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Assessment

What is Collection Assessment?

Collection assessment means taking a closer look at your collection. You start with a particular section of your collection and you analyze it. It's designed to help you improve your collection and eventually your level of service to your patrons. Much of this lesson is based upon a Collection Assessment Workshop presented by Dr. Mary Bushing in Wolf Point, MT in 2002.

Why bother with collection assessment?

  • You find out what you really have on the shelf
  • You set goals for your collection
  • You look at your collection through the eyes of your patrons

How does collection assessment work?

  1. Start small by assessing just one part of your collection. You can start at the beginning of your collection or you can start with a particular area that you want to know more about. If you've never done collection assessment, start with an easier area of the non-fiction like the religion or medical section. Don't start with the literature section where there's a lot more guesswork involved in the process. Build confidence before moving on to the tougher sections.

  2. Look at the section through the eyes of your patrons. What do you see?
    • Is the section inviting?
    • Is it dusty and/or old looking?
    • Would you want to check a book out or browse this area?
  3. How big is the section?
    • Count the number of shelves in a section.
    • Estimate the number of books in a section. If it's small, you can count the number. If it's a larger section just count the number on one shelf and times that number by the number of shelves.
  4. How old is the section?
    • If it's a small section with 20 books or less, write down whatever date you can find. It may be the copyright date, publication date or something similar. You just need an approximate date.
    • If this is a large section, take a sampling. For example, choose every 10th book and then write down the date.
    • Now analyze how old your collection is. How many books are 2000 and newer? How many are 1990 and newer?
  5. Do you need to weed anything? DON'T weed right now. That's hard to do, but you'll find yourself frustrated with how long it takes you to assess your collection, if you try to do everything at once. Just make a note to yourself if you realize that a section needs to be weeded. Signs that it might need to be weeded:
    • Is the book old? For some sections, this isn't as much of an issue. But in the medical or science section, you don't want books that are 20 years old.
    • Is it musty or damaged?
    • How often has it been checked out?
  6. What kind of coverage do you have in a section? Are you missing areas? Does your religious section only cover Western religion? If so, you may want to purchase a book that covers several Eastern religions. Write down what areas you need to purchase more items in.

  7. Mending needs, problem labels, etc.? If you see anything that looks like it needs to be fixed, go ahead and pull it from the shelf. Try not to get wrapped up in this type of thing. Your purpose is to try and improve your collection and create a section that is useful and attractive to patrons. To do this you need to take time to assess the collection and develop goals for the section. One of these goals may be to mend some books or change labels, but if you try to do all that right now you'll become frustrated with how slowly you are moving through the section.

  8. Write down your goals for the section and then work on achieving them.

Assessing may seem like too much work, but it helps you see what you really have in your library. You will also find it helpful to add what you've found in assessing your collection to your collection development policy. A really good policy will help you choose wisely when ordering and/or removing items in your collection. If you have a good description of your collection, then you know what steps to take to move towards a better collection. To make assessment easier, try to set aside 15 minutes each day to assess a section of the collection. It may seem like it takes forever this way, but eventually you will work your way through the collection. Remember the longest journeys start with a single step.

Homework

Follow the above steps for your medical section. This would be call numbers 615-629. If you have a huge medical section, then choose a few shelves. It's best to do it in ranges like 615-620, but I don't want you to be overwhelmed by this project. If you have questions, please give me a call or email me. I'm here to help you. This homework is designed to give you practical experience with doing collection assessment. When you're finished, email me a short summary of what you found. List any goals you have. My contact info is Maggie Meredith.