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Collection Development: Analysis
Need help with analysis? Ask us!
Tools
- Decision Center Recommended Reports (see the Decision Center page for more detailed descriptions of these reports
- Evaluation>Circulation>Top Titles>Popular Titles
- Evaluation>Item Trends>Shelf Location – Current Items
- Evaluation>Turnover>Turnover by Shelf Location (circulation per item)
Selection>Popular Authors (only shows local demand rather than across the entire consortium) - Balancing>Subject Use or Balancing>Collection Use (both very broad overviews of use)
- Evaluation>Circulation>Owning Location>Shelf Location Trends (find transaction counts by item location – “shelf location”)
- Evaluation>Collection>Item Trends>Material Type>Current Items-Added Items
- See webinar recording: Using Decision Center for collection development
- Sierra’s High Demand Holds funtion shows popularity and demand of items across MORE
- U.S. Census data to take a closer look at your community’s demographics
- Collection analysis toolkit from Teaching Books includes collection analysis reports, diversity audit tools, and community needs assessments.
Tips
Questions to ask when assessing your collection:
- Community Needs
- Is the collection meeting the needs and interests of the community?
- Are there unmet information needs in the community that the library could provide? For example: health, social services, sexual/reproductive services, employment services, etc.
- Keep in mind that circulation data may not tell the whole story about community needs.
- Collection Standards
- Is the collection meeting the standards outlined in the library’s collection development policy?
- Is the collection meeting the standards outlined by MORE?
- Age of Collection
- How old/current is the collection?
- How old/current are specific areas of the collection that may age more quickly (for example: non-fiction, Dewey areas)?
- See shelf-life guidelines in the CREW Manual and compare age of collection statistics to these guidelines.
- Collection Usage:
- How is the collection currently being used?
- How has collection use changed over time?
- Would the collection benefit from updating/weeding/promotion to increase usage?
Relative Use equation
Relative Use is the ratio of the percentage of a collection’s circulation vs. the percentage of holdings in that particular area.
- This type of analysis can be broken down into separate library sections or locations
- Goal is a 1:1 ratio
- If relative use is greater than 1, it indicates that circulation is higher than holdings, and we should consider increasing the size of the collection
- If relative use is less than 1, it indicates that circulation is lower than holdings, and we should consider weeding the collection or promoting it to encourage better circulation
- If relative use is near or exactly 1, this indicates that we are adequately adding to and weeding the collection
Diversity Audits
- Diverse Bookfinder collection tool is a free, online tool designed to help diversify picture book collections
- Collection analysis toolkit from Teaching Books includes collection analysis reports, diversity audit tools, and community needs assessments
Article: “Diversity Auditing 101: How to Evaluate your Collection” (School Library Journal) - Article: “How to Conduct a Diversity Audit“ (ALSC)
- Webinar: From Diversity to Inclusion: How to Audit your Collection, and Why (Niche Academy, 80 minutes)
- Webinar: Collection Diversity Audits: 10 Steps to Success (ALA eLearning Solutions, 80 minutes)
- Webinar: Collection Development and Diversity Analysis (KDLA Library Development Branch, 60 minutes)