How do libraries manage their physical resources?
September 1, 2013 6:19 PM Subscribe
Question for the librarians in the house: How do libraries manage their physical resources?
I'm wondering how a library manages their stacks if they had, say, 100,000 books and only enough public space for 50,000, and little way of knowing which books might be requested at any moment. How do you ensure that your patrons have access to the entire library without keeping everything right out on the floor? Is digital media changing the way libraries maintain their stock at all?
I'd be happy to request reading materials from my friendly library if this is a more complicated problem than can easily be explained here, if people would be so kind as to suggest some titles.
Categorized as science and nature because library science is a science!
I'm wondering how a library manages their stacks if they had, say, 100,000 books and only enough public space for 50,000, and little way of knowing which books might be requested at any moment. How do you ensure that your patrons have access to the entire library without keeping everything right out on the floor? Is digital media changing the way libraries maintain their stock at all?
I'd be happy to request reading materials from my friendly library if this is a more complicated problem than can easily be explained here, if people would be so kind as to suggest some titles.
Categorized as science and nature because library science is a science!
Here is a brief article that talks about weeding and collection development. Basically to sum up, libraries *do* have ways of knowing which books might be requested at any moment. The longer it has been since the book last circulated the less likely it is to circulate again.
So with the example in this article the librarian runs a report to see which books the library has owned for at least 5 years. Then you run a report to determine which of those books has not circulated in the last 5 years. If a book has been owned longer than five years and hasn't circulated in the past five years, it is very likely not going to circulate regularly.
Now this article is about weeding, so it goes on to recommend how to weed the items, however if for some reason the library wanted to place the item in long term storage they would have a list of items to go into storage.
I've not been in the library field long enough to know what librarians did in the age before automated library systems, but the book this article discusses was published in 1997 and I don't think much has changed regarding weeding monographs since then. Journals are another story. Journals are much more likely to be discarded if they are available digitally in a stable format.
Also unless the library is the Library of Congress, or at a huge Research I University or Harvard or the like, the librarians are very unlikely to want to keep their entire collection. Stuff gets weeded all the time. The big academic libraries (hopefully) have that directive and you can get items that don't fit in the current collection through interlibrary loan for the few patrons who need them.
Digitization projects like HaithiTrust are helping to ensure that older books aren't just weeded into oblivion, but users can only access items in the public domain.
posted by ephemerista at 6:54 PM on September 1, 2013 [1 favorite]
So with the example in this article the librarian runs a report to see which books the library has owned for at least 5 years. Then you run a report to determine which of those books has not circulated in the last 5 years. If a book has been owned longer than five years and hasn't circulated in the past five years, it is very likely not going to circulate regularly.
Now this article is about weeding, so it goes on to recommend how to weed the items, however if for some reason the library wanted to place the item in long term storage they would have a list of items to go into storage.
I've not been in the library field long enough to know what librarians did in the age before automated library systems, but the book this article discusses was published in 1997 and I don't think much has changed regarding weeding monographs since then. Journals are another story. Journals are much more likely to be discarded if they are available digitally in a stable format.
Also unless the library is the Library of Congress, or at a huge Research I University or Harvard or the like, the librarians are very unlikely to want to keep their entire collection. Stuff gets weeded all the time. The big academic libraries (hopefully) have that directive and you can get items that don't fit in the current collection through interlibrary loan for the few patrons who need them.
Digitization projects like HaithiTrust are helping to ensure that older books aren't just weeded into oblivion, but users can only access items in the public domain.
posted by ephemerista at 6:54 PM on September 1, 2013 [1 favorite]
We do a variation of three different things, usually:
1) Weed (read: get rid of) books so that we don't have such a huge disparity between our space and our books. This goes hand in hand with knowing how much space is available and trying not to over-buy books these days (since at least in academic libraries, the demand for print books is lessening)
2) Shift (read: consolidate and move things around to save space) so that there's now more stack space for those excess books (and DVDs, serials like journals and magazines, even VHS and eight-track and costumes depending on the library)
3) Off-site storage (read: go buy a storage unit and stuff it with books). This is a pretty common option for academic libraries (not so much public ones, who are more likely to weed and shift) and it's extraordinarily expensive. The storage facility must be climate controlled, be filled with bookshelves, and be on the ground floor or retro-fitted to handle the extraordinary weight of books
3.5) Another occasional option is using a special type of shelving called compact shelving. That's basically used for low-use materials like journals, as it's a pain to open the shelving constantly
Libraries are also really trying to switch from a 'just in case' (have all the materials on this topic on the off-chance a patron might want one or more) to a 'just in time' model (have a way to get patrons access to the requested material very quickly. like inter-library loan which is received digitally). There are those libraries which are less invested in this than others.
