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Collection Development and Assessment: Collection Assessment

This guide is for Collection Development, Management, and Creating Assessments

First Steps...

1. Use the Conspectus Sheet Template for your assessment.

2. Use the MFHD Conspectus Dashboard in MyJSU to pull the number of items in your call number range. If you have questions about this, contact John Upchurch, Head of Public Services.

3. Fill in the corresponding numbers on the conspectus sheets.

Conspectus sheets

Collection Language and Codes<
CL= Collection Level
AC= Acquisitions Level
GL= Goal Level
PC= Preservation Code (this is always a “2.”)
 
  • The “2” indicates that “some cleaning and mending may be used to repair damage from normal use. Material is retained for its useful life. Environmental conditions are maintained for the average conditions acceptable for most formats in the collection.
  • Please note that the Emergency Management doctorate will require the preservation code to be a 5 when it comes to EM materials.

Collection Levels

  • Collection Levels are determined by curriculum support.
  • The levels vary for each discipline.
  • Collection levels may change from assessment to assessment based on the addition or deletion of programs. 
Collection Depth Indicators

2a= less than 5% (Basic Information Level Introductory)

2b= 5%-10% (Basic Information Level Advanced)

3a= 11%-15% (Basic Study or Instructional Support Level)

3b= 16%-20% (Intermediate Study or Instructional Support Level)

3c= 21%-25% (Advanced Study or Instructional Support Level)

4-5=26%-30%  (Research and Comprehensive Levels)

How to Determine your Collection Level

  • Normally this is calculated in the Titles Added/ Titles Published portion of the assessment.
  • This information is usually on the second page of the assessment.
  • We used to use Blackwell Collection Manager, but now we use Yankee Book Peddler: http://www.ybp.com/title_reports.html

How to Determine your Acquisitions and Goal Levels

Acquisitions Level

  • This is a little trickier.
  • It is helpful to calculate the growth in your collection to get an accurate percentage of how fast your collection is growing. 
  • Present Holdings count - Past Holdings count= x
  • x/ Past Holdings count= n
  • n x 100= result
Goal Level
  • Goal Levels usually reflect your Collection Level.
  • Sometimes you may have a class range on your conspectus sheets that is not something that should be collected as aggressively. It is within the discretion of the Librarian to determine the level at which it should be collected.

How to do a Collection Assessment

Basic Structure for the Collection Assessment

  • Executive Summary
  • Introduction
  • Holdings
    • Holdings Table with brief conspectus sheet information
    • Monograph Expenditures
  • Supplemental Support
  • Peer Institution Comparison (Not required | add if desired)
  • Titles Added/ Titles Published
  • Checklist Summaries
    • Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles
    • Resources for College Libraries
    • Specialized Bibliography, if applicable
  • Withdrawals
  • Periodicals and Serials Assessment
    • Expenditures
    • Checklist
      • Magazines for Libraries
  • Defined Access to Electronic Resources
    • Information about and link to A to Z Database Listing
    • Information about and link to Related Databases
    • Information about and link to LibGuides
  • Summary
    • Strengths
    • Weaknesses
    • Recommendations

Executive Summary

The Executive Summary should be as short and concise as possible. It should include the most important information about the collection.

Add the notation: Complete details are available in the full assessment, which is available upon request or at http://bit.ly/2fyeMMU.

If you want to include charts in the executive summary, feel free. Executive Summaries are sent to the faculty in the specific department/school. Specifics that MUST be included are:

  • Introduction including if the collection is or is not adequate to support the courses taught in the programs and specify what level(s) the program has.
  • Holdings information including table
  • Monograph Expenditures
  • Periodicals information including table
  • Serials Expenditures
  • Defined Access Information

See the Assessment Template for complete details.

Introduction

The introduction should note what the collection supports, if it is or is not adequate to support that program, the level(s) of the program(s) it supports including majors and minors, and that the conspectus sheets and checklists are available for a more detailed examination of the collection.  Remove all library jargon and the overall collection rate (ex: overall 3cP (Advance Study or Instructional Support Level; predominantly in the Primary Language)).

