Managing and Analyzing Your Collection: A Practical Guide for Small Libraries and School Media Centers

by American Library Association, Carol A. Doll

Measure twice, cut once. . . . If you can follow a cookbook, you can use these simple "recipes"―calculations, formulas, and measurements―to come up with statistics for analysis and management of your collection. Using measures of timeliness, relevancy, use percentages, user profiles, and comparisons, you can determine in quantitative ways the quality of your library's collection. From there, you can communicate its value to your customers and that's the name of the game! By gathering concrete statistical evidence, you will be in a position to weed appropriately and make decisions about future market-targeted acquisitions. An added bonus is that you can create a research-based profile of your total library―its collection and users―that you can present to budget-makers and potential funders. These time-tested, step-by-step directions show even the most math-phobic how This easy-to-understand system is perfect for busy librarians and managers who want to systematize the management of their collections. Take advantage of the insights of this expert author team and their unique and practical collection analysis methods!

Genres: Professional Development, Nonfiction

93 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Toastkat · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Impressions: Again, this book is outdated and refers to studies done in the late 1980's and early 1990's. And while there is some validation in these studies, I would feel better about reading an updated version of this book with these studies done again with newer generations of readers. While the title says "Small Libraries and School Media Centers", there is a heavy bias towards school media centers and school libraries as opposed to public libraries that serve smaller communities. However, as someone who is running an ongoing collection maintenance project, I will continue reading in search of additional analysis tools and methods.

Thoughts Continued: After completely reading through this guide, my original thought remains. Dated, and biased towards school libraries specifically, but there is still a wealth of information to be had in such a small volume. There are dozens of charts, graphs, and samples to help a librarian of any sized library or media center gather information that can be analyzed for a multitude of purposes. I almost ran out of post its, flagging charts and figures for copying!

[Jaq · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful and full of great practical tips (even if it's a little dated now), I learnt a few new ways of managing and analysing the collection held by the special library I'm working in.

It's a great start for basic collection management. (I especially liked that they had devoted a chapter to the issues of weeding the collection).