ANALYZING AND DESCRIBING COLLECTIONS USE: STRATEGIES FOR MANAGING A LIBRARY MOVE

LYRASIS Ideas and Insights

Using Data: Facts, Figures, and the Future of Libraries

May 4, 2012

Michael Levine-Clark

University of Denver

michael.levine-clark@du.edu

Background

Timeline

• Penrose Library, 1972• Planning for new library, 2002-2008• Authorization for project, 2010• New vision – smaller collection footprint, spring 2011

• Break ground – July 2011• Project completion – March 2013

Collection Locations Pre-Renovation

• Penrose Library• Built in 1972

• PASCAL • Shared storage facility with University of Colorado

• Campus storage

• Music Library

Collection Size – Linear Feet

Penrose; 108,502

Mary Reed; 3,187

PASCAL; 27,397

Collection Locations Post-Renovation

• Academic Commons• (The renovated, renamed Penrose Library)

• Hampden Center• High-density storage• 10 miles from campus• 2-hour delivery

The Initial Plan• Renovated library

• 75% of monographs• Excluding monographs with 0 circulations (post-1997) published before

• 1950 (humanities)• 1980-2000 (social sciences, science, technology)

• 10% of serials (mostly image-heavy)

• New storage facility• 25% of monographs• 90% of serials• 100% of government documents• 100% of microforms

The Big Picture

Upper level• 25000 sf of books• Perimeter seating

Main level• All services and seating

Lower level• 25000 sf of books• Some seating

Upper level• Seating and staff areas

Main level• Seating and service

points

Lower level• 15K – 20K sf Collections• Seating

Nancy Allen, Dean & Director, Penrose Library

Pre-renovation After completion

The Big Picture

Upper level• 25000 sf of books• Perimeter seating

Main level• All services and seating

Lower level• 25000 sf of books• Some seating

Upper level• Seating and staff areas

Main level• Seating and service

points

Lower level• 15K – 20K sf Collections• Seating

Nancy Allen, Dean & Director, Penrose Library

Pre-renovation After completion

Library Recommendation

• Core collections:• Imprint date of 2003 and later in most disciplines and excepting

those available as e-books.• Books of all publication dates that have been checked out 5 or

more times since 1997• 2900 LF of the art and art history books and journals

• Totals 19,900 LF• Assumptions:

• Need recognizable rules• Provide collections for all disciplines• Take usage into account• Require minimal maintenance

A Faculty Committee

• Charge: to make a data-driven decision about the right mix of seating and collections on the lower level of the renovated library.

• Representatives from (mostly) humanities and social sciences.

The questions:

• What is the purpose of an on-campus collection?• What criteria should be used to shape an on-campus collection?

• Why should it be larger than 20% of the monographs proposed by the Chancellor and Board?

• Which data should be considered in supporting recommendations?

COLLECTIONS DATA

Collection Size – Volumes/Items

Books; 1,186,211

Journals; 252,512

Spec Coll Books; 35,407

Gov Docs; 604,702

Microforms; 1,367,533

Penrose Collection – Linear Feet

78,919

17,591

2,163

2,2513,883 3,695

BooksJournalsGov DocsSpec Coll BooksSpec Coll BoxesMicroforms

Digital Collection Size

eBooks; 1,060,043

eJournals (ti-tles); 95,570

Gov Docs; 594,431

Other eResources; 30,189

Collections Budget, FY 2010Expense Type Expenditure Percentage

Databases/Journal Packages $1,965,042.00

eJournals $842,737.00

Print/Electronic Journals $130,043.00

Total Electronic Subscriptions

$2,937,822.00 89.2%

Total Subscriptions $3,294,652.00

One-Time Electronic Purchases

$721,896.00

Total Electronic Spending $3,659,718.00 67.3%

Print Monographs $883,167.00

Special Collections $343,013.00

Videos $59,626.00

Total Collections Budget $5,439,134.00

Volumes AddedFY 06 FY 07 FY 08 FY 09 FY 10

Volumes Added

27,442 29,240 26,406 24,804 21,356

Vols Withdrawn

11,035 9,201 1,915 988 1,327

Net Increase 16,407 20,039 24,491 23,816 20,029

Types of Use, FY 2010• Circulation 125,886• ILL Borrowing 4,094• Prospector Borrowing 14,675

