Collection Development and Management Commons^™

An Infographic Is Worth A Thousand Words: Using Data Visualization To Engage Faculty In Collection Strategies, Beth D. Bohstedt

Charleston Library Conference

Like the rest of us, faculty are less likely to read a table of data than to engage with a pictorial representation of the same information. Using words and visuals together has been proven to increase understanding and interest. This paper will describe recent efforts at Hamilton College to engage our stakeholders, especially faculty, in the assessment, analysis, and development of our library collections. Using graphs, charts, and other visual representations, we effectively presented our current state, acquisitions history, trends in checkouts and electronic hits, and budget allocation. Included here is a summary of the types of data chosen to …

Time To Take New Measures: Developing A Cost-Per-Cited-Reference Metric For The Assessment Of E-Journal Collections, Megan G. Kilb, Virginia B. Martin, Tessa L. Minchew

Charleston Library Conference

The current primary quantitative measure of e-journal subscription return-on-investment (ROI) is cost-per-use (CPU). While CPU is widely used, it also widely criticized and should not be relied on to the exclusion of other factors when assessing ROI. Because CPU is an imperfect measure, the authors developed a new, complementary metric for evaluating e-journal subscription ROI: Cost-per-cited reference (CPCR). CPCR assigns a dollar value to each citation of a particular journal by authors affiliated with the subscribing institution during a specified time period. By focusing on the content that researchers cite in their scholarly output, a CPCR metric assists in measuring …

Efficient Deselection And Other Stories: A Fellowship At Unc Charlotte, Stephen G. Krueger

Charleston Library Conference

This paper will describe the collection development project done by a summer fellow at the J. Murrey Atkins Library at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The project took place over the summer of 2016. The fellow worked with the health sciences librarian and the collection development librarian to assess the health sciences resources held by the library. Elements included compiling acquisition recommendations, surveying faculty and other health sciences librarians, drafting a collection development policy, and recommending titles for deselection. The deselection section also served as a pilot for a larger library-wide project.

Stretching Your Dollars: Saving On Online Content, Linda Creibaum, Jeff Bailey

Charleston Library Conference

This session, led by two librarians with decades of combined acquisitions experience, was based on the premise that although quality databases can be expensive and only the most fortunate of libraries have unlimited or even plentiful financial resources, there are ways to save funds on these resources. The presenters shared their knowledge about ways to stretch finite library acquisitions funds.

Linda Creibaum and Jeff Bailey emphasized tools and strategies attendees could use to save valuable funds on databases and subscriptions. Discussion topics included consortial and volume discounts, the advantages of taking a trial, the importance of keeping notes and checking …

Where Is The Library Budget Going? Using Ils Fund Codes And Reports For Fiscal Accountability, Debbi Smith

Charleston Library Conference

Our collections continue to migrate to an online environment, but often administrators outside the library are tied to fiscal concepts that do not reflect new formats and modes of access. Administrators look at electronic resource expenditures and don’t always understand that they are not just for databases but also for e-journals and e-books that can be subscribed to or owned. Fund code structures that are built into instrument landing systems (ILS) such as Innovative’s Sierra can be used to demonstrate how material budgets are expended by format and function, which can then be tied into more formal assessment and analysis …

Budgeting In An Academic Library: A Lively Lunch Discussion, Karin Wikoff

Charleston Library Conference

Are you always seeking to improve budgeting in your academic library? Are you fascinated by the challenge of predicting costs for subscriptions? I went on an "Academic Library Budgeting Roadshow," and had discussions with peers at seven other institutions. In this session, I will present a summary of my findings, then pose the same questions to the group. We'll discuss everything from the budget process and timeline, to allocating funds, to predicting subscription costs, to what you do if you go over or under budget, to flexibility, to deposit accounts, to Zero-Based Budgeting, to the biggest challenges we each face. …

Giving Subject Specialists The Tools They Need To Succeed: The Collection Development Training Manual At The University Of Maryland, Margaret Z. Saponaro

Charleston Library Conference

The University of Maryland Libraries (UMD) employs over 40 librarians with collection development responsibilities. These subject specialists represent a range of varying experience levels with collection development—from new librarians to seasoned veterans. Although many subject specialists are required to use the same tools for their collection development activities, materials to support these activities were not always easy to find, nor was there one place available to direct new subject specialists who needed resources to assist them with their responsibilities. This paper describes the process undertaken to develop of a toolkit for materials for subject specialists at the UMD Libraries, including …

Don’T Share This Item! Developing Digital Collections And Services In A Consumer‐Licensed World, William M. Cross, Darby Orcutt

