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COLLABORATION FOR LIBRARY COLLECTION ACQUISITION

Lorette S. J. Weldon

This “how-to” chapter can help you develop an acquisitions program that feeds documents and other items into a library collection. Through carefully defined teamwork and collaboration within the library’s staff and with other organizations, this method convenes different groups and individuals for information exchange, identifies the big issues, and provides valuable, different perspectives on them.

WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?

Begin by sending out a feedback survey to find out if the patrons want more that your collection contains. This allows patrons to tell you if they have received information or documents that answered their questions. The survey functions as a tool to help you identify relevant documents that reflect current and future interests of the patrons for the collection.

When I applied this program in my library, I used open-ended questions so that patrons were freer to respond. If the questions allow for more of a response than “yes” or “no,” patrons can take better advantage of the chance to be heard. Patrons do realize that this will help them with future research needs. The following are the process and basic questions that helped me get a better picture of what the patrons wanted:

1. Create a survey through Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com).
2. Select the participants from the membership and send them surveys; or create e-mail messages to them with a link to electronic versions of the survey.
3. Receive responses and catalog the open-ended responses by answering the following questions:
   • What is happening?
   • How did X or Y answer the question?
   • Who answered the question?
   • Where did the request get answered (e-mail, phone, etc)?
   • When did it happen?

SAMPLE SURVEY

Your survey will benefit from questions such as the following, but adapt them to suit your own library situation:

1. Before responding to this survey, were you aware of the existence of the library?
2. Have you personally used the services of the library or had someone else use the services of the library on your behalf?
3. How did you contact the library to ask for research help?
4. Were you able to obtain the information you were seeking?
5. I am aware that the library offers [answer yes or no]
6. webinars for patrons on a range of topics
7. a librarian who answers questions about a range of topics
8. an online library for sharing documents
9. Do you have documents that you are willing to share with the library collection? [answer yes or no]
10. Do you find the discussion list helpful?
11. List three things the library typically does very well.
12. List three things the library could do much better.

GO BACK HOME

Another way to find out what the collection lacks in terms of patron requests is to have an informal retreat with the researchers on staff in your library. I found that through biweekly lunchtime retreats I could recruit members for a special team who could contribute past, present, and future “lived experiences” of staff in the research study areas of the library. This kind of team can help you assess the library for missing elements related to their area of study.

Each member of the team is tasked to produce their findings in a concisely written, short brief. The results can be matched across several library collections in your area (location and subject specialty), including private, government, academic, and information industry sectors.

The costs of this collaborative approach fall naturally into two parts. Internal costs include office supplies, postage, telephone bills, equipment leasing and maintenance, travel expenses, acquisitions, and subscriptions for online databases and journals. Typical external costs might cover collecting benchmarks for subject areas, programs and services that provide patrons a framework for understanding the subject areas of the collection, Trends Tracker pertaining to the subject area, and convening subgroups of patrons for information exchange.