Excellent collection-mapping resource

 

Bushing, Mary. (2006). Collection Mapping and Conspectus. Retrieved November 21, 2020 from www.varastokirjasto.fi/kokoelmakartta/julkaisut/esitelmat/Mary_Bushing_Conspectus.pdf.

By far the most useful resource I encountered this semester regarding collection evaluation and mapping is a PDF of a slide presentation by Dr. Mary Bushing. In it, she lays out an organized procedure for evaluating library collections. Bushing’s collection map system, called a conspectus, has 24 large categories, with subjects like biology, philosophy, language & literature…etc. These 24 large categories have nearly 4,000 cumulative subdivisions. Music, for example, is subdivided into dramatic art forms, non-dramatic art forms, music for mixed voices, women’s voices, men’s voices, and so on (8). Bushing suggests using a scale of 0-5 to evaluate each large category in a library collection. A score of 0 indicates that the library has not made conscious efforts to collect items on the subject, rendering it “out of scope” (11). A score of 5 indicates that the collection is exhaustive and well-maintained (23). In addition, her system has indicators for languages in which materials are available, current collection level vs. the goals of collection development and its preservation. Over all, she makes an argument that the conspectus is a tool that enables librarians to make daily decisions and policies around their collections (especially about budgets), explain their resources to library patrons, and track changes in the collection. This resource is clearly laid out, practical, and extremely helpful for any librarian who may need to make decisions about collection management in their careers.