Charleston Library Conference

Libraries have always faced unique challenges in providing non‐academic content for academic use, but the digital age has brought particular problems of “one size fits all” consumer purchase models and vexing methods of digital rights management (DRM), wrapped up with a large bow of legal uncertainty for many institutions. These proceedings describe some practices for sharing consumer‐licensed popular materials and confronting legal and technical barriers, as well as what some libraries are considering and encountering in applying the law, fair use, user expectations, and common sense in developing collections and services around digital content that is geared directly to end …

Mitigating Madness: How We Authenticate And Authorize Users To Deliver Databases In A Contractually Complicated Context, Jeremy M. Brown, Geoffrey P. Timms

Charleston Library Conference

During the 2011 overhaul of the Mercer University Libraries website we developed an authentication system to interface with EZProxy and our campus Active Directory system that provides convenient management and delivery of our A–Z database listing. With multiple campuses and seven e‐resource privilege groups, we were able to provide persistent URLs for databases to subject librarians, dynamic database lists based upon users’ access privileges, convenient integration with our content management system, and a simple backend management interface requiring little expertise to use. We then sought to improve the situation by organizational and license simplification before our 2014 website overhaul: We …

Balancing Bananas: Collection Assessment Of Patron‐Driven Acquisitions, Gabrielle Wiersma, Rhonda Glazier, Denise Pan, Stephanie Spratt

Charleston Library Conference

The libraries in the University of Colorado (CU) System have been using patron‐driven acquisitions (PDA) to build a shared collection of e‐books for many years. This paper presents our experiences as both early adopters of PDA and libraries with longstanding PDA e‐book programs and describes an analysis of how PDA has impacted collections at each of the libraries in the CU System.

Interrogating Demand: Pathways Toward Purchase In Patron‐Influenced E‐Book Models; University Of California‐Wide Demand‐Driven Acquisitions—E‐Book Hopes And Dreams Revisited, Kerry P. Scott

Charleston Library Conference

From January 2013 to date, the University of California has piloted a system‐wide e‐book demand driven access (DDA) program comprised of University Press publications in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. This paper reviews the pilot’s progress, specifically focusing on how well it has achieved the hopes and dreams laid out by several of the participating campus librarians prior to the pilot’s launch.

Interrogating Demand: Pathways Toward Purchase In Patron‐Influenced E‐Book Models, Jim Dooley

Charleston Library Conference

E‐books are available to academic libraries through a wide variety of acquisition models. The University of California, Merced (UC Merced) Library has used demand‐driven acquisitions (DDA) as its principal model for providing access to e‐books from its founding in 2005 to the present. This paper will discuss the influence of the situation at UC Merced on the implementation of DDA plans for e‐books and the results of the most recent five years of operations of these plans.

Three Heads Are Better Than One: Organizational Changes In Collection Management Leadership, Barbara A. Bishop, Adelia B. Grabowsky, Liza Weisbrod

Charleston Library Conference

Financial pressures, shrinking staff, shifting user expectations, and advances in format access and availability mean that organizational change seems to have become a constant in today’s academic library. The area of collection management has not been immune from change; the increasing emphasis on electronic formats, questions about access versus ownership, and the rise of open access have all required adjustment in managing collections. Even with all this change, most academic libraries have retained an organizational structure with a single person serving as a collection management coordinator or decision maker. This presentation details the shift in one academic library from a …

Developing A Weighted Collection Development Allocation Formula, Jeff Bailey, Linda Creibaum

Charleston Library Conference

In this preconference workshop Bailey and Creibaum gave attendees detailed instruction on how to create a spreadsheet‐based library collection development allocation formula, one option to manage a library’s collection development budget. The presenters demonstrated and led participants through the process of creating customizable Excel‐based formulas that can be modified to utilize the criteria relevant to a specific library and institution. The primary element in the success of such a formula is the use of weights applied to each factor contained in the spreadsheet. Potential factors include the number of students majoring in a degree program, total faculty per department, departmental …

Aligning Collections With Emerging Needs In Research Informatics, Heidi J. Tebbe, Darby Orcutt

Charleston Library Conference

Some of the North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries’ largest investments are in collections, digital library development, and technology‐rich collaborative spaces. The goal of the NCSU Libraries Fellows Program initiative, "Aligning Collections with Emerging Needs in Research Informatics," is to ensure these areas leverage one another to the benefit of our users in support of emerging research informatics needs through licensing and acquisition of new data sources, as well as leveraging the capabilities of new high‐tech library spaces. Over its two years, this initiative seeks to address and mainstream subject specialists’ and selectors’ consideration of high‐tech research informatics needs of …