Yes, of course the digital world and especially the internet are changing how we handle physical materials. We're purchasing e-books in lieu of print books, we're weeding journals that have gone online, we're re-purposing these spaces for group study space or computers or whatever. Libraries are really, really keen on keeping up with the present and working to anticipate the future, and collections are certainly one area where this is felt.
I doubt your local public library will have reading materials which will cover this in any detail. This is the sort of thing you would find in a very boring library science textbook (I've one on collection management that I can recommend, if you like) or learn on the job.
posted by librarylis at 6:57 PM on September 1, 2013
1) Weed (read: get rid of) books so that we don't have such a huge disparity between our space and our books. This goes hand in hand with knowing how much space is available and trying not to over-buy books these days (since at least in academic libraries, the demand for print books is lessening)
2) Shift (read: consolidate and move things around to save space) so that there's now more stack space for those excess books (and DVDs, serials like journals and magazines, even VHS and eight-track and costumes depending on the library)
3) Off-site storage (read: go buy a storage unit and stuff it with books). This is a pretty common option for academic libraries (not so much public ones, who are more likely to weed and shift) and it's extraordinarily expensive. The storage facility must be climate controlled, be filled with bookshelves, and be on the ground floor or retro-fitted to handle the extraordinary weight of books
3.5) Another occasional option is using a special type of shelving called compact shelving. That's basically used for low-use materials like journals, as it's a pain to open the shelving constantly
Libraries are also really trying to switch from a 'just in case' (have all the materials on this topic on the off-chance a patron might want one or more) to a 'just in time' model (have a way to get patrons access to the requested material very quickly. like inter-library loan which is received digitally). There are those libraries which are less invested in this than others.
Yes, of course the digital world and especially the internet are changing how we handle physical materials. We're purchasing e-books in lieu of print books, we're weeding journals that have gone online, we're re-purposing these spaces for group study space or computers or whatever. Libraries are really, really keen on keeping up with the present and working to anticipate the future, and collections are certainly one area where this is felt.
I doubt your local public library will have reading materials which will cover this in any detail. This is the sort of thing you would find in a very boring library science textbook (I've one on collection management that I can recommend, if you like) or learn on the job.
posted by librarylis at 6:57 PM on September 1, 2013
Academic librarian here - we maintain several large consortial off-site storage facilities for low-circulation materials (serving from these adds a few days to delivery), as well as regularly and thoughtfully weeding materials.
Is digital media changing the way libraries maintain their stock at all?
In many ways, yes - two that come immediately to mind are A) initiatives to decrease duplicate holding / preservation of serials and manage / share them collectively and digitally B) financial pressures caused by high journal subscription costs and the demand for databases and other digital resources pushing libraries away from approval plans and toward demand-driven acquisition.
posted by ryanshepard at 7:14 PM on September 1, 2013
Is digital media changing the way libraries maintain their stock at all?
In many ways, yes - two that come immediately to mind are A) initiatives to decrease duplicate holding / preservation of serials and manage / share them collectively and digitally B) financial pressures caused by high journal subscription costs and the demand for databases and other digital resources pushing libraries away from approval plans and toward demand-driven acquisition.
posted by ryanshepard at 7:14 PM on September 1, 2013
I work for a state library in Australia. Although we are a public library in that we're open to members of the public, our collections are closer to academic library collections than to normal circulating public libraries - and we're not a lending library. Additionally, we have a legal requirement to store and maintain a copy of everything published in the state. We also have special collections (manuscripts, maps, pictures, rare books, newspapers, Victoriana - in the sense of the state, not the time period) and collections of things that have been donated to us (magic, children's books, others). We're not allowed to weed the way other libraries do; on the rare occasions when we're allowed to get rid of material, it's called "de-accessioning" and has to go through the board and several other processes I don't remember because it's so rare.
We have a combination of solutions for the storage problem, which is ever-increasing due to the influx of new materials without being able to get rid of old ones. We have material in browsing areas, more material onsite but in storage (mostly in compactus shelves) which can be requested through the library catalogue and retrieved by staff. Finally, we have a purpose-built offsite storage facility. Deliveries come in every weekday morning, so things can usually be requested and seen the next day (Friday and Saturday requests come in on Monday, along with the Sunday requests). Even with this combination of storage, we will still run out of space. We're looking at planning another offsite store, I believe, though I don't really work in that area. Most of the material stored offsite is older material - old runs of journals and newspapers, huge donated collections of manuscript material, big pictures and realia in a cool store, old books from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that are less likely to be used, that kind of thing.
