Collection Management Project:IT CAN BE DONE

W. Lee HisleConnecticut CollegeNovember 7, 2013

Schwartz/Silver Architects

a new vision for the Charles E. Shain Library

Schwartz/Silver Architects

SHAIN LIBRARY RENOVATION

Building Project Goals:

100+ More Seats Total10 More Collaboration Rooms 2 New Reading RoomsReception SpaceCafé and 24-Hour StudyTechnology Commons Academic Resource Center Digital Scholarship Center and Advanced Tech LabMore Natural Light Electricity!

PROBLEM:

Renovation ProposedBUT:

Limited Additional Space Planned

SOLUTION

Reduce Bookstack Footprint in Current Space

33%

SOLUTIONrefined…

Identify 45,000 candidates Remove 35,000

Reduction of 35K items = 33%

Reduction in Bookstack Footprint

Collection Management Project:

Process • Establish Project Principles• Plan Communications Strategy• Find Data to Support Arguments• Seek Support from

– Staff and Administrators – Students– Faculty

• Develop Online Tool for Retention• Be Patient and Follow the Plan

Project Principles

• Avoid loss of access to any item• Make best use of space in Shain Library• Control cost of renovation• Retain key collection materials, based on

established de-selection criteria• Involve faculty in decisions about retention• Provide robust and intuitive selection tool for

faculty use

Communications StrategyPolitics•Staff and Administrators•Student Leadership •Faculty Leadership•Key Prickly Faculty … One on One Meetings

•Announcement of Project …After Groundwork --Principles --Key Data --Timeline

•Open Forums– Students and Faculty–Focus on Benefits and Use Data To Persuade

Communications StrategyKey Messages– Focus on Benefits to Faculty and Students– Planned Process: Principles Clearly Stated– Nature of Information Access is Changing• Use Data to Support

– No Loss of Access Possible• Use Data to Support

– Faculty Will Be Involved in Decisions • Intuitive Tool to Assist

– No Rush

Key Data

•Ethnographic Study: – Established Need for Study Spaces

•Print Monographic Use– 6 year analysis: Use down 28%

•eBook Use – 5 year analysis: Up 181%

•Full-text Downloads– 3 year analysis: Up 90%

Data Manipulated: De-Selection Criteria

• Circulation Statistics, CTW Bibliographic Records, OCLC Bib Records

To Create

• Candidate criteria: • Item available at Trinity or Wesleyan, sometimes both• Item also available at 30 other academic libraries in the US• Published prior to 1993 (20 years ago)• Purchased prior to 2003 (10 years ago)• No more than 2 circulations… ever… • No circulations... at all… after 2002 • Materials authored by Conn College faculty excluded

Lessons Learned• Importance of Larger Goal: Renovation Project

• Importance of One-on-One Conversations

• Importance of Data to Support Arguments

• Importance of Convenient Retention Tool• Online• Pilot Tested

• Importance of CTW Partners

• Importance of Patience

Collection Management Project: Value Schwartz/Silver Architects

Thanks

W. Lee Hislewlhis@conncoll.edu