SUNYLA 2012 Finding the Right Fit

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FINDING THE RIGHT FIT Designing Collections with Shrinking Budgets and Limited Space arianne Hebert UNY Potsdam UNYLA 2012 ttp://www.slideshare.net/hebertm3308/sunyla-2012-finding-the-right-

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Designing Collections with Shrinking Budgets and Limited Space

Transcript of SUNYLA 2012 Finding the Right Fit

Page 1: SUNYLA 2012 Finding the Right Fit

FINDING THE RIGHT FITDesigning Collections with Shrinking Budgets and Limited Space

Marianne HebertSUNY PotsdamSUNYLA 2012http://www.slideshare.net/hebertm3308/sunyla-2012-finding-the-right-fit

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Scope of the Weeding Project• Crumb Library shelf capacity has been at 0% growth for

many years. • Since 2006, librarians committed to weeding 1-2 hours or

one truck per week. Few librarians met their goal, despite repeated reminders, nagging and scolding.

• 2014 Renovation Project - we need to shift the ENTIRE stacks collection in the Summer of 2012

• ALL volumes on the lower level need to be moved to the 2nd floor

• Need to free up ~526+ shelves or roughly 11,000 volumes in ~ 5 months (8 volumes per linear foot and 2.75 feet per shelf)

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New Weeding Plan (January 2012)

• Two Subcommittees (Collection Development Coordinator)• Periodicals (three CD librarians)• Monographs (three CD librarians + new hire)

• Reference (Reference Coordinator)• Government Document (Gov Docs Librarian)• Education (Education Librarian Liaison)

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Target Collections for Weeding Review

Collection Development Committee decision:

• All bound periodicals with zero circulation or low use• Books in main Stacks collection (1850-1950) with zero

circs

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Aleph Reports – Monographs• ALEPH p_custom_56 Items with zero circulation

• SUBLIBRARY: POTMN • Collection code: FBKS • Transaction date from: 00/00/0000 • Transaction date to: 12/12/2011 • Publication date from: 1850 • Publication date to: 1950 • Include transactions: loans, renewals, in-house • Output includes all items (periodicals, media, etc. in FBKS)

• Output edited in excel to delete all items statuses other than blanks (e.g. WD, LO, MS, SB, BD, etc.)

• Edited to clean up ascii character errors • Edited to delete periodicals and annuals

• Note that this report will include multi-volume titles that are likely to have both items with zero circs as well as items with several circs.

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Aleph Reports – Periodicals• p-custom-56 Items with zero circulation

• SUBLIBRARY: POTMN• Collection code: F1PER (Bound periodicals in stacks)• Transaction Date From: 20020101• Transaction Date To: 20111129• Publication Date To: 0000• Publication Date from: 2013• Include the following transactions: Loans Renewals and

Inhouse • Note that this report will include multi-volume titles that are

likely to have both items with zero circs as well as items with several circs

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Periodicals in FBKS Collection Code

• GUI search on collection code “FBKS” and document type “periodical” to get all bound volumes that had not been transferred to F1PER. Save set to server.

• Services General p-manage-70 to convert records from BIB-to-ITEM

• Services Items p_ret_adm_01 to print circ data for the set.

• Titles with zero circ were added to weeding spreadsheet above

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Sub-Committee Tasks - Gather Data1. ALEPH Circulation Histories (including in-house) prior to 2003

2. ALEPH Circulation data for multivolume sets

3. Serials Solutions Click through statistics (2007-2011)

4. Is it available full text online?• Monographs – HathiTrust, Google Books, Archives.org, esp for pre-1922 publications• Periodicals - Serials Solutions Holding data, publisher sites

5. Do we have the finding tool? Is the periodical indexed anywhere? https://ulrichsweb.serialssolutions.com/

6. Who is this author, person, topic? Check reference sources (Credo, Wikipedia) for background information as necessary

7. Is it currently being cited in the literature? (Google Scholar)

8. Do we other editions, copies, etc. (ALEPH)

9. If the circulation use was low or seldom, was it ILL?• ILLiad canned reports (most loaned journals, most loaned mono)

10. Check JSTOR for “old” book reviews

11. Sometimes data just isn’t enough. Look on the shelf!

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Last Copy in SUNY?• Checking periodicals was complicated…some holdings were split

among several SUNYs• Issue of multiple OCLC records, especially for monographs• Some serial holdings were on different records

(preceding/succeeding titles=mixed up cataloging)• How many editions of a title should SUNY keep? All? Which ones?• Although we value the concept of Last Copy in SUNY…

• We didn’t have resources to check the holdings and post lists, • We didn’t have the space to store volumes, or package and send • It would slow us down• Executive decision was made to NOT offer our discards

