287
512-974-3612
mahaffey_at_ctls.net
Received on Fri Nov 19 2004 - 02:55:22 EST