• Total Checkouts to DU 144,655• ILL Lending 4,015• Prospector Lending 26,339

• Total Resource Sharing 30,354• Reshelving 15,758

Circulation of Monographs

• Circulation of entire collection, 1997-present• Total Items 906,186• % Circulated 44.8%• Avg Circ/Title 1.22• % Circulated FY 10, FY 11 2.6%

Circulation, Books Cataloged 2000-2004 (n=126,953)

0 Circ; 40%

1 Circ; 21%

2 Circ; 13%

3 Circ; 8%

4+ Circ; 19%

Circulation, Books Published 1950(n=4,036)

0 Circ; 71%

1 Circ; 19%

2 Circ; 6%3 Circ; 2% 4+ Circ; 3%

Highest Circulation by LC Class (1997-Present)LC Class Items % Circulated Avg

Circ/Title% Circ FY10, FY11

R (Medicine) 25,565 59.6% 2.17 2.8%

B (Philos, Psych, Religion)

65,275 55.3% 1.65 3.9%

N (Fine Arts) 35,103 54.7% 1.48 3.2%

L (Education) 28,487 52.8% 1.48 3.1%

K (Law) 7,254 52.3% 1.64 2.7%

E (History - Americas)

32,734 50.6% 1.34 2.6%

G (Geog, Anthro, Rec)

26,035 50.5% 1.50 4.0%

S (Agriculture) 4,309 49.8% 1.18 3.6%

U (Military Science) 6,715 48.5% 1.20 3.3%

H (Social Sciences) 161,244 47.9% 1.50 2.6%

F (History – Americas)

21,130 45.1% 1.09 2.7%

Lowest Circulation by LC Class (1997-Present)

LC Class Items % Circulated Avg Circ/Title

% Circ FY10, FY11

A (General Works) 15,538 12.4% 0.30 0.7%

Z (Bibliography, Lib & Info Sci, Info Resources)

21,978 26.0% 0.76 1.1%

M (Music) 912 32.2% 0.74 0.9%

V (Naval Sciences) 1,058 37.0% 0.66 1.3%

Q (Science) 80,876 37.0% 0.81 1.7%

C (Aux Sciences of Hist)

6,311 39.6% 1.06 2.9%

P (Lang & Lit) 206,636 40.9% 0.97 2.1%

T (Technology) 40,321 43.0% 1.01 2.5%

D (History – World) 80,024 43.7% 1.08 2.5%

J (Political Science) 38,681 43.9% 1.32 3.3%

70,054 titles lent in 2010, by publication date

1900-1999

1910-1919

1920-1929

1930-1939

1940-1949

1950-1959

1960-1969

1970-1979

1980-1989

1990-1999

2000-2011

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

On-Site Collection Goals?• A good starting point for undergraduate research papers• Serendipitous discovery (browsing) that will result in some

material• Immediate access for people who can’t wait at all to get

something• Something for everyone across disciplines, supporting

teaching• Something for heaviest users: AHSS • Material to support research when only browsing works

Initial Library Recommendation

• Core collections:• Imprint date of 2003 and later in most disciplines and excepting

those available as e-books.• Books of all publication dates that have been checked out 5 or

more times since 1997• 2900 LF of the art and art history books and journals

• Totals 19,900 LF

Expanded View of High Use

THE SURVEY

FQ2: why do you visit the print collection?

• Two dominant browsing patterns for faculty:• A known item search, then see additional material on the shelf • Go directly to “your” shelf location to browse for materials

• In addition, it is common (48%) for faculty members to visit in order to look up something specific in a specific title.

SQ1: Why do students go to the stacks?

