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 Creation as Collection Management: Libraries as Publishers and Implications for Collection Development

Corley, Jennifer

Gwynn, D., Henry, T., & Craft, A.R., (2019). Collection Creation as Collection Management: Libraries as Publishers and Implications for Collection Development. Collection Management, 44(2-4), 206-220.

In this article, Gwynn, Henry, and Craft examine the activities at the University of North Carolina - Greensboro's library in creating open education resources, establishing digital archives, publishing journals and acting as an institutional repository for collaborative scholarly projects. The authors contend that by creating content and facilitating the publication of digital items that libraries are acting as outlets for spreading scholarly content and creating their own collections as needed by their community. The article also examines how the addition of metadata from the library leads to improved access for users and supports the dissemination of published information.

While the article claims to examine libraries acting as publishers across the spectrum of academic libraries, the authors mainly focused on UNC Greensboro, an institution which is not necessarily representative of the majority of academic libraries in the nation, as the university itself has over 1,000 faculty members and much more financial support in the terms of digital infrastructure and full-time staffing for their digital publication initiative. The primary challenge for other universities and college libraries to act as a publisher of open educational resources, open textbooks, and digital journals will be both funding and staffing. As current technology and digital resources allow for libraries to find more and more open resources to meet the needs of their patrons, being a publisher will become a more viable option for academic libraries seeking to enhance their collection.

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!

Modern Special Collections: Embracing the Future While Taking Care of the Past

Sanders, Emily

Fall 2016

Citation:

Evans, M. R. (2015). Modern Special Collections: Embracing the Future While Taking Care of the Past. New Review Of Academic Librarianship, 21(2), 116-128. doi:10.1080/13614533.2015.1040926

Summary: This article uses a broad framework to decipher certain archival concepts in academic librarianship: collection, connection, collaboration, and community. It uses that meaning to reflect on changing landscape of special collections. It comes up with very practical solutions to some common troubles facing modern special collections. It works to embrace the past with regards to the present and future in what Evans calls a “nontraditional strategic manner.”

Evaluation: I found this article is tremendously informative. It is an alternative method of going about the thought process-- as it contains literal thought and no measurable data-- but it produces several insightful notions about modern special collections work. The only problem is that the audience can’t be sure how well these methods work as they aren’t put to practice in anyway.

Crowd-Sourcing Weeding: Making it fun, makes it effective

Empire State Library Network. (April 4, 2016). Patron-driven weeding as engagement and collection management. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbUVT0igDl0

After a comprehensive analysis of the library collection and circulation habits, university librarians, Kristin Hart and Rebecca Hyams, realized their collection was in dire need of an overhaul.  With their work cut out for them, they attempt some unorthodox methods for a major (80% of collection) weeding involving students and faculty.

Reasons to weed:

• Not serving needs of students or faculty
• Students/Patrons inclined to pick the shortest book, were not necessarily picking the best for scholarship/relevance
• Students/Patrons when desperate were using the "take anything" method, rather than the most suitable and reliable resource

Ways to Make a Fun Weed with Patrons:

• Design a Scavenger hunt for the funniest/strangest/oldest/weirdest book, divide students into groups and offer prizes (most of what was collected was on the "No Circ" report and ultimately weeded out
• Incorporate Weeding activities in regularly scheduled Library Workshops - Students didn't need much guidance and managed to pick things within the standard weeding criteria

Ways to Involve Faculty

• Share collection metrics, even if it's negative data
• Pitch participation as relying on their expertise to pick the right items to keep/get rid of
• Send out survey- open up lines of communication
• Plan weeding days 

Results

• About 5,000 books evaluated, about 41% discarded
• 10 faculty very involved in process
• Involved students spend more time in library, make face-to-face suggestions for purchases
• Will hopefully lead to a more thoughtful library policy 

J. Hasselberger

Spring 2016