The
mission of Cedar Park Public Library is to provide educational, informational,
cultural, and recreational materials for the citizens of Cedar Park. To help
the library provide more useful educational and informational materials for its
patrons, I weeded and selected new materials for a section of the library’s
health collection.
Analysis of
Users
Cedar
Park Public Library is on a five year weeding plan, meaning that the librarians
weed one-fifth of the collection every year so that the entire collection will
be weeded at least once every five years. This year the entire adult health
collection (most of which falls in the 610 to 619 Dewey Decimal call number
range) needed to be weeded, but the scope of this collection, at several
thousand books, was much too large for the scope of this project. In order to
determine which part of the health collection needed to be worked on most
urgently, I performed a user analysis. The information I collected about the
library users came from two major sources--the 2010 United States Census and
the CPPL librarians.
According
to the 2010 U.S. Census, Cedar Park has a population of approximately 50,000.
Demographic statistics from the Census show that the proportion of people under
age 18 is much greater in Cedar Park than it is nationally, 30.4% compared to
24%, respectively (see Figure 1). The proportion of people ages 25 to 44 in
Cedar Park is also much higher than the national average: 33.8% of Cedar Park
residents are ages 24 to 44 while only 26.6% of U.S. residents fall in that age
range. What these numbers tell me is that Cedar Park is home to a
disproportionally large amount of younger families, (those with children under
18).
This
conclusion is supported by other statistics found in the Census. In Cedar Park
74.7% of households contain families and 46% of households contain families
with their own children under age 18; comparatively, in the U.S. only 66.4% of
households contain families and 29.8% of households contain families with their
own children under 18 living at home. That second statistic is most striking
because it shows that Cedar Park proportionally has over 50% more family
households with their own children under 18 than does the United States as a whole.
Additionally, Cedar Park proportionally had over 25% more women give birth in
the 12 months previous to the Census than in the United States as a whole—72
per 1,000 women ages 15 to 50 as opposed to 57 per 1,000 women ages 15 to 50.
Figure 1.
After
analyzing the user population of CPPL through Census data, I concluded that the
areas of greatest need in the health collection would probably be those having
to do with pregnancy and raising children. When I spoke with two of the
librarians at CPPL, Nancy Pendleton and Julia Mitschke, to see what they
thought about my conclusions, and they both confirmed that CPPL’s biggest user
group is young families. Because of this, CPPL has a large children’s
collection as well as a full-time children’s librarian and two part-time
children’s librarians who run several children’s programs. CPPL also has a teen
space and teen programs, such as a book club. The librarians also told me that
the reference desk gets the most health questions about pregnancy, autism, and
ADHD.
After
further exploration of the collection, I discovered that the library’s books on
autism and ADHD had the same call number (618.92), and this call number
contained books about how to raise children who had specific health issues.
Elsewhere in the 618 call number were the books on pregnancy, fertility,
menopause, and general women’s health. Because of what I had learned about
CPPL’s users through analyzing the Census data and talking to the CPPL
librarians, I decided that this was the section of the health collection that most
needed to be evaluated.
Because
of my limited time and resources as a student and volunteer at the library, I
was able to collect limited information to analyze the user population. If I
actually worked at the library, I would like to have put an anonymous
questionnaire around the library (for example, at the reference desk, the
circulation desk, and/or next to each computer), which would ask about the
experience the patron had had with the library’s health collection (which topics
or books had been useful, which were not useful, which were needed but not
there). There would be a box somewhere in the library for the patron to put the
questionnaire. It would be important for any data collection relating to the
health collection to be anonymous, since health is such a sensitive and private
subject. A short questionnaire like this could also be adapted to any part of
the collection that needed to be analyzed.
Analysis of Collection Development Policy
Cedar
Park Public Library has an extensive collection development policy (CDP). It
contains all the elements recommended in Vicki L. Gregory’s book Collection Development and Management for 21st
Century Library Collections. It has a statement of purpose, goals, division
of responsibilities, a budget for the collection, an intellectual freedom
statement, gift policies, and a plan for revision. The CDP analyzes the
collection by format and by subject field. The instructions for collection
maintenance of individual subject areas are meant to be supplementary to the
CREW method (discussed in the “Material Withdrawal” section).
The
CDP is especially thorough in its examination of the collection maintenance and
materials selection. The collection maintenance section says why weeding is
important, and it gives specific steps and guidelines for weeding and
replacement. The CDP also has guidelines for how to conduct collection
analysis, which includes analyzing how well the collection serves the users,
evaluating collection strengths and weaknesses, and evaluating whether the
collection is meeting its goals. The materials selection section contains the
library’s philosophy for materials selection, as well as general selection
criteria. These specific weeding and selection guidelines are especially
appropriate for CPPL because there is a steady flow of iSchool students
interning in many capacities at the library, and such specific guidelines help
keep collection maintenance relatively consistent over time.
The
only area where the CDP needs some improvement is in its analysis of the user
community. The CDP includes population estimates and population growth
estimates for Cedar Park, but nothing else. A qualitative description of the
user population would help the librarians better understand and keep in mind
the users at CPPL while they work on the collection. It would be especially
useful for new employees at the library. Such a description could include the
library’