Usage-Based Collection Evaluation with a Curricular Focus

Abstract

Systematic evaluation of a library's collection can be a useful tool for collection development. After reviewing three evaluation methods and their usefulness for our small academic library, I undertook a usagebased evaluation, focusing on narrow segments of our collection that served specific undergraduate courses. For each section, I collected data on the number of books owned, number of checkouts in the past four years, and number of unique books used. Using examples from the data, I discuss possible ways to interpret and act on the data. I also note how the knowledge gained from this evaluation fits into the larger toolkit of librarian competencies for collection development.oing collection development well involves a variety of information: about the library's mission, the needs of users, strengths and weaknesses of the current collection, and tools for identifying quality resources. An evaluation of a library's collection can be a useful piece of the collection development toolkit, as it helps the library understand whether the collection is adequate and whether, or in what specific areas, it needs to grow. After reviewing several methods for collection evaluation and considering both their feasibility and the assumptions behind them, I selected usage-based evaluation as the most appropriate method for Arcadia University (in Glenside, PA), and I evaluated selected segments of our library collection based on how heavily they were used. The sections I evaluated were chosen to correspond to specific courses taught at the university. This was not a comprehensive evaluation of the library collection but rather a chance to gather information related to particular sections, namely, the print collection that serves undergraduate courses. My goal was to determine through quantitative measures how these materials were being used and to use the results to direct purchasing and weeding.In this article, I discuss how data fit into the larger picture of librarians' role in collection development and review examples from library literature of the ways in which librarians at other institutions have used data to influence weeding or purchasing. I then explain how I assigned call number ranges to individual courses, namely all the 200-and 300-level courses offered by Arcadia University. This represents the middle levels of Arcadia's undergraduate curriculum, which ranges from 100-level (introductory) to 400-level (usually restricted to seniors). I collected the following data on each call number range: how many books we own, how crl-295

Tips from the Trenches

“…Lesniaski (2004) provides a simplification of White's brief tests, which may be more appealing to smaller college libraries. Kohn (2013) shares the usagebased evaluation performed on narrow segments of the collection that supported particular courses. De Groot, Blecic, and Martin (2013) discuss the complexities found in collecting and analyzing journal use data.…”

Connections, Conversations, and Visibility: How the Work of Academic Reference and Liaison Librarians Is Evolving

“…Examples of this type of collection analysis in the literature include the utilizing usage statistics to gauge the strength of the collection, 37 to provide comparison data with other libraries, 38 and to provide data for discussions with faculty about the types of assignments used in and thus resources needed for their courses. 39 Additional examples include database overlap comparisons, 40 analyzing reference chat transcripts to improve management of electronic resources, 41 and combining usage statistics with citation studies to evaluate a large journal package. 42 While these are just a smattering of examples, they represent attempts to match collections to curriculum and faculty research needs, and to provide librarians a more systematic way of crafting the best collection for the library's constituents.…”

Creating a Library-Wide Collection Management Cycle: One Academic Library’s Approach to Continuous Collection Assessment

“…By using a representative model, cross-unit feedback is built into the committee structure and lessens the risk of creating processes and programs that neglect any potential stakeholder expertise and concerns. At other institutions, the creation of an ongoing process for collections management has been led by individual staff (Kelly, 2014;Kohn, 2013) or librarians in the areas of technical services or assessment (Duncan & O'Gara, 2015;Luther & Guimarães, 2016). One of the challenges of drafting an on-going process for collection assessment by committee was that the group had to propose and create workflows that would be implemented by several departments across the library.…”