Cost Per User: Analyzing Ezproxy Logs For Assessment, Tiffany M. Lemaistre

Charleston Library Conference

Cost per use has long been a staple of collection development decision‐making for electronic resources, but what of the users behind those retrieval and search counts? Questions about the interdisciplinary usage of an e‐resource, the depth of integration into a given program or course, and who will miss it if it is cancelled are generally relegated to the realm of anecdotal evidence. Researchers at Nevada State College have made efforts to remedy this gap in knowledge by analyzing EZProxy logs, which can be set up to capture unique user identifiers at the point of authentication into library electronic resources. When …

The User‐Driven Collection 4.0: The Next Phase In User‐Driven Monographic Acquisition, Darby Orcutt

Charleston Library Conference

For more than a decade, the North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries has had some level of user-driven collecting. Periodically building upon the success of these programs, which has often entailed pushing vendor and library systems beyond their current capacities, the Libraries is now poised to move most of our monographic selection into user‐driven pools.

What Are We Thinking? Collections Decisions In An Academic Library, Tasha Cooper, Linda Galloway, Shannon Pritting

Charleston Library Conference

When faced with multiple competing priorities for investment in library resources, there are many important aspects to consider. From student enrollment to prominence of programs, there are both data‐driven and intangible factors to weigh. In addition, most library collections now focus on the immediate needs of students and researchers instead of collecting for posterity. This just‐in‐time versus just‐in‐case collection development mindset prioritizes different resource attributes and requires an often unfamiliar level of acquisitions flexibility.

Collection development in academic libraries is challenging and complex. Some of the complexity is the result of numerous choices including, but not limited to:

Collection building …

Managing, Marketing, And Measuring Open Resources, Trey Shelton, Steven Carrico, Ann Lindell, Tara T. Cataldo

Charleston Library Conference

Academic libraries face many opportunities and challenges in managing, marketing, and measuring open resources (OR). Many questions arise when incorporating OR into an academic library collection. How do libraries select quality OR for inclusion in the collection? What tools and practices are used to manage electronic access? How can libraries better market OR to faculty? How can libraries measure the use and usefulness of OR? This paper outlines a project launched to improve the management of OR at the University of Florida’s George A. Smathers Libraries; as well as incorporating feedback garnered at the Charleston Conference discussion forum on the …

Multiplying By Division: Mapping The Collection At University Of North Texas Libraries, Karen Harker, Janette Klein, Laurel Crawford

Charleston Library Conference

The University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries has developed a unique collection assessment tool, the Collection Map, to provide support for a new access‐based collection development philosophy. UNT Librarians realized the limitations of traditional assessment methods to gauge the impact of emerging acquisitions models such as demand‐driven acquisitions (DDA) and large interdisciplinary e‐book collections. What was needed was a flexible, nimble assessment system to track access, holdings, and interlibrary loan (ILL) activity for each academic discipline. The Collection Map is a database that links items, and their associated data, to any one of several dozen overlapping subcollections via Library of …

The Unknown Path—Evaluating Electronic Resources For Access‐Based Collection Development, Laurel S. Crawford, Erin Miller, Mark Henley

Charleston Library Conference

In 2015, the University of North Texas Libraries implemented an access‐based collection development policy. This new policy, coupled with the increase of interdisciplinary studies at the University, dictated the necessity for a more exhaustive evaluation of continuing resources such as databases, journals, and standing orders before they are purchased. The collection development department created a rubric of criteria to address all aspects of the evaluation. This article will provide a brief description of access‐based collection development and a detailed discussion of the rubric’s criteria and how it will be implemented.

Preserving The Past For The Future: Moving Toward Best Practices And Tools For Thoughtful Monographic Withdrawal, Mary Miller, Jennifer Teper

Charleston Library Conference

This paper presents significant findings from a 2015 survey of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and Oberlin Group Libraries to learn how institutions make decisions to withdraw or retain print monographs. The survey was part of a two‐pronged national study led by preservation and conservation experts to better understand which kinds of data, policies, data sharing mechanisms, and other communication strategies libraries use and need to make informed decisions about monograph withdrawals in their collections. This study reviews how policies are (or aren’t) developed, what kinds of data are (or aren’t) used, and which stakeholders are (or aren’t) consulted. …

Teetering Between Two Systems For Managing E‐Book Records, Stephen Francoeur, Michael Waldman

Charleston Library Conference

Drawing on our experience with the Primo discovery service at Baruch College, we will discuss the extent to which libraries can expect that they can treat e‐book packages in discovery services in the same manner that they treat journal packages. Given that many libraries are still trying to bridge parallel systems for the discovery of e‐books—the catalog and the discovery service—this presentation will help organize the problem so that we can develop a deeper understanding of the challenges and outline a map for charting the way ahead.

