[Wactclc-alma] Collection Analysis

[Guidry, Wade]

The IPEDS dashboard contains the tabs for collection by publication age for Dewey and LC.

Those same basic formulas could be used for what you are describing, I believe.

Are you talking about publication age? Or how long you've had a volume?

It can be a little tricky to deal with publication dates and call number ranges, since the analysis will only be as good as the data you have.

The more uniformly our call numbers and publication dates are cataloged, the more accurate the analysis.

And I believe the same basic formulas that look at call numbers by publication date could be used to look at circulation by call number range.

If you want to post a few call number ranges to the list (I believe you are Dewey) I could mock up an example in analytics.




Wade Guidry
Library Consortium Services Manager, WACTCLC
wadeg at bigbend.edu<mailto:wadeg at bigbend.edu>
(509) 760-4474
http://www.wactclc.org


From: Wactclc-alma <wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> On Behalf Of Skirko, Tria
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2019 12:17 PM
To: wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu
Subject: [Wactclc-alma] Collection Analysis

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Hello All -

We're grappling with some things in collection analysis and I'm wondering if others have developed analysis or processes on this subject.  I'm also open to ideas, advice, etc. regarding what you are doing in collection analysis/circulation assessment/planning/whatever.  Especially how you are leveraging Analytics to find out some things like this:


  1.  Age of the collection +.  One thing we need is to be able to do a more sophisticated analysis where we can account for the fact that some areas simply will have older books. Conversely (sort of), it would be good to have data that would allow us to identify high demand areas that need some attention.
  2.  We want to be able to provide evidence to the accreditation visitors that some of our planning results in improvements in the collection. For instance, we have new four-year degrees and other programs and have been deliberate about collecting in those areas. Has the number of titles in a specific area increased, or is there a qualitative improvement in the area? Same thing (conversely sort of again) goes for areas that we have targeted for weeding.
  3.  For item 2 it would be nice to show a correlation to circulation, whichever direction it is.

So, it seems to come down to being able to target a range of call numbers, get an average age of pub dates (and perhaps a distribution, too), and then be able to get circ trends for that range for dates that include pre- and post-intervention (whether more purchasing, weeding, or both). You may (I hope) have other ways of thinking about this, and I'd love to hear them!


Tria Skirko | Electronic Services Librarian, Faculty
Wenatchee Valley College,  Omak Campus | www.wvc.edu<http://www.wvc.edu/>
tskirko at wvc.edu<mailto:tskirko at wvc.edu> | 509.422.7832

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