Comments on: How We Build Collections

By: Social Science Advisory Group – Notes from Fall 2009 Mtg. « LIS Advisory Groups

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:43:27 +0000

[...] Library Materials budget: (Joe Toth). Last year the budget was cut 5% mid year (i.e. -$78,000) then was level-funded this year. But because our subscriptions go up (this year it was less than usual because some publishers held the line), it resulted in the need to cut $100,000 from the materials budget. In response, book selecting by librarians was shut down early last year, database usage stats were examined and low use databases were cancelled, and the book/media budget for this year was reduced. LIS will rely more on NExpress for borrowing and reduce duplication with those libraries and will do more strategic purchasing in the future. Overall book circulation is declining and statistics show that overall, there is higher circulation of materials selected by librarians, followed by approval books (profiles) followed by faculty selections. Ann commented that faculty need to be made aware of these cuts and be asked to reduce their ordering. However, there is great variation in ordering by faculty, so only those faculty who do heavy ordering may need to pull back (selections should support the curriculum in any case) and liaisons can contact those faculty if needed. Joe responded that he will soon be sending out a collection development newsletter that will help explain all this to the rest of faculty. [This newsletter has since been sent out via email as "Library Collection News" and parts of it can be found here.] [...]

By: jtoth

jtoth — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:17:29 +0000

Jason,

Serials be the subject of another post, as they represent subscription rather than one-time costs, a whole other ballgame. We review databases usage stats yearly, some of which include journal usage, and journal subscriptions every three years, mainly because we don’t want to burden faculty with an annual canvassing of periodicals. The next serials review is due in FY11. In the interim, please submit journal requests to your liaison along with suggestions on current titles you think are no longer relevant. Be prepared, however, for colleagues to announce that the titles you cast in doubt are central to their work, but please don’t allow possible disagreement to foreclose offering your opinions–we need them to gauge the continued suitability of our subscriptions.

FYI: this article will appear in Library Collections News, a PDF newsletter I’ll be sending to faculty shortly. The main articles in LCN also will appear in this blog. LCN may evolve into a forum in which related collections matters may be discussed holistically among faculty and LIS. I asked LIS for permission to send out a separate newsletter on collections because I sense many faculty members focus very sharply on what we collect, what we don’t, how we do it, who we do it with, and so on.

By: Jason Mittell

Jason Mittell — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:36:08 +0000

Joe – what about serials (or is that another post)? Within my own field, it seems like there a number of journal titles that we’re not getting that I need to ILL frequently, and we subscribe to a lot of titles that are no longer really relevant. And many titles that we receive print copies of are also available full text on databases. I know this a really complex area to weed through, but it is also quite costly. Is there a plan in place to reevaluate or journal subscription holdings and plan?