Collection evaluation: a foundation for collection development

Bullard, Sherrie

Agee, J. (2005). Collection evaluation: A foundation for collection development. Collection Building, 24(3), 92-95. doi:10.1108/01604950510608267

Summary: Librarians have many strategies available for evaluating collections. This article describes three major approaches to collection evaluation: user‐centered evaluation; physical assessment; and specific subject support. Each approach employs a variety of specialized evaluative techniques. The benefit of using any of these techniques is that a focus can be developed on any aspect – subject, age, quality, or use – of the collection. Evaluating the collection allows librarians to know what resources are already available, what may be needed, and whether future collection development can be filled most effectively with print or electronic resources. The results from these techniques give justification for investment of staff time and energy in evaluation projects.

Evaluation:  Without collection evaluations that provide a clear assessment of available resources, future collection management – budgeting, format consideration, selection, or deselection – may be inefficient and at risk. Librarians in large or small libraries can employ the collection evaluation methods in this article to gain meaningful information about their own holdings. Wise collection building is dependent on a foundation of current resource assessment. This article provides some tools to build such a foundation successfully.

Labels: Assessment, Collections management, Project evaluation, Information media, Resources