(no subject)
I've just reviewed a collection analysis that last year's librarian ordered, and unfortunately it's not as helpful as I would have hoped. It's too general to really help (for example, I know we need more easy-reading nonfiction, but there's no category for that).
What's most confusing are the little graphs telling what percent of the library's collection each category (General Science, the Arts, Fiction, etc.) makes up versus what percent of the collection it should make up in the ideal library. It's telling me that everything needs to take up proportionally more of the library than it does. This does not sound mathematically possible to me. If I increase everything and leave nothing the same, won't all the categories still be roughly proportionate to each other? Well, OK, they won't have the same proportions unless I increase them by what is proportionally the same amount, but I'm not seeing how I can get everything to take up more of the library than it does now without decreasing something.
The only thing it told me that was useful was how many more books my library should have. I knew that the collection is too small for the school population overall - but apparently we have a little more than 9 books per student and should have 15 books per student, so the library needs to become approximately half-again as big as it is now. I guess I'll start with the most popular categories and work from there. I hate having to keep telling kids that our 2 "How to Draw" books, 5 books about sharks, and 3 graphic novels are checked out, again, by different people than last time. Or that, sorry, none of our astronomy books are specifically about the sun or life-cycle of a star, and that the closest thing to a book on dancing that we have is a biography of J-Lo. I put in a suggestion box, hopefully that will be more helpful.
I just hope the School Board doesn't mind if most of my budget is taken up by mostly graphic novels, nonfiction, and collections of scary stories - Easy Reading, Picture Books, and Chapter Books seem to be keeping up with demand fairly well.
What's most confusing are the little graphs telling what percent of the library's collection each category (General Science, the Arts, Fiction, etc.) makes up versus what percent of the collection it should make up in the ideal library. It's telling me that everything needs to take up proportionally more of the library than it does. This does not sound mathematically possible to me. If I increase everything and leave nothing the same, won't all the categories still be roughly proportionate to each other? Well, OK, they won't have the same proportions unless I increase them by what is proportionally the same amount, but I'm not seeing how I can get everything to take up more of the library than it does now without decreasing something.
The only thing it told me that was useful was how many more books my library should have. I knew that the collection is too small for the school population overall - but apparently we have a little more than 9 books per student and should have 15 books per student, so the library needs to become approximately half-again as big as it is now. I guess I'll start with the most popular categories and work from there. I hate having to keep telling kids that our 2 "How to Draw" books, 5 books about sharks, and 3 graphic novels are checked out, again, by different people than last time. Or that, sorry, none of our astronomy books are specifically about the sun or life-cycle of a star, and that the closest thing to a book on dancing that we have is a biography of J-Lo. I put in a suggestion box, hopefully that will be more helpful.
I just hope the School Board doesn't mind if most of my budget is taken up by mostly graphic novels, nonfiction, and collections of scary stories - Easy Reading, Picture Books, and Chapter Books seem to be keeping up with demand fairly well.