• 14% do not use the print collection, and 6% always use Request It

• 67% browse for a course assignment• 44% browse for creative inspiration• 74% are going after a specific book• 41% need to look up a fact or passage in a book• 13% described other reasons

• Look for one book and find a lot of others• Reading for pleasure• Personal reading• Practicing language skills• To relax

FQ4: collection use for research• 65% of respondents say books are primary research

resources.• 68% use books to find specific information • 66% use books to update or refresh knowledge and 80%

use books to expand knowledge

• Comments illustrate very high levels of concern about these modes of inquiry becoming so inconvenient that

inquiry itself will be disrupted, reduced, or even impossible.

How many Linear Feet for assignments?

• Clearly, all books in each call number would not be needed, but that’s how we counted.

• We did not include responses such as “all collections” or “all literature.”

• We added up linear feet for topics specified by respondents.

• All areas of the collection are used in teaching.

•73,000 LF

FQ6: What (specifically) should be returned to the new library? • Responses range from “everything” to “all literary

criticism” to works by a specific author. • Many responses show the extent to which teaching and

research is interdisciplinary: gender studies, race studies, multicultural therapy, history of literacy, or church/art/social history.

• We did not include some responses such as “all collections” or “all literature.”

• 70,041 Linear Feet, or 92% of the tallied collection. Again, all parts of the collection are valued by faculty.

FQ7: when is a 3-hour delivery OK (i.e. what can be stored?)• Some respondents said there is nothing for which a 3

hour delivery time is OK; it diminishes browsing. • 49% said we could store anything that had never been

checked out. • 49% said low use books were OK to store. • 60% approve storing the paper version of an e-book.• 34% thought we could store the book if the catalog record

includes a table of contents online.

Key concepts from comments• For some students and faculty little concern about storing

collections.

HOWEVER• The vast majority of respondents, both students and

faculty, very unhappy, worried, angry, upset, or concerned about the decision to store most of the book collections.

• Few worry about turnaround time; most regret loss of browsing.

Key concepts

• Some collection uses CANNOT be done by requesting known items. Examples from the survey are:• Image/photo/illustration searching within books (hence our

recommendation that we return the art books)• Assessment of degree of difficulty of non-English Language fiction• Choosing older volumes on the basis of presentation (font, format)

THE DISCUSSION

What would a subject collection look like?

Expansion to 30% - Which 6700 feet?

1. Titles in all subjects with 3 (3,366 LF) and 4 (1,840 LF) uses published before 2003 = about 5,206 LF

2. Including publication dates back to 2000 = 4,500 LF

3. Pub dates back to 2000 and 4+ uses = 6,340 LF

• Which data support including 30% ?

For 40%, Which 10,700 LF? • 40% is 31,600 LF; if the library core collections is

included, there is 10,700 LF for more material

• What criteria / data support 40%? 1. Titles in all subjects with 3 (3,366 LF) and 4 (1,840 LF)

uses published before 2003 = about 5,206 LF

2. Including all publication dates back to 2000 = 4,500 LF

3. 1 + 2 = about 9,700 LF, less when overlap between the two criteria is subtracted.

4. Cookbooks in open stacks = 531 LF

50% Scenario• Would accommodate 39,500 LF• Subtracting the core collection of 19,900 leaves 19,600 for

flexible collections.• Seating loss (compared to the 30% scenario) is about 120

seats.

• Which 19,600 LF?

• What data support this scenario?

Recommendation• Books published since 1983, excluding e-books,

duplicates, older editions 32,000 LF• Books published before 1983, checked out 2 or more

times 4,419 LF• Heavily-illustrated materials, excluding the above two

categories 3,000 LF• Total size of on-site collection 39,419 LF• Percentage 50%

Penrose Library1972 2012

THOUGHTS ABOUT DATA

Lessons Learned

• Pick your data carefully• Be proactive• Provide context

THANK YOUMichael Levine-Clark

michael.levine-clark@du.edu