Who said anything about requiring anyone to have an MLS?
I don't think anybody is disputing that circulation cannot be the only
metric involved in deciding what gets moved to storage/weeded; but I
also don't see how you can keep every volume on the stacks (while
continuing to grow your collection and add new services). Something's
got to give.
As far as selecting what gets weeded, well, you've got to start
somewhere and looking at the materials that haven't circulated in
decades is a reasonable place to start looking.
-Ross, who would be the last person to require an MLS.
On Friday, October 1, 2010, Daniel CannCasciato
<Daniel.CannCasciato_at_cwu.edu> wrote:
> Jimmie Lundgren wrote : "I wanted to mention that in our Marston Science Library studies have been done using the ILS to record usage of items that had to be re-shelved but were not checked out. "
>
> Which is an important bit of information, seems to me. Which was the only point I was making in my remark. (Well, that and I'm tired of leaders mouthing platitudes.) As Tim and Kyle have pointed out as well, the distinction between use and circulation of materials is important. (Although why Tim needs an MLS to validate this observation escapes me.)
>
> Jimmie also wrote: "I also wanted to highlight the importance of fully cataloging storage collections . . . Our pre-1976 documents are now the target of a major cataloging project . . . "
>
> Wow, that's nice to read about. I've often wondered about circ statistics for unused older materials and wondered how much better cataloging would affect the circulation or use of those materials. Back in the old days, we, as a profession, used to routinely under-describe and under-analyze materials. Some of the reason was probably philosophical, but I think a lot it was based on the physical limitations of card or book catalogs. As Jimmie wrote, Hooray and Happy Friday.
>
> Daniel
>
> -------------
> Daniel CannCasciato
> Head of Cataloging
> Central Washington University Library
> 400 E. University Way
> Ellensburg, WA 98926-7548
> dcc_at_cwu.edu
>
Received on Fri Oct 01 2010 - 12:18:40 EDT