The Point of Collection Mapping

 

O’Donnell, Meghan.

Herren, A. (2021). Transforming library collections and supporting student learning with collection mapping. The Serials Librarian, 80(1-4), 142-148. https://doi.org/10.1080/0361526X.2021.1883207

Summary:

A community college library in Florida revamped their collection to better align with curriculum using collection mapping in 2015. The project improved alignment to curriculum, collection diversity, and relations between library staff and college faculty. Having less unneeded works made room for more study space which students had been requesting. Circulation did not improve in the 6 years since then. However, at least the library staff know that what is circulating better meets student needs. When the project began in 2015, research showed that students tended to prefer print works over digital for research. As the project progressed, research in 2018 showed that digital works were beginning to be preferred over print by students. Therefore, the lack of improved physical circulation does not show a failure of the project.

Evaluation or opinion:

Since we approached collection mapping using infographics, I thought the process was mostly visual. I read an academic article about a university library’s experience using collection mapping. This article changed my understanding of collection mapping. I’m no longer seeing it as some ethereal thing. It is a tool used to accomplish a purpose.

Collection mapping has nothing to do with helping patrons or potential sources of funding understand your collection. It is not about creating an easily grasped visual or graphically displaying information. You might end up creating a collection map that is nice in those ways. However, doing so is not your goal.

The point of collection mapping is to assist library staff in charge of collection management. You need to identify what your collection contains, check for gaps and saturation points, and ensure that your collection aligns with user needs. It is a tool for selection and deselection. It could possibly be a tool for looking at rearranging your layout.

The appearance of your collection map does not matter. It might be a massive boring spreadsheet. It is simply data that represents your collection. You don’t need to make the data attractive. You just need to make the data actionable so you can act on the data and make your collection as useful as possible.

The article I read was Transforming Library Collections and Supporting Student Learning with Collection Mapping  by Arenthia Herren. Herren relayed the experience of using collection mapping to revamp physical holdings at Florida SouthWestern State College Libraries in 2015. The project realigned the holdings to better align with curriculum. Most interesting to me was that the libraries sought syllabi from classes and used them to determine what to have in the library collection.

I cannot use this technique for my non-school-affiliated library. However, that tactic has made me consider what I could do along the same lines. Homeschooling parents make heavy use of my juvenile nonfiction section. Are there homeschool educational benchmarks for my state that I could align some of my juvenile nonfiction collection to meet? The article made me think and definitely improved my understanding of what collection mapping accomplishes.

Collection Mapping of Topical Collections at UC Riverside

Peretiako-Soto, Alexandria

Article Citation:
Haren, S. M. (18 June, 2015). Data visualization as a tool for collection assessment: 
Mapping the latin american studies collection at university of california, riverside.  
Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services. (38)3-4. pp. 70-81.     
 https://doi.org/10.1080/14649055.2015.1059219


Summary:

This article describes how a university employed the use of visual aids to better 
understand the content of a current topical collection, much like the collection 
mapping technique practiced in this course. Collection mapping and the use of 
visual aids is a key method large libraries can use to understand the contents of 
their collection, including size, strengths, formats, etc. Collection mapping helped 
UCR find that their Latin American Studies collection was heavily print based, 
multilingual, globally sourced, and primarily focused on history and literature. 
With this visual aid, the library has a good grounds to determine how effectively 
this topical collection is meeting this departments curricular needs.

Evaluation:

This article served as a nice supplement to the course text readings on creating 
a collection map. It explained the ways in which developing a visual aid helps 
understand the collections strengths, weaknesses, and content in general. It 
allows individual topics to be looked at and evaluated for relevance to the 
collection as a whole. A good article for anyone looking to read more on 
collection mapping, especially in academic libraries!

How to Evaluate Library Collections: A Case Study of Collection Mapping

Hyodynmaa, M., Kannisto, A., & Nurminen, H. (2010). How to evaluate library collections: a case study of collection mapping. Collection Building 29(2), 43-49. doi: 10.1108/01604951011040125

The authors discuss many issues we have been addressing in class. They give a quick over view of the significance of collection mapping. This is a practice that makes the collection visible to the public in ways that patrons cannot perceive independently. In addition to recording the history of a collection, this practice can help assess the relevance of items based on circulation and browse histories. Just as we have been instructed to do, the authors suggest mapping only select parts of an entire collection. Shelf scanning is one method discussed. This means exactly what it sounds like. A librarian scans the shelves to assess what is in the collection, its currency and relevance. However, this is a subjective method and requires an experienced librarian.

Dewey Pictograms from CLLS

Student: Perkins, Rebecca

Citation: Cutler, L. (n.d.). Dewey Pictograms. California Library Literacy Services [webpage]. Retrieved March 7, 2015, from http://libraryliteracy.org/staff/differences/dewey.html

This is a poster of all 88 icons,
each are available for download
and use at the CLLS webpage.

Summary: This webpage for the California Library Literacy Services (CLLS), which is a statewide program of the California State Library, contains “reproducible images portraying collections within the Dewey Decimal Classification System, enabling people with disabilities, low literacy skills, etc., to better locate materials in the library's collection.” These images were made at the Oakland Public Library during a grant project in 2003-2004 and were “chosen to represent often-requested subject areas.” Although the Oakland library has made these freely available, “all copyright rights in the Dewey Decimal Classification System are owned by OCLC; Dewey, Dewey Decimal Classification, DDC, OCLC and WebDewey are registered trademarks of OCLC.”  In other words, we can use them we just can’t claim them as our own.

Evaluation: This could be a great resource for our mapping projects as well as a way to provide uniformity in imaging collections across the state and perhaps beyond. Having a standard may assist not only those conduction collection mapping projects but also patrons (those with disabilities and those without) who may visit more than one library. The only drawback is that each is slow to load and although there are 88 icons there may not be one for a specific topic you want to cover.