A New Kind Of Social Media Strategy: Collecting Zines At The Vassar College Library, Heidy Berthoud

Charleston Library Conference

“Where do we go from here?” One way that the Vassar College Library is answering this question is by making concerted efforts to promote unique or rarely held materials—that is, nurturing collections that will make us stand out from the crowd. With that goal in mind, the Vassar College Library has spent the past year working to create a collection of zines.

This article will discuss the importance of social media in the acquisition of zines, using the Vassar College Library’s experience as an example. Zines are DIY, self‐published materials that are a vibrant and creative way to represent diverse …

Libraries In A Bind: Practical Solutions And Human Responses To A Weeding Mandate, Alex D. Mcallister, Allan Scherlen, Christina Mayberry, Kathy Marks, Carla Caforio

Charleston Library Conference

Many university libraries are currently engaged in major weeding projects as they reduce their print book collections to make room for new space configurations to accommodate emerging library trends such as makerspaces and transitioning toward a predominately e‐book collection.To address such a deselection project effectively requires both practical solutions and tact in dealing with faculty who seriously value their collections of print books. Librarians from two universities will share practical approaches to managing a large weeding project and for dealing diplomatically with book users affected. Representatives for deselection project services will also offer insights into their logistic support for handling …

Leveraging Use‐By‐Publication‐Age Data In Serials Collection Decisions, Matthew J. Jabaily, James R. Rodgers, Steven A. Knowlton

Charleston Library Conference

Traditionally, usage figures for electronic serials have lumped all years of publication together. New tools give librarians information about usage according to the year of publication. They allow us to analyze the usage of current material separately from usage of content published in prior years. The relative value of current subscriptions and backfiles has important collection development implications. For example, many libraries subscribe directly to titles that are offered in aggregated databases, but with embargoes. The relative value of current content distinguished from prior years may be useful in reevaluating such subscription decisions.

This paper discusses tools and techniques for …

Review In Motion: Multi‐Year Electronic Resources Review At Uta Libraries, Peter Zhang, Ashley Zmau

Charleston Library Conference

With a flat budget and ever increasing inflation for serials, UTA Libraries chose to embark on a multi‐year electronic resources review process. Targeting low hanging fruits, the first step was to review subscription journals included in aggregator databases. This initial review process was also a relatively straightforward step to help new liaisons in a newly created Outreach & Scholarship department to get their “feet wet” with collection development. As liaisons became more acclimated, the second step in the following year was to review all single e‐journal subscriptions, distributed amongst all liaisons. Guidelines and metrics were created to facilitate the review …

Dollars And Sense: Examining The Rfp Process, J. Michael Thompson, Arta Kabashi, Carol Seiler, Eileen M. Condon

Charleston Library Conference

While the Request for Proposal (RFP) is not an activity that all librarians encounter continually, it is an endeavor that all library service groups and companies undertake as an essential part of their ongoing operations. This article summarizes the 2015 Charleston session entitled “Dollars and Sense: Examining the RFP Process” which delved into the RFP process from multiple viewpoints, serving both as a review of the process itself and as an investigation of how the process can generate positive results for all parties involved. The panel consisted of a librarian from a large academic library, a librarian from a medium‐sized …

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe: E‐Books Changed Our Workflow, Denise D. Novak, Terry Hurlbert

Charleston Library Conference

As the popularity and sheer number of e‐books increased, it became evident that our existing process or workflow for acquiring and cataloging them would need some modification. This presentation will explain how the Carnegie Mellon University Libraries Technical Services implemented changes in workflow for ordering and cataloging e‐books. Including the topics of technology, user expectations, and getting reference librarians on board, we’ll cover the why of e‐books, what has gone well, and where we go from here.

Reconciling E‐Book Packages At Ncsu Libraries, Christee Pascale, Xiaoyan Song

Charleston Library Conference

As e‐books become an increasingly large part of our collection, the NCSU Libraries acquisition and discovery department created an e‐book reconciliation database to ensure that all of our purchased e‐book package content is available in the ILS and throughout the Libraries discovery layers and to create definitive title lists that associate and articulate e‐book titles with package purchases. This tool compares vendor title lists against ILS metadata in order to identify missing titles and generate reports. The paper will discuss what prompted the development of the database; present the e‐book data flow in NCSU Libraries and e‐book reconciliation workflows designed …