[Wactclc-alma] Alma Analytics and Collection Development

[Lesley Caldwell]

Hi Melinda,

Pierce College has been using "Collection Manager<https://www.sos.wa.gov/_assets/library/libraries/firsttuesdays/20140603notes.pdf>" borrowed from a public librarian for the last five years.

Are you using Alma Analytics beyond Dewey/LC canned reports to determine weaknesses in your collection and strategize weeding/budget decisions?  If so, how? (ex: by program, division, conspectus, etc.)
Yes. We are looking at our data by LC class. John Jennings uses Alma analytics to pull the number of books in an LC class, how many times books from that class circed in the previous year, and how many we added to that LC class the previous year. Then he plugs those numbers into the attached spreadsheet, and the formulas calculate where we such purchase and where we should weed.

The librarians submit acquisitions based on this into a Google Form.

Are you using a budget allocation model toward your overall collection, and if so, would you be willing to share?
No, we've basically just been stealing from our book budget to cover the increasing costs of electronic resources. Whatever is left we use on books.

Do you use metrics to determine what a "balanced" collection is for your institution? If so, what does that look like?
See above. This year we decided to slow down the purchase of PZs because they are always at the top of our spreadsheet. I was concerned that even though our early childhood program is a big library user, we were over-allocating our resources that way.

Pierce College also has two libraries, so I use the aforementioned Google form (not Alma analytics) to make sure we're not buying for one campus more than another.

Hope that helps!
Lesley

From: Wactclc-alma <wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> On Behalf Of Martin, Melinda
Sent: Friday, February 28, 2020 11:31 AM
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>
Subject: [Wactclc-alma] Alma Analytics and Collection Development

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Hi All,
We have been working to develop better reporting for decision-making for quite a while here at SCC/SFCC. I was wondering the following:

-          Are you using Alma Analytics beyond Dewey/LC canned reports to determine weaknesses in your collection and strategize weeding/budget decisions?  If so, how? (ex: by program, division, conspectus, etc.)
-          Are you using a budget allocation model toward your overall collection, and if so, would you be willing to share?
-          Do you use metrics to determine what a "balanced" collection is for your institution? If so, what does that look like?

We have planned some internal use of local 9XX tags to create some reports (through Analytics), but have to go back and "tag" the collection - however, there has been some reservation about the need to do this work (value) among librarians and I was wondering how colleges like us are using the tools at our disposal.

Thank you for anyone willing to share.


Warm Regards,

Melinda Martin
Faculty Librarian
Community Colleges of Spokane
509-533-8822
Melinda.Martin at ccs.spokane.edu<mailto:Melinda.Martin at ccs.spokane.edu>


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