We also manage things by moving towards digital collections - we've favoured digital over print for years in terms of periodicals, and have recently upscaled our digital monograph collecting as well so that over time a significant proportion of new material will be in ebook format rather than print. Ebooks are tricky, though; especially Australian content as many Australian publishers don't seem to have quite sorted out what they want to do with ebooks.
Another way of managing the storage space you have is to move to an organisational system that lets you fit more in. Our onsite collections, for example, are organised by Dewey numbers. Some areas grow more than others, which means you have to leave space for them to grow or shift things periodically as the overflow builds up. With the offsite material, much is arranged by Dewey but this isn't the most efficient way to go - much easier to have fixed shelf locations and cram everything in without leaving space for more to come. Because it doesn't have to make sense to the casual browser, it doesn't matter if all the books on a particular topic aren't together in the same area.
posted by Athanassiel at 9:45 PM on September 1, 2013
We have a combination of solutions for the storage problem, which is ever-increasing due to the influx of new materials without being able to get rid of old ones. We have material in browsing areas, more material onsite but in storage (mostly in compactus shelves) which can be requested through the library catalogue and retrieved by staff. Finally, we have a purpose-built offsite storage facility. Deliveries come in every weekday morning, so things can usually be requested and seen the next day (Friday and Saturday requests come in on Monday, along with the Sunday requests). Even with this combination of storage, we will still run out of space. We're looking at planning another offsite store, I believe, though I don't really work in that area. Most of the material stored offsite is older material - old runs of journals and newspapers, huge donated collections of manuscript material, big pictures and realia in a cool store, old books from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that are less likely to be used, that kind of thing.
We also manage things by moving towards digital collections - we've favoured digital over print for years in terms of periodicals, and have recently upscaled our digital monograph collecting as well so that over time a significant proportion of new material will be in ebook format rather than print. Ebooks are tricky, though; especially Australian content as many Australian publishers don't seem to have quite sorted out what they want to do with ebooks.
Another way of managing the storage space you have is to move to an organisational system that lets you fit more in. Our onsite collections, for example, are organised by Dewey numbers. Some areas grow more than others, which means you have to leave space for them to grow or shift things periodically as the overflow builds up. With the offsite material, much is arranged by Dewey but this isn't the most efficient way to go - much easier to have fixed shelf locations and cram everything in without leaving space for more to come. Because it doesn't have to make sense to the casual browser, it doesn't matter if all the books on a particular topic aren't together in the same area.
posted by Athanassiel at 9:45 PM on September 1, 2013
It also comes down to your organization's mission and goals.
Public libraries usually have a mission to preserve local history and unique resources in addition to providing for the informational and entertainment needs of the community.
So, many of us do not collect comprehensively in any subjects other than local history.
How else do we manage our limited collection space?
As an example, we will weed down the older best seller titles from 25 to 3 copies once the demand has calmed down.
We have pared down print reference collections by purchasing e-book or database formats [or use licenses].
We watch format shifts--once we were comfortable that our community was no longer using VHS tapes, we retired that entire format to make space for [more] DVDs, just as we once retired LPs for music Cassettes and cassettes for music CDs.
We also use interlibrary loan services so that our patrons who are doing research can have access to more scholarly resources or to older popular titles that we did not have room for. In return, we try to respond quickly and favorably to requests to use our books through interlibrary loan.
There was a question about the "old days" before computerized catalog systems provided reports on underused books.
Library staff used to use the last date stamped on the due date sticker or pocket as their cue to weed. In fact, this was an issue when we stopped stamping due dates--"how will we know which books to weed?"
Some librarians are better weeders than others, and a smart collection manager will soon find out which staff are the quickest, most efficient weeders. My favorite branch staff are those who take the initiative to creatively manage their collection space. They will send underused books to me at the Central Library without being asked. They will report requests for authors or genres and use the catalog to help library patrons request from Central or other systems. They will create and manage book displays that are easy to set up, maintain, and break down. They have fun with their collections and their space and engage their community in the process.
There are also merchandizing systems that are being created and sold to libraries, especially in the past few years. These systems pull statistics from the Library catalog and then recommend collection shifts between branches, recommend subjects to weed, and make suggestions on which areas are "trending" and need additional titles purchased. These are quite popular at the moment for most large and many small libraries in the US.
posted by calgirl at 12:17 AM on September 2, 2013
Public libraries usually have a mission to preserve local history and unique resources in addition to providing for the informational and entertainment needs of the community.
So, many of us do not collect comprehensively in any subjects other than local history.
How else do we manage our limited collection space?
