Managing and Analyzing Your Collection A Practical Guide for Small Libraries and School Media Centers 1st Edition by Carol Ann Doll ISBN 083899914X 9780838999141

“If you can follow a cookbook, you can use these simple “recipes” – calculations, formulas, and measurements – to come up with statistics for analysis and management of your collection. Using measures of timeliness, relevancy, use percentages, user profiles, and comparisons, you can determine in quantitative ways the quality of your library’s collection. From there, you can communicate its value to your customers and that’s the name of the game!” These time-tested, step-by-step directions show even the most math-phobic how gather and analyze data produced by automated systems; conduct a random sampling using one of three easy-to-execute methods; evaluate all types of information formats including books, videos, periodicals, and CD-ROMs; provide hard evidence to decision makers; improve collections with smart weeding to make way for new acquisitions; and estimate the cost of updating your collection.