• We check last copy on a case-by-case basis, e.g. cool stuff

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Last Copy in SUNY Test

Of 110 periodicals titles targeted for withdrawal during the first week, 7 titles were identified as “last copy”• Eastern economic journal. v. 62 (2002) - v. 65 (2005)• The American midland naturalist. v. 147 (2002) – v. 156 (2006)• Economic development review. v. 7 (1989) - v. 17 (2000) • Canadian seismograph operations. 1974 - 1976 • The journal of behavioral health services & research. v. 25 (1998)-v. 28 (2001) • Report. Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Milk Hygiene. no. 3 (1970) • Texts of communiques and declarations issued after meetings held at

ministerial level during .. / North Atlantic Council. 1997-1998

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Weeding Spreadsheets1. Excel files were split among librarian team members

2. Each librarian reviewed ~50-100 items per week.• Add “Gather Data” information• Add their personal recommendation (Keep, Withdraw, Review Later)

3. Spreadsheets are saved to a shared network folder

4. CD Coordinator merges the 3 spreadsheets into one and uploads to Google Docs:

• Books Example http://bit.ly/KYD8sx• Periodicals Example http://bit.ly/KaReUV

5. Librarians then review other’s recommendations, and add their own recommendation and comments

6. Weekly weeding meeting, titles in “dispute” are discussed and a FINAL decision is made.

K + W = R

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Weeding Spreadsheets Follow-up• Track titles that need meta data work (e.g. add Content

notes or Subject Headings) or journal titles to be added to Serials Solutions. Future plan to catalog freebies online

• Track areas or genres that need to be updated (e.g. “World Literature”) with future purchases

• Update Serials Solutions for missing journal titles or found FT online

• Coordinator takes FINAL spreadsheet and moves “Keep” and ”Review” to other spreadsheets

• The Final Withdraw spreadsheet is “cleaned up” before presenting to faculty for their input

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Communicating with Faculty• Project was announced and described at the Liaisons Luncheon held at the

beginning of the Spring Semester• It was announced in the Library’s Spring Newsletter: http

://www.libraries.potsdam.edu/about/newsletters/ spring2012_news.pdf

• At the beginning of the project, the Library Director sent an email to all faculty about the project: http://potsdam.libguides.com/content.php?pid=301733&sid=2472950

• Each week, a spreadsheet is uploaded to the LibGuides Weeding Project page http://potsdam.libguides.com/weeding

• Each week, a weeding list email is sent to Departmental Faculty Liaisons who forward it to departmental colleagues

• Faculty Feedback form is a Google doc: • http://bit.ly/M1i5DT

• Weeding spreadsheets expire in two weeks, after which they are sent to Technical Services for processing

• An update for Faculty was published in the Library’s Summer newsletter:• http://www.lib.potsdam.edu/about/newsletters/summer2012_news.pdf

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Communicating with Faculty

Along with the weekly “Weeding update” email to Faculty Liaisons, we include interesting facts about our collections:• 13,500 items published between 1850 and 1950 have had

zero circulation since 2003• We do not have a great track record for predicting what

students will need. ~40% of the monographs we purchased between 2005-2009 have not circulated

• S. R. Ranganathan’s The Five laws of library science• Age of the Collection data (SBII)• Age of monographs that circulated in 2011• Donovan, C. A. (1995). On my mind: Deselection and the

Classics. American Libraries, 26(11), 1110.

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About Our Collections

ALEPH

SBII

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SBIIUniqueness /Age Analysis

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SBII Uniqueness / Age Analysis

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SUNY Business Intelligence Initiative Data

• Very general overall picture of the age of the collections• Cannot limit by:

• Collection Code• Sublibrary (we have 3)• Material Type

• How I did it:• Uniqueness/Age Analysis tab• Parameters: Campus Name Publication Year Range Bib record

count

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SBII – Circulation is Declining• http://www2.potsdam.edu/hebertm/SBII%20Circulation%20-%202006-2010.html

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Circulation Data for 2011

ALEPH Services p-custom-51 (Circulation Stats by title) • Collection code: FBKS • Transaction Date range: Jan. 1, 2011-Dec. 31, 2011• Publication dates 1850 to 2012 • Min number of transactions: 1 • Include the following transactions: Loans only, no

renewals, no inhouse

Import into Excel. To get percentages by date and LC, sort columns and count rows for each decade and class manually.

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% of Titles that circulated in 2011 by LC Class

C4D Aspirational Strengths

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A -- GENERAL WORKS

B -- PHILOSOPHY. PSYCHOLOGY. RE-LIGION

C -- AUXILIARY SCIENCES OF HISTORY

D -- WORLD HISTORY

E -- HISTORY OF THE AMERICAS

F -- HISTORY OF THE AMERICAS

G -- GEOGRAPHY. ANTHRO-POLOGY. RECREATION H -- SOCIAL

SCIENCES

J -- POLITICAL SCIENCE

K -- LAW

L -- EDUCATION

N -- FINE ARTS

P -- LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

Q -- SCIENCE R -- MEDICINE

S -- AGRICULTURE

T -- TECHNOLOGY

U -- MILITARY SCIENCE

V -- NAVAL SCIENCE

Z -- BIBLIOGRAPHY. LIBRARY SCIENCE

% of Titles that circulated in 2011 by LC CLASSIFICATION

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2000-2012

1990-1999

1980-1989

1970-1979

1960-1969

1950-1959

1940-1949

1930-19391920-1929 1910-1919

1900-1909

1850-1899

% of titles that Circulated in 2011by Publication Date Decade

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2011 Circulation Data by Publication Date

• Total titles that circulated: 11,034• 2018 titles circulated more than once:  18%• 36% of the titles that circulated were published since

2000.• 3.9% of the books that circulated were published prior

to 1950.• 25 titles circulated more than 10 times• The title with highest circs: 38

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Faculty Feedback so far…• Mostly, faculty wanted the discarded books for their

offices / departments (the answer was NO)• 11 faculty submitted requests to “Keep” (26 titles) via the

Feedback form (we kept all)• 3 faculty contacted me directly via email• A few didn’t make their deadline (expiration date) and the

books were gone• When faculty make it clear what their assignments are

(e.g. history of psychology, Victorian novels, history of technology), we simply either keep titles that would be good (despite zero use), or I contact them directly for feedback

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Tracking progress - Monographs

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Tracking Progress - Periodicals

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Disposition of Materials

1. Local Used Book Dealer (already on contract)

2. Better World Books (already a partner)• BWB Sidewalk sale:

http://www.betterworldbooks.com/category-H0.aspx?SuffixId=31499

3. Dumpster

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Dealing with Weeding Angst

Someone might need this/want this/use this someday!• Students are not finding these books, or they are not

finding them useful• We are weeding part of the collection that has lowest use• We admit upfront that we will probably make weeding

mistakes• We’ve made lots of mistakes in the past by buying books that

never circulated• We don’t fret about all the books we should have purchased,

but didn’t• Many of these books served their purpose back in their day

but are no longer useful today

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Weeding Angst• We continue to make not-so-good purchase decisions

today: we continue to purchase materials that don’t get used

• Curriculum has changed. Course assignments have changed, and materials are no longer relevant

• We have newer or better materials on the same subject• We are expending a great deal of time, money and

professional expertise managing collections that are only partially useful to our users

• Weeded shelves make browsing easier. • We are not a research institution. Our collection

development policy provides the framework for building the collections.

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Weeding Angst• Even if we retain books that aren’t used, if we don’t

change something (discovery, metadata, faculty assignments) the likelihood they will ever be used is slim

• Materials with old publication dates don’t rise to the top of results screens

• Read Jenica Roger’s Attempting Elegance Blog Posts about the weeding project: http://www.attemptingelegance.com/?cat=38

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Weeding Angst

Unanswered Questions• If ILL is the only user of an item, should we keep it

anyway?• Most of our older materials are “primary sources,” but our

current discovery tools make them difficult to discover• Better metadata might help students find the cool books

that don’t circulate, but recataloging these books is not practical

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Collections as a Service• Traditionally we have built the collections with the mindset

that "good" books should be on the shelves.  While this is still true, now when we purchase books, it is more important to think about "what research projects are being assigned NOW, and which books will be needed to fulfill student research needs NOW?"   We are shifting away from a just-in-case mindset to just-in-time.

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Keeping books on the shelf is not free• Shifting collections as LC areas shrink and grow• Shelf reading• Relabeling faded spine labels• Database maintenance, authority work• Lost / Search processes• We lend them on ILL• Books that are not used take up a lot of real estate

that could be put to better use• "It costs $4.26 to keep a book on the shelf per year" - The

Status Quo Has Got To Go: http://www.theconferencecircuit.com/2011/11/06/the-status-quo-has-got-to-go/

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Student research behavior has change

Students do not use traditional research strategies• They don’t intuitively come to the library to do research• They start their research in Wikipedia and Google Scholar• They find library catalogs and databases difficult to use• They don’t use print indexes or print journals• They don’t browse the stacks• They expect easy and instant access to information• Students don't always need a specific book or article, they

just need "something" on their topic• Students aren’t likely to use library resources unless their

faculty require it a part of their assignment. • Most students don’t read Kierkegaard or other classic authors

unless it is assigned.

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Positive Outcomes

• We are MUCH more familiar with the collections• We are identifying areas of the collection that need to be

updated• We are making connections with faculty who use the

collections• We are having better conversations with some faculty

about building and using the collections

• SUNY Potsdam Weeding Teams are AWESOME and doing good work.

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Maintain a Sense of Humor

What if we have a societal meltdown and the government shuts down the internet? (Egypt 2012). • We wouldn’t be able to access HathiTrust or our electronic

resources• We would need print books on how to live off the land:

“Foods America gave the world; the strange, fascinating and often romantic histories of many native American food plants, their origin and other interesting and curious facts concerning them. 1937”

• That one was a KEEPER!

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Weeding Treats Required