ARL’s Collection Analysis Project: continuing feasibility for a medium‐sized academic library

Abstract

Mabee Library at Washburn University, Topeka, USA, has just completed year two of a three-year strategic plan. One area of emphasis in 2002 was collection development. The library wanted to assess its current collection development strategy and review best practices to ensure it was keeping up with the needs of users and adequately addressing the impacts of digital information. The Association of Research Libraries' (ARL) Collection Analysis Project (CAP) was the chosen assessment tool, in part because of its solid reputation, and also to help ARL test CAP's continued viability. CAP's broad emphasis on historical and environmental factors has proven both timeless enough, and inclusive enough, to be used by this non-ARL library and to facilitate a discussion of the impact of technology. The research, data collection, and report writing, however, combine to make CAP a labourintensive ten-month process not to be entered into lightly. Reports on one library's recent experience with CAP, its value in examining staffing, budgeting, and assessment for collection development, and implications for other similar-sized institutions.

Decolonising Library Collections: Contemporary Issues, Practical Steps and Examples from London School of Economics

“…Collection evaluations can be labour-intensive (Guise and Feinmark, 2003), time-consuming and expensive, but worth the investment (Henry, Longstaff, and Van Kampen, 2008). Libraries have adopted different approaches to evaluate their collections; often using quantitative tools such as WorldCat Collection Analysis (Henry, Longstaff, and Van Kampen, 2008;Ciszek and Young, 2010), even though some believe the adequacy of library collections cannot be stated in purely numerical terms (Clapp and Jordan, 1989).…”

Toward a template for systematic reference and instruction programme analysis

“…The idea for standardizing these elements and creating a template is partly based on ARL's Collection Analysis Project (CAP) methodology. The Association of Research Libraries developed the Collection Analysis Project (CAP) assisted self-study methodology to help academic libraries examine their collection development and management programmes in a systematic way (as described by Guise and Feinmark, 2003).…”