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Collection Evaluation and Development: Home

Information about and tools to use for collection assessment, development, and maintenance.

The 3Cs of Collection Management

Community         ⇔        Curriculum         ⇔        Collection  

                                                                 

Images courtesy of MicroSoft.

 

Guidelines for Weeding

MUSTIE*:

M - Misleading: factually inaccurate

U - Ugly: worn beyond mending

S - Superseded: by a new edition or a better resource; duplicate or redundant

T - Trivial: of no discernable literary, artisitc, or scientific merit

I - Irrelevant to the needs and interest of the library's community and curriculum

E - Elsewhere: can be obtained through ILL

*From The CREW  Method: Guidelines for Weeding.

Tools

The Cataloging Department can run reports to gather data such as age of the collection, usage, last usage date, etc. Other tools to consider using are listed below.

Conspectus Scale

Level 0 - Out of scope: the library doesn not collect in this area.

Level 1 - Minimal: only a few selections are made beyond introductory or very basic material.

Level 2 - Basic: up-to-date materials which serve to introduce and define a subject; can support general inquiries and some undergraduate instruction, but is not sufficient to support advanced undergraduate courses.

Level 3 - Intermediate: a broad range of resources adequate to support undergraduate instruction and work at less than research intensity.

Level 4 - Research: current and retrospective resources which can support postgraduate and independent academic research; the collection will provide materials in all appropriate formats and languages.

Level 5 - Comprehensive: includes, as far as is reasonable possible, all signifiant works of recorded knowledge in all applicable languages for a defined and limited field.

Bibliography