Analysis of format duplication in an academic library collection

The issue of format duplication in academic library collections is increasingly complicated and perplexing in an environment of static or dwindling resources, soaring user expectations, dynamic access models, and inconsistent and changing publisher and vendor pricing structures. The problem is further complicated for libraries serving a university with multiple campus locations. This paper surveys recent investigative projects and highlights the work of a Duplicate Formats Task Force at Pennsylvania State University charged with determining the extent and nature of format duplication at that institution.     

Analysis of format duplication in an academic library collection

The issue of format duplication in academic library collections is increasingly complicated and perplexing in an environment of static or dwindling resources, soaring user expectations, dynamic access models, and inconsistent and changing publisher and vendor pricing structures. The problem is further complicated for libraries serving a university with multiple campus locations. This paper surveys recent investigative projects and highlights the work of a Duplicate Formats Task Force at Pennsylvania State University charged with determining the extent and nature of format duplication at that institution.     

Implementing a just-in-time collection development model in an academic library

This article describes the development of a system for changing a university library's collection development strategy from the traditional “just in case” model to a “just in time” approach. The reasons for such a change included a desire to be more responsive to user requirements, a need to be more flexible in acquiring interdisciplinary resources and new formats, and a substantial cut in the library's budget. The Collection Development librarians envisioned the collections as a service, using a simpler and more versatile accounting structure. The Access-Based Collection Development (ABCD) model emphasizes making materials available at the point of need rather than having them on hand in anticipation of use. ABCD has four overarching themes: to be sustainable, to be holistic and inclusive, to be flexible and scalable, and to use evidence for decision-making. The authors provide details of the implementation, outcomes, evaluation, and future of the model.     

Use of laptop computers in an academic medical library

Who borrows laptop computers in an academic health sciences library? Why do they choose to check out laptops? In a survey, laptop computer users responded that the laptops were used most frequently to do class-related work. Laptops were most often checked out because they could be taken to a quiet area of the library or to where the user had more room to work. The majority of such borrowers were satisfied or very satisfied with the laptops and the service from the library. The majority of those completing the survey were medical school students and graduate students. The circulation of laptop computers at this academic health sciences library is a very successful and popular program.     

Floating collection in an academic library: An audacious experiment that succeeded

Can a floating collection thrive in a large multicampus academic research library? Floating collections have been successful in public libraries for some time, but it is uncommon for academic libraries and unheard of for a large academic library system. This article will discuss the investigation into the feasibility of a floating collection at Penn State University Libraries, its implementation, and continuation for a period covering 2009 through 2015. Attaining the floating collection, limited to monographs in the general stacks of campus libraries, proved to be easier to implement than imagined and resulted in unintended benefits as well as some surprises.     

Implementing PDA technology in a medical library: experiences in a hospital library and an academic medical center library

Personal digital assistants (PDAs) have grown from being a novelty in the late 1990s to an essential tool for healthcare professionals in the 2000s. This paper describes the experiences of a librarian who implemented PDA technology first in a hospital library, and then at an academic medical center library. It focuses on the role of the library in supporting PDA technology and resources. Included are programmatic issues such as training for library staff and clinicians, and technical issues such as Palm and Windows operating systems. This model could be used in either a hospital or academic health sciences library.     

Career progression of academic medical library directors

While females are still underrepresented as directors overall, the results of our survey indicate that in the past ten years female library directors have been hired in numbers nearly matching their overall percentage of the medical library profession. When the personal characteristics of medical library directors are compared by gender, male directors are more likely to be married, have children, and be somewhat younger upon attaining their first directorship. When the professional characteristics are compared, the only notable difference is that a greater portion of males hold a second master's degree. Despite the changing numbers of female library directors in the past ten years, these differences all held constant before and after 1977. Only the number of internal successions to directorship changed over time. The succession patterns of medical library directors now match more closely those of other academic library directors.     

