Next-Level Collection Analysis

What are we getting? Why are we getting it? What do our users need? Deep collections analysis starts with asking the right questions. It also requires adaptability, which is why it can be so enlightening to hear from practitioners outside your usual sphere: their insights can help you become more well-rounded by revealing unexpected approaches and methods. Think of this book as an opportunity to grab a coffee with twenty groups of colleagues, all of whom share the practical steps they're taking to review various types of collections. Regardless of your library's type, size, or location you'll gain valuable wisdom to apply in your own context, through chapters that explore topics like a historical overview of collection development, discussing its origins, key milestones, and the emerging trends that continue to shape how libraries build and manage their collections to serve diverse communities; allocation formulas, including relative use (RU), and other data-informed techniques for making collection development decisions; cleaning up data to improve discovery and circulation; systematic weeding, diversity auditing, and other de-selection topics; an evaluation of emerging technologies in general collection assessment, open access support, and bibliometrics; practical strategies for working smarter, not harder, when analyzing school library collections; leveraging a variety of data points—such as shelf allocation, materials' physical size, circulation, percentage of items out, collection efficiency—for collection analysis and maintenance; how a college library's collection review project resulted in a more focused, usable, and useful collection for students, faculty, staff, and community members; proactive methods for forecasting collection needs by utilizing third-party university labor market information, institutional program completion data, and OCLC's Choreo Insights; data visualization as a tool for evaluating archival collection scopes; and using the KNIME Analytics Platform, a free and open-source environment, for overlap analysis in shared and collaborative collections.