Resources for College Libraries : What do the Numbers Mean?

Sue BeidlerLycoming College

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

Agenda� Overview of Lycoming’s Environment

� Overview of Resources for College Libraries

� What is BBAS (/Bowker’s Book Analysis System)?

� How We Use RCLWeb

� How We Use BBAS

� Discussion

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

Overview of Lycoming’s Environment� Lycoming College: private, 4-year, approx.1400

FTE

� Traditional Liberal Arts

� 5 Librarians, 6 support staff

� An active collaborative instruction program that teaches the responsible use of research sources, building the skills to find, evaluate, and integrate information is a key aspect of our mission.

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

Overview of Lycoming’s Environment� Local ILS: TLC’s Library•Solution 4.2

� Collection of approx. 155,000 cataloged volumes

� Annual monograph/standing order budget of approximately $120K

� 2,300 new cataloged volumes added annually

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

Overview of Resources for College Libraries

� Successor to Books for College Libraries (BCL3)

� Collaborative project between ACRL, CHOICE, and R.R. Bowker

� Available in print and as an online tool (RCLWeb)

� First released in 2006

� Online version is updated quarterly

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

Overview of BBAS (Bowker’s Book Analysis System)

� Electronically compares local collection to the RCL database

� Provides array of reports that can be customized� Duplicate titles

� Invalid ISBNs

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

Overview of BBAS (Bowker’s Book Analysis System)

� Electronically compares local collection to the RCL database

� Provides array of reports that can be customized� Duplicate titles

� Invalid ISBNs

� Statistical reports by RCL Subjects, LC Classification or

� Core titles in library

� Core titles NOT in library

� Total # of core titles

� % of core titles held

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

Lycoming’s Uses for RCLWeb� Evaluating gift books for inclusion in our

collection � Generally do a quick title search in RCLWeb for

possible keepers

� Are likely to keep the book if any edition is in RCL

� Sometimes will also search by author – if there are a number of titles by the author we may keep if the title is curriculum related

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

Lycoming’s Current Uses for RCL Book Analysis results

� Retrospective Collection Development –Photography Project� Overview of Project

� Used “Don’t have” list to work from with faculty

� Improved from 27.74% coverage in 2007 to 51.82% coverage in 2008 as a result of this project

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

Lycoming’s Current Uses for RCL Book Analysis results

� Weeding/De-selection decisions� Faculty from specific disciplines selected each year

� They’re set loose in the stacks with very general guidelines

� Any items they think should be withdrawn are put on a book truck

� I pull up the list of RCL titles we have in that call number range – anything on the RCL list goes back to the shelves immediately, but is marked that it is in RCL

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

Lycoming’s Current Uses for RCL Book Analysis results

� Assessment� Meetings with academic departments regarding the

collection � Sometimes used in preparation for the meeting – a gauge of

strength or weakness

� Sometimes used as follow-up – Mathematical Sciences –even though there was no response from the faculty

� Track changes in our holdings from year to year, by discipline

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

Lycoming’s Current Uses for RCL Book Analysis results

� Challenges� Analysis is always done against the current RCL

database

� Must save analyses at the time you run them

� Exported statistics cannot be manipulated

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

What do the numbers mean?

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

What can the analysis tell us?

� RCLWeb � Book Analysis System

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

How would/could we go about developing comparisons with similar size/type libraries?

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

How might we determine comparison libraries?

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010

Contact Information

Sue BeidlerSnowden LibraryLycoming College700 College Place

Williamsport, PA 17701570-321-4084

beidler@lycoming.edu

Charleston Conference November 4, 2010