Reorganizing collection development and acquisitions in a medium-sized academic library

The University of Dayton Roesch Library reorganized the collection development and acquisitions departments during 1995 and 1996 in order to improve the collection and make the process of acquiring materials more responsive to the needs of students and faculty. The old organization was department-based, with teaching faculty controlling most of the materials budget. The Associate Director for Technical Services coordinated the funds and supervised acquisitions staff. Perceived imbalances in the collection, student and faculty dissatisfaction with the process, and the desire for public services librarians to have greater influence in collection decisions led to a major reorganization. The new model distributes budget authority among all librarians based on subjects rather than academic departments. It empowers librarians to make purchasing and weeding decisions within their subject areas. Book and periodical acquisitions are combined into a single support unit that reports to the Coordinator and Head of Collection Management. The new organization has streamlined acquisitions processes to make ordering simpler, and the time between ordering and receipt has been shortened. The new model shifts the emphasis from process to service.     

Better together: Assessing a leisure reading collection for an academic and public library partnership

UBC's Okanagan Library developed a leisure reading collection in 2006 to promote and encourage reading for pleasure on campus, an initiative now seen to be taking place in many post-secondary institutions. Over 12 years almost 800 titles were added to the collection. While this collection was used consistently by students, staff, and faculty, a new initiative prompted a re-evaluation of its purpose and future. In 2017, a partnership was developed with the Okanagan Regional Library to convert one of the Library's meeting rooms into a mini-location for the public library. This space would intentionally maintain a small collection of leisure reading titles, while also allowing public library patrons to pick up holds and return their books. As a result, the leisure reading collection needed to be reviewed for duplication with the new initiative and the applicability of keeping some content for research and teaching. This column will explore how the core weeding criteria were drafted for this collection, how they were used to make final decisions on retention for each item (even when they did not meet the formal criteria), and how the Library is moving forward with the new collaborative leisure reading initiative in an academic space.     

Standards for the academic veterinary medical library.

The Standards Committee of the Veterinary Medical Libraries Section was appointed in May 2000 and charged to create standards for the ideal academic veterinary medical library, written from the perspective of veterinary medical librarians. The resulting Standards for the Academic Veterinary Medical Library were approved by members of the Veterinary Medical Libraries Section during MLA '03 in San Diego, California. The standards were approved by Section Council in April 2005 and received final approval from the Board of Directors of the Medical Library Association during MLA '04 in Washington, DC.     

Anatomy of a serials collection and its usage: case study of an Australian academic library

This paper reports the results of a serial usage study conducted at an Australian academic library. The study indicates what can happen to holdings if collection development staff do not have access to usage data. In this instance, 55.42% of serial holdings were closed, and 59.14% of serial holdings were unused. The study found that removing unused serials to closed access would significantly reduce the high level of congestion in the collection. It also found that the density of use of serials expressed as average uses per meter in some high-cost disciplines (e.g., mathematics, physics, and chemistry) was significantly lower than the density of use of serials in other disciplines. Possible explanations for this are examined and a number of weeding/relegation strategies are proposed.     

Weeding nursing e-books in an academic library

Libraries supporting health sciences programs must periodically weed collections to remove outdated materials. Both print and e-book collections should be weeded. This article outlines the process Auburn Montgomery librarians followed to weed the NetLibrary e-book collection supporting the School of Nursing curriculum. The nursing courses are taught primarily online or as hybrid courses, increasing reliance on remotely accessible electronic resources. While this e-book weeding project is focused on a specific subject area and the number of e-books weeded is small, the basic method can be applied to larger e-book weeding projects in subject areas other than nursing.     

MEDLINE and PsycLIT on CD-ROM: a survey of users in an academic medical library

A survey of users of PsycLIT and MEDLINE on CD-ROM was performed at an academic medical library. The questionnaire was designed to gather information about the user population, satisfaction of the users, the assistance needed to use the systems, and the type of searches being performed. The majority of users were graduate students in the schools of medicine, nursing, and pharmacy. In general, users were satisfied with the performance of the systems. Assistance from a librarian, printed documentation, or another patron was required by 85% of users, and they were generally satisfied with this assistance. Most searches were performed to obtain information on a subject. The results were remarkably similar for both databases.     

Integrating and promoting medical podcasts into the library collection

Podcasts offer a way for medical professionals to listen to current information in medicine from an iPod, MP3 player, handheld device, or computer. As podcasts become more popular, libraries may be interested in integrating programs into the library collection. South Pointe Medical Library evaluated medical podcasts relevant to the scope of the library collection and explored methods for finding and organizing such programs in ways that are efficient for both the librarian and the patron. doi:10.1300/J115v26n01_03.