See the Assessment Template for complete details.

Holdings

Keep the narrative of this section as is. Add a brief “conspectus sheet” to this section. This is where you can list the broad call number ranges or those ranges that align with specific departments/courses.

This is where you include your holdings count. You get your holdings counts from the MFHD Conspectus Dashboard in MyJSU to pull your holdings numbers. Ebook counts should be included in this paragraph. Contact Jodi Poe, Head of Technical Services, for this number. Please include the call number range(s) you need for the ebooks.

This is also where you include your monograph expenditures. You get the dollar amount from Mary Bevis, Acquisitions and Serials Librarian. Please include date ranges that you want to cover, but it should cover at least the last 5 years.

See the Assessment Template for complete details.

Supplemental Support

This section discusses which holdings provide supplementary support to your collection. These are resources which you may or may not collect, but that provide additional information for your main subject areas. You should include a table with the holdings count for the supplementary collections. You get your holdings counts from the MFHD Conspectus Dashboard in MyJSU to pull your holdings numbers. If you want ebook counts for these collections, contact Jodi Poe, Head of Technical Services. Please include the call number range(s) you need for these ebooks.

See the Assessment Template for complete details.

Peer Institution Comparison

The Peer Institution Comparison section is not required, but you can add it if you want.

Peer Comparison can be of collections of universities offering the same accredited degree or of collection of universities using the same Carnegie classification. Examples of each are included in the template.

See the Assessment Template for complete details.

Titles Added/ Titles Published

This section is where you compare the number of titles added to the Library's collection against the number of titles that were available for sale each year. We use GOBI to pull those numbers. You can find the GOBI Title Report at https://www.gobi3.com/StaticContent/GOBIContent/YBP/Private/Help/Pages/newtitlereport_us.html. These figures should be added to the assessment in a table.

See the Assessment Template for complete details.

Listing of Checked Bibliographies

There will be two required bibliographies: RCL and Choice’s Outstanding Academic Titles. However, if a specialized bibliography (such as Doody’s) has been identified, it can be included here as well. The bibliographies table should contain general information – not specific subject areas within a bibliography.
 
See the Assessment Template for complete details.

Periodicals and Serials Counts and Expenditures

Update it with numbers from and link to EBSCO’s Publication Finder (http://bit.ly/2zO6DjD), expenditures with notation about migrating away from individual subscriptions to aggregator and include general fund expenditures, and checklist from Magazines for Libraries.

This is also where you include your serials expenditures. You get the dollar amount from Mary Bevis, Acquisitions and Serials Librarian. Please include date ranges that you want to cover, but it should cover at least the last 5 years.

You should also include the standard notation in the template regarding individual subscriptions migrating to aggregator databases and add the expenditures for the aggregator databases. You get the dollar amount from Mary Bevis, Acquisitions and Serials Librarian.

See the Assessment Template for complete details.

Access to Electronic Resources

Add the standard notations in the template. Do NOT include a collection rating number just note if it is adequate to support the curriculum. This is also where you would include a link to the A to Z listing, a link to just that subject’s databases, and the specific LibGuide for that subject. To get the link for your subject’s databases, go to the A to Z listing and select your subject from the “All Subjects” drop-down menu. The URL in the navigation bar is a persistent URL. Don’t include a listing of ALL of the resources for the subject, but you could include the most important or core ones. We may want to make some type of notation about our partnership with the AVL and how this partnership is saving us funds. Note that these resources are designated with an AVL icon.
 
You can also highlight any noteworthy databases and/or ebooks or ebook collections that help to enhance the collection. You can also mention remote access if you like.
 
See the Assessment Template for complete details.

Summary

This part of the assessment allows you to discuss in detail some of the changes which have occurred since the last assessment.You should discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the collection. You can highlight particular areas from the conspectus sheets that have shown a high growth rate or has a lot of holdings for your strengths or those that have a low growth rate or a small number of holdings for your weaknesses. You should also include any recommendations for improving the collection.

See the Assessment Template for complete details.