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Workshop presented October 29, 2013 in Waterloo, Iowa. Strategic public library selection, with a focus on refreshing the existing collection, streaming mainstream titles, and making careful decisions to concentrate the collection toward reader needs and demand. Fifth session in the Designing Collection Experiences series: http://bitly.com/18g71kR.
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Designing Collection Experiences:5. Selection
www.whatwouldranganathando.orgOctober 29, 2013
Waterloo Public Library
What will selectors do?
Other than read reviews?
Traditional Selection | Criteria
What selectors do How selectors decide
Cedar Rapids Public Library, a long time ago.
“In the hard-hitting works of Harold Robbins, even the sacred isn't sacred.”
Sony Reader Store
Free Library of Philadelphia, home of the original Greenaway Plan (1958).
In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.
Sun Tzu, Chapter 2
Define Your Objective
The Mission of Librarians is to Improve Society through Facilitating Knowledge Creation in their Communities.
R. David Lankes
“The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners.”
The Stranger (Sam Elliott) in The Big Lebowski
Conversation abides.
The mission of librarians is to help readers create transformative meaning in their lives and in the lives of others.
Transformative meaning…
is pretty much by definition narrative.
Mode
Narration
Exemplar
Exposition Theory Practice Praxis Affordance
Narrative transformation matrix
True crime
Celebrity diets
Martha Stewart cookbooks?
Deck-building manuals
Travel guides
Pregnancy & childbirth manuals
The Pentateuch
Anticipation
Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.
Sun Tzu, Chapter 4
The half-life of texts
Publishing | Publicity | Reviewing Word of Mouth
Pre-order
Academic approval plansAutomatically yours
Pre-duplicate
The Harold Robbins syndrome: Why you should avoid relying on the volume of holds when you add duplicates.
Selection / Acquisition / Cataloging turn-around
Measure: Release time to shelf.
Reader requests
Purchase requests | Holds
Tactics Mj
Tactical Mjbudgeting Mj
The MjSelection Mj
Target Mj
Exploiting the MjTerrain Mj
The Selection Target
Title
Series
Format
Genre
Topic
Author
Placing a Bet
Popularity | Quality
Heterogeneous Granularity
We need all the clues we can get.
What is the best indicator of future use of a library text?
Where can we find the best evidence for the quality of a text?
Place your first bets on the titles that have a track record.
Renewals
Renewal
Replacement | New editions | Duplication
We may distinguish six kinds of terrain, to wit: (1) Accessible ground;
(2) entangling ground;
(3) temporizing ground;
(4) narrow passes; (5) precipitous heights; (6) positions at a great distance from the enemy.
Sun Tzu, Chapter 10
Exploiting the Terrain
Professional Resources
Reviews | Databases | Bibliographies
Booklist Online
Pregnancy and Childbirth titles
11 total2010 – 62011 – 32012 – 2
Jobbers
Ingram | Baker and Taylor | BrodartEtc.
Retailers
Amazon | Barnes & Noble Half-Price Books | etc.
Benchmark Libraries
• Hennepin County (Minneapolis suburbs)• Allen County (Fort Wayne)• Skokie (Chicago suburb) • Multnomah County (Portland)• County of Los Angeles• Queens• Iowa City
Benchmark library holdings: Pregnancy and Childbirth
2012 2011 2010 MeanHennepin County 35 29 26 30 IUPLA [WorldCat] 27 24 16 22 Allen County 24 25 15 21 Skokie 29 21 11 20 Multnomah County 18 24 17 20 County of Los Angeles 16 26 16 19 Queens 17 18 13 16 Iowa City 17 13 3 11 Mean 23 23 15
Publication DateBenchmark Library
Ti tle I ncr eas e multi ple
Increase in Number of Titles by Collection Scope
0
3
6
9
12
15
Discontent,Sadness, etc…
Happiness Eternal Joy The Cat'sPajamas
Collection Level
Average
High
Low
Serenity
Collection ScopeTitle increase multiple
Low Average High
Happiness 1 1 1
Serenity 2 2.5 3
Eternal Joy 4 5 6
The Cat’s Pajamas 8 10 12
42 copies; 2008 38 copies; 2009 34 copies; 2009
31 copies; 2009 27 copies; 2011 26 copies; 2013
How many titles will you add annually?
Renewal Mj
Streaming Mj
Concentration Mj
Tactical Mjbudgeting Mj
Renewal
Weeding | Replacement | Duplication
Streaming
Eliminating foregone conclusions.
Collecting Artifacts
Not to scale
The resource sets librarians traditionally have “selected” from
Concentration
Keeping your balance on the cutting edge.
