The Collection Assessment is Done…Now What?

Abstract

Purpose About collection management The methods used to manage collections have changed dramatically in the last half century, a phenomenon that has been well documented in the literature.1 This has been due in part to a reaction to the rapid growth of information resources,2 increased costs of acquiring these resources coupled with decreased share of institutional funding towards libraries,3 and the shift to digital formats, resulting in changes in methods of making these resources accessible to library patrons. Some in the field have gone so far as to suggest that collection management is undergoing a “paradigm shift.”4 These changes have increased the need for information about the collections themselves, notably inputs (costs and needs), outputs (purchases/acquisitions, circulations, and uses), and outcomes (citations, student grades, and faculty grant successes).5