To Float or Not to Float by Noel Rutherford

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DiBello, Amy

Rutherford, N. (2016). To float or not to float? Inside Nashville PL's examination of the method's performance. Library Journal, 141(6), 46.

To float? Or not to float? 

That is the question for many public libraries.
Whether 'tis nobler in each branch to suffer sacrificing precious shelf space to accommodate too many copies of certain titles or to have each branch possess their own copy.

Noel Rutherford is a collection development and acquisitions manager at the Nashville Public Library. Her article discusses her library system's float experience, which follows in the footsteps of many libraries who have "floated" their collections to decrease hold transit time and add variety to their collections without purchasing more books. A patron driven collection was another objective of implementing floating, along with the hopes for increased circulation statistics.

As a paraprofessional who works in a public library with a floating collection, I have a ton of opinions on floating collections. I am anti-float and cling fiercely to my biases. However, I'll be keeping my $00.02 on this topic until I read a few more articles about the pros and cons of float.