CDL: Assessing political bias in library collections

From: John P. Abbott <AbbottJP_at_appstate.edu> Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 14:41:29 -0500 To: Colldv-l <COLLDV-L_at_usc.edu>

Subject: Assessing political bias of library collections
From: TADL Ref Desk <refdesk_at_tcnet.org>

Message cross posted. Please excuse duplicates.

Is there a "formula" or accepted or reliable way to assess or measure 
the political "bias" of a library collection?

I have checked various list archives with these keywords alone and in
combination without success:

agenda, bias, collection, conservative, content, indicators, 
influence, liberal, perception, philosophy, political, politics, slant

I did find a couple letters to the editor about checking "liberal" and
"conservative" authors in World Cat for the number of holding 
libraries but that just doesn't quite fit the question.

Thank you.

Katheryn Carrier
Reference

refdesk_at_tcnet.org
Traverse Area District Library                      231.932.8500
610 Woodmere Avenue			       	fax 231.932.8578
Traverse City, Michigan 49686-3347