Collection AssessmentsReference Librarian WorkshopDecember 12, 2011 9:30 AM, updated and revised on October 30, 2012 by the CMDG committee

Purpose and Objectives of Collection Assessments• Gives an overall view of your collection.• Helps to justify expenditures.• Enhances the school’s academic curriculum. • Functions as a means of support for accreditation.• Aids in collection development.

First steps

1. Get a blank copy of the Conspectus sheets from Jan.

2. Use Vger select to count the number of items according to call number range.

3. Fill in the corresponding numbers on the conspectus sheets.

Conspectus Sheets • Collection Language and Codes• CL= Collection Level• AC= Acquisitions Level• GL= Goal Level• PC= Preservation Code (this is always a “2.”)• The “2” indicates that “some cleaning and mending may be

used to repair damage from normal use. Material is retained for its useful life. Environmental conditions are maintained for the average conditions acceptable for most formats in the collection.”• Please note that the Emergency Management doctorate

will require this to be a 5 when it comes to EM materials.

Collection Levels

• Collection Levels are determined by curriculum support. • The levels vary for each discipline.• To find your collection level look at the

Collection Management and Development Policy and find your subject. Then look at D. Treatment of Subject or your last assessment. • Collection levels may change from assessment to

assessment based on the addition or deletion of programs.

Collection Depth Indicators2a= less than 5% Basic Information Level Introductory

2b= 5%-10% Basic Information Level Advanced

3a= 11%-15% Basic Study or Instructional Support Level

3b= 16%-20% Intermediate Study or Instructional Support Level

3c= 21%-25% Advanced Study or Instructional Support Level

4-5=26%-30% Research and Comprehensive Levels

Determining your collection level

• Normally this is calculated in the Titles Added/ Titles Published portion of the assessment.

• This information is usually on the second page of the assessment.

• We used to use Blackwell Collection Manager, but now we use Yankee Book Peddler: http://www.ybp.com/title_reports.html

Determining Acquisition Levels• This is a little trickier. • It is helpful to calculate the growth in your collection to get an

accurate percentage of how fast your collection is growing. Doug had to help me with the formula:

• Present Vger count- Past Vger count= x• x/ Past Vger count= n• n x 100= result

Determining Goal Levels• Goal Levels usually reflect your Collection Level.• Sometimes you may have a class range on your conspectus

sheets that is not something that should be collected as aggressively. It is within the discretion of the Librarian to determine the level at which it should be collected.

Basic Structure of the Assessment

• Introduction• Holdings• Titles Added/ Titles Published• Monograph Expenditures • Periodicals and Serials portion• Serials Expenditures• Ebooks• Non-print Media • Supplemental Support• Summary (Strengths and Weaknesses)• Listing of Checked Bibliographies• Appendix (for withdrawals or listing of periodicals in Serials Solution,

this can be your choice)

Introduction• Based on guidelines provided by the WLN Collection Assessment

Services, which provide a framework within which to evaluate a library's current holdings and the level of activity at which the collection is being developed, the Music collection is rated an overall 3cP (Advanced Study or Instructional Support Level, in the primary language). The 3c level indicates that there are “resources adequate for imparting and maintaining knowledge about all aspects of the topic, which are more extensive than the intermediate level, but less than those needed for doctoral and independent research.” The Music Department offers a Master of Arts with a major in music with two different concentrations: General Music or Music Education. Those who choose Music Education as their concentration focus on either Instrumental or Choral/ Vocal study. Please refer to the Music conspectus sheets and checklist analysis for a more detailed examination of the library's holdings.

Holdings

The Music collection contains 22,378 titles in the M, ML, and MT Library of Congress Classification ranges. This is an increase of 334 titles since the last assessment in April of 2004.

The numbers of titles held for the subdivisions of this subject area are listed below:M Music 12,206ML Literature on Music 7,132MT Music Instruction 3,040E-Books (M, ML, and MT) 206Total count 22,584

Please note that patrons also have unmediated access to millions of volumes through our universal borrowing agreements with other libraries in the state.

Titles Added/ Titles Published• Using Yankee Book Peddler http://www.ybp.com/title_reports.html

• Determine the call number range and find the number of titles added for the last five years and check this against the number of titles the library added for the last five years. Ask Ms. Bevis for this information:

Titles added:P87-P99 PN1990-PN 1997 PN 4001-PN

56392006/07 - 30 44 432007/08 - 31 31 332008/09 - 17 32 232009/10 - 24 45 352010/11 - 26 33 29

Monograph Expenditures • Ask Ms. Bevis for this information:Books2004/05 - $ 5,518.182005/06 - $ 3,573.782006/07 - $ 3,724.652007/08 - $ 4,239.132008/09 - $ 2,916.11

Periodicals and Serials

• Using Serials Solutions: http://we8af9qh2e.search.serialssolutions.com/

• Find your subject area by browsing journals by

subject. Then count the number of journal titles for your subject area. It is useful to compare the number of journal titles to the last assessment. These numbers usually go up every year when we add databases!

• Ask Ms. Bevis for the Serials Expenditures.

Ebooks

• Determine the call number range you’d like to add to your assessment and email Ms. Poe. She can get you a listing of the Ebooks added to the collection.

Non-Print Media• To get AV counts for your call number ranges please

look on the Library Policies page (http://www.jsu.edu/library/information/policies.html) for Using VgerSelect to get AV Materials information.• These counts are generally low, but the Films on

Demand and VAST databases have helped to supplement this area.• The databases above can be searched by your

subject area.

Access to Electronic Resources• This section allows you to discuss noteworthy databases and eBooks that help to enhance the collection.

• It also lets you mention the remote access of databases that can be of special usefulness to students and faculty outside of normal working hours.

• A good example of defined access comes from the Sociology and Social Work Assessment of 2012: “Defined Access means more than simply providing patrons with access to the Internet through one or more Internet browsers. It refers to menu options on the library or institution's homepage, etc., which link the user to owned or remotely accessible electronic resources selected by the library with the needs of its patrons in mind. Because the Library provides access to electronic journals, documents, e-books, and video databases along with integrated, quality web sites that encompass the area of Sociology and Social Work, the Library's electronic collection in this subject area is rated a 3 (Study or Instructional Support level).”

Supplemental Support

• In this section discuss which holdings provide supplementary support to your collection.

• These are resources which you may or may not collect, but that provide additional information for your main subject areas.

Summary• This part of the assessment allows you to discuss in detail

some of the changes which have occurred since the last assessment.

• Here, you can discuss your strengths and weaknesses and maybe discuss increases in spending for the collection or mention how certain areas of the collection need to be collected more heavily.

Listing of Checked Bibliographies

• Usually this includes ARBA for the last five years and Choice’s Outstanding Academic Titles for the last five years.

• Magazines for Libraries should be included for periodicals too.

• You can add any additional bibliographies you may like to include.

Appendix

• For the appendix, I usually put a listing of the journal titles from Serials Solutions and the withdrawal counts.• Ms. Poe can assist you with gaining access to the

number of withdrawals, and it might be a good idea to include a discussion of this in your monograph narrative. It may explain why some numbers appear to be down.

• This can be done at your discretion.

Final Thoughts• Assessments are personal for each floor librarian.

• There are several key points to every assessment as has been discussed with the previous slides.

• For additional help and information you can locate past assessments here: http://www.jsu.edu/library/information/collection_assessments.html

• Always, feel free to ask me. I am happy to help!