Methodologies for the Analysis of Monograph Collections:

1
Methodologies for the Analysis of Monograph
Collections

• From the Technologically Advanced to the Cost
  Efficient and Expedient

2
TAKE-HOME MESSAGES

• Best Methodology The One that Fits Your
  Environment and Resources.
• Statistics and Collection Analysis can be
  Very Broadly Defined.

3
FIT THE METHODOLOGY TO THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT

• Staff Skills
• Staff Time
• Finances

4
TYPE A HIGH INTENSITY HIGH COST

• Environment
• Staff Time Availability high
• Project Fund Availability high
• Resource Requirements
• Analytic/Technical Skills high
• Learning Curve Tolerance high
• Financial Outlay high
• Suggested Methodology
• Commercial collection assessment electronic tool.
• Create full-time collection assessment position
  to establish a culture of assessment.

5
TYPE B LOW INTENSITY HIGH COST

• Environment
• Staff Time Availability low
• Project Fund Availability high
• Resource Requirements
• Analytic/Technical Skills low
• Learning Curve Tolerance low
• Financial Outlay high
• Suggested Methodology
• Commercial software package.
• Hire analyst to interpret results generate
  report on all subjects and aggregate data. Repeat
  every two years.

6
TYPE C HIGH INTENSITY LOW COST

• Environment
• Staff Time Availability high
• Project Fund Availability low
• Resource Requirements
• Analytic/Technical Skills high
• Learning Curve Tolerance high
• Financial Outlay low
• Suggested Methodology
• Available resources such as FirstSearch.
• Peer-comparisons via local catalogs.

7
TYPE D LOW INTENSITY LOW COST

• Environment
• Staff Time Availability low
• Project Fund Availability low
• Resource Requirements
• Analytic/Technical Skills low
• Learning Curve Tolerance low
• Financial Outlay low
• Suggested Methodology
• Internal analyses.
• Free resources off the Internet.

8
WORLDCAT COLLECTION ANALYSIS FEATURES FUNCTIONS

• Levels of Analysis
• Divisions Categories
• Subjects Language
• Formats Audience
• Types of Analysis
• Publication Dates
• Overlap
• Uniqueness

• Limit Analysis
• By Library
• By Levels of analysis
• Change Analysis
• Change column values
• Change row values

9
WCA PUBLICATION DATE TABLE WITH EXPANDED DIVISION
10
EXCEL GRAPH OF WCA DATA
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DATABASES OF APPROVAL PLAN VENDORS

• YBP GOBI
• Of all the books within this universe of
  publication, what did your library receive?
• Characteristics of those not received?
• Interdisciplinary Subjects e.g., Globalization.

12
FIRSTSEARCH INTERFACE TO WORLDCAT DATA

• Hot Topics- e.g., Global Warming.
• Expert Search to limit number of libraries,
  languages, formats, audience type, much more.

English Language Books (non-fiction, adult readership) on Women and Employment Publication Trends, Collection Strength, Collecting Patterns English Language Books (non-fiction, adult readership) on Women and Employment Publication Trends, Collection Strength, Collecting Patterns English Language Books (non-fiction, adult readership) on Women and Employment Publication Trends, Collection Strength, Collecting Patterns English Language Books (non-fiction, adult readership) on Women and Employment Publication Trends, Collection Strength, Collecting Patterns
WorldCat Holdings Library X Holdings in WorldCat of Library X Holdings
1980 - 1989 6933 962 7.38
1990 - 1999 5693 420 13.88
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AMAZON

• Advanced Search
• Subject women and employment
• Format paperback
• Reader Age all
• Language all
• Publication Dates all
• Sort by Publication Date
• Result 1,061

• Prize-Winner Lists
• Man Booker Prize
• National Book Awards
• National Book Critics Circle Awards
• Nobel Prize
• Pulitzer Prize
• Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award
• Amazon.com's Best Books of 2005
• Audie Awards
• Bram Stoker Awards
• Caldecott Medal
• Coretta Scott King Awards
• Edgar Awards
• Hugo Awards
• IACP Cookbook Awards
• James Beard Foundation/KitchenAid Book Awards
• Michael L. Printz Award for Teen Literature
• National Academies Communication Awards
• Nebula Awards

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CONSTRUCTING A REPORT USING INTERNAL RESOURCES

1. Boilerplate Fact Sheet information to provide
   an overview of the entire Library systeme.g.,
   number and names of branches, total volumes held,
   total expenditures, total staff, etc.
2. Local Catalogs (a) relative strength of one
   collection to other collections within the
   library (b) LC subject headings to compare the
   number of titles in your local catalog to the
   number of titles in the online public catalogs of
   peer or aspirational peer libraries.
3. Budgetary Statistics
4. ILL Circulation Statistics
5. Other Collections

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SUPPLEMENTING A REPORT USING EXTERNAL RESOURCES

1. Institutional Statistics Contact your
   institutions office of research or check for an
   online Data Book (e.g., http//www.adminplan.nor
   thwestern.edu/ir/databook/ ).
2. Statistics from Organizations ARL Statistics
   http//www.arl.org/stats/arlstat/ and the
   Academic Libraries Survey of the National Center
   for Education Statistics http//nces.ed.gov/survey
   s/libraries/academic.asp.
3. Vendor-Supplied Statistics Contact foreign
   vendors and/or see cost reports and pricing
   forecasts such as the YBP Annual Book Price
   Update at http//www.ybp.com/ybp/DomIndex.html?bo
   ok_price_update.html1 or the BSS Cost
   Coverage reports at http//www.blackwell.com/libr
   arian_resources/cost_and_coverage/index.html.