As an example, we will weed down the older best seller titles from 25 to 3 copies once the demand has calmed down.
We have pared down print reference collections by purchasing e-book or database formats [or use licenses].
We watch format shifts--once we were comfortable that our community was no longer using VHS tapes, we retired that entire format to make space for [more] DVDs, just as we once retired LPs for music Cassettes and cassettes for music CDs.
We also use interlibrary loan services so that our patrons who are doing research can have access to more scholarly resources or to older popular titles that we did not have room for. In return, we try to respond quickly and favorably to requests to use our books through interlibrary loan.
There was a question about the "old days" before computerized catalog systems provided reports on underused books.
Library staff used to use the last date stamped on the due date sticker or pocket as their cue to weed. In fact, this was an issue when we stopped stamping due dates--"how will we know which books to weed?"
Some librarians are better weeders than others, and a smart collection manager will soon find out which staff are the quickest, most efficient weeders. My favorite branch staff are those who take the initiative to creatively manage their collection space. They will send underused books to me at the Central Library without being asked. They will report requests for authors or genres and use the catalog to help library patrons request from Central or other systems. They will create and manage book displays that are easy to set up, maintain, and break down. They have fun with their collections and their space and engage their community in the process.
There are also merchandizing systems that are being created and sold to libraries, especially in the past few years. These systems pull statistics from the Library catalog and then recommend collection shifts between branches, recommend subjects to weed, and make suggestions on which areas are "trending" and need additional titles purchased. These are quite popular at the moment for most large and many small libraries in the US.
posted by calgirl at 12:17 AM on September 2, 2013
Yes, the basic methods are weeding, resource sharing (interlibrary loan), off-site and compact storage, and digital media. But basically, your question is based on an incorrect premise, which is that libraries a) do not know which books their patrons will request, and b) keep things around "just because."
Smaller libraries may weed relentlessly to only the items that are highest-circulating, and consider the networked system's holdings as a whole when assessing demand (does another library in the system have it? how many holds are placed every month? => decision whether to purchase a popular item or keep a less popular item).
Research libraries which are considered "depositories" may keep much more material that circulates rarely, and are more likely to use off-site storage (I've seen an entire warehouse that was filled with items from several libraries within a university consortium, these items appear in the catalog and you can request them but there is a delay while they are being retrieved from the warehouse. I've also seen many floors and basements that are entirely devoted to compact storage.) But they still weed stuff that is no longer considered relevant by whatever collection standards are used.
posted by epanalepsis at 5:58 AM on September 2, 2013
Smaller libraries may weed relentlessly to only the items that are highest-circulating, and consider the networked system's holdings as a whole when assessing demand (does another library in the system have it? how many holds are placed every month? => decision whether to purchase a popular item or keep a less popular item).
Research libraries which are considered "depositories" may keep much more material that circulates rarely, and are more likely to use off-site storage (I've seen an entire warehouse that was filled with items from several libraries within a university consortium, these items appear in the catalog and you can request them but there is a delay while they are being retrieved from the warehouse. I've also seen many floors and basements that are entirely devoted to compact storage.) But they still weed stuff that is no longer considered relevant by whatever collection standards are used.
posted by epanalepsis at 5:58 AM on September 2, 2013
In my public library, we have some additional storage in the basement. In the basement, we keep books that go out very rarely but we don't want to get rid of, children's holiday books, vhs tapes, duplicates of summer reading books, etc. Patrons just have to ask the staff and then one of us will run down and get the item.
We weed our collection about twice a year, and while it makes my heart sad to remove books from out collection, it is necessary and the director makes sure she has the lists/SCIENCE to back up the items we are weeding.
posted by firei at 6:34 AM on September 2, 2013
We weed our collection about twice a year, and while it makes my heart sad to remove books from out collection, it is necessary and the director makes sure she has the lists/SCIENCE to back up the items we are weeding.
posted by firei at 6:34 AM on September 2, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
a) Weeding the collection-- like print duplicates of JSTOR holdings (if not needed by professors or where the print version is simply better,) older materials with no recent checkout history (or a variety of other criteria)
b) Renting off-site library storage with materials available on-demand and delivered to the library
c) Working to increase permanent electronic holdings or on-demand materials, like e-books that are paid for only after a chapter or section is read; print copies of those materials are purchased only for specific reasons
The only materials that are not in public space are locked cages for rare materials, which have their own requesting process, but that's obviously something that varies widely from library to library. Many libraries already have systems where patrons have to request the materials and then they're brought out; some are manual, some are robotic.
posted by jetlagaddict at 6:48 PM on September 1, 2013 [1 favorite]