51st Annual Conference

We have all heard versions of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus' quote concerning the fact that the only constant in life is change. Today the need to transform our libraries comes from a variety of forces, but one that remains central is that of our users. With an ever changing plethora of resources, formats, and acquisition models, how do librarians ensure their practices related to collections meet the evolving needs of our users? In this session, panelists from academic and museum libraries will present collection management strategies, actions and assessment projects with the purpose of better representing the needs of libraries' current users, despite the numerous limitations faced by our individual institutions, as well as the rapidly shifting budgetary constraints, acquisition models, and ethical concerns across our profession. Presenters will address critical and emerging issues related to the theory and praxis of collections assessment in a range of scenarios: At a large academic library a demand driven acquisition program for print materials was adopted to improve discovery while compensating for approval plan reductions. This presentation will highlight a librarian's quest to better understand the actual materials purchased through the program and those requests not fulfilled. By assessing several years of data the librarian considers how this program has transformed the print collection and serves specific disciplines like the fine arts. Another librarian on the panel will speak about their experience of implementing assessment strategies for the electronic resource collection at a small academic institution. This talk will cover creating e-resource specific policies, the merits of using database usage for decision making, and alternative acquisition models like investing in open access. An early-career POC librarian will critically reflect on the significance of weeding physical library collections and its relation to both "diversifying" collections and retaining library workers. Practical considerations and approaches to deaccessioning plans will be compared between two libraries with varying resources: a large public university and a small museum library. A librarian at a minority-serving institution will report on the findings of an ongoing diversity assessment in the arts collection. This project aims to make diversity assessment accessible to all collections and uncover areas where advocacy to publishers and distributors is imperative. Using various strategies of collection analysis to discern the diversity of holdings, this project shows the value of different levels of assessment, from a high-level perspective --the 30,000-foot view-- to individual title analysis in specific areas. Attendees will be exposed to a variety of current issues in collections management, and will be offered strategies to consider adapting for their own institutions.

Sponsored by
The Pratt Institute Libraries