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INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES

• YBP Interdisciplinary Studies searches
• FirstSearch-WorldCat
• Amazon
• Public catalogs LC subject headings or keyword
  phrases
• Descriptions of Core collection
• Guide to Reference Works
• Lists compiled by ACRL sections other library
  committees
• And everything under . Internal Resources and
  . External Resources.

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INTERPRETING NUMBERS

• 1. Collection Size Strength
• Assumption Bigger is Better
• What is the relative strength of the
  International Relations collection within
  Political Science?
• Is the Political Science collection specialized
  (strong in one subfield) or generalized (equal
  strength in all subfields)?
• How strong is this collection within the
  librarys total collection?
• What is the relative strength of this collection
  compared to the other nine Dewey divisions?
• Compared with peer libraries?

CATEGORIES OF THE POLITICAL SCIENCE DIVISION TOTAL HOLDINGS BY CATEGORY RELATIVE STRENGTH WITHIN DIVISION STRENGTH OF DIVISION TO LIBRARYS TOTAL HOLDINGS
Colonies Colonization 1823 2.00 4.08
Immigration Emigration 1824 2.00
Military, all branches 15248 16.70
International Law 13891 15.21
International Relations 1813 1.99
Legislative Executive papers 789 0.86
Local Government 3628 3.97
Political Inst. Public Admin. 39051 42.77
Political Science, Genl 3002 3.29
Political Theory, Theory of State 10230 11.20
Totals 91299 100.00
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INTERPRETING NUMBERS

• 2. Publication Dates Growth
• Assumption Publication Dates equal Acquisition
  Dates
• Although Political Institutions was shown to be
  the strength of the Political Science collection,
  the policy for the last ten years has been to
  give emphasis to International Relations. Do
  the data of the last ten years reflect this
  change in collecting patterns?
• Which areas have grown the most over the last
  twenty years?
• Is there a trend in growth during the last five
  decades of the last century? --to grow fast or
  to shrink?

CATEGORIES OF THE POLITICAL SCIENCE DIVISION ACQUIRED- PUBLISHED IN THE 1980S ACQUIRED-PUBLISHED IN THE 1990S OF CHANGE OVER TWO DECADES
Colonies Colonization 124 98 -20.97
Immigration Emigration 274 477 74.09
Military 4915 3086 -37.21
International Law 2264 1910 -15.64
International Relations 133 452 239.85
Legislative Executive Papers 136 162 19.12
Local Government 509 506 -0.59
Political Inst. Public Admin 5738 10168 77.20
Political Science, General 531 545 2.64
Political Theory, Theory of State 1757 2095 19.24
Totals 16381 19499 19.03
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INTERPRETING NUMBERS

• 3. Publication Dates Age of Collections
• Assumption The librarys mission determines the
  significance of the age of the collection.
• The Theory subfield contains the largest
  holdings of pre-19th century titles. Within that
  subfield, Forms of State are found to be a
  special collection.
• Within LCs J classification, which subfields
  appear to be most outdated, in need of updating
  or weeding?

Subjects of the Theory Category Pre-19th Century Titles of Pre-19th Century in Theory
Forms of State 2242 73.97
Nationalism 387 12.77
Theory of State 244 8.05
State Individual 158 5.21

Categories of Political Science of Holdings Published in the Last 3 Years of Holdings Published in the Last 5 Years
Colonies Colonization 12.58 14.17
Immigration Emigration 9.81 18.26
Military, all 3.97 8.23
Internl Law 0.14 0.29
Internl Relations 23.88 42.25
Legislative Executive Papers 14.07 15.84
Local Government 75.24 92.65
Political Inst. 33.73 41.63
Political Sci, Genl 56.13 88.36
Political Theory 6.91 12.54
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INTERPRETING NUMBERS

• 4. WCA Uniqueness or Prize-Winner Lists
• Assumption Unique titles or holdings of
  prize-winners suggest positive qualities about
  the collections.
• These measurements may be said to indicate a
  certain richness within the collection.

Newbery Medal for Best Children's Book Medal Honor Winners in the Children's Collection of the Library Newbery Medal for Best Children's Book Medal Honor Winners in the Children's Collection of the Library Newbery Medal for Best Children's Book Medal Honor Winners in the Children's Collection of the Library Newbery Medal for Best Children's Book Medal Honor Winners in the Children's Collection of the Library Newbery Medal for Best Children's Book Medal Honor Winners in the Children's Collection of the Library
of Medal Winners in Library of Honor Winners in Library
1922-1940 19 82 76 70
1941-1960 20 84 81 75
1961-1980 20 95 51 87
1981-2000 20 100 54 99
21
TAKE-HOME MESSAGES

• Best Methodology The One that Fits Your
  Environment and Resources.
• Statistics and Collection Analysis can be
  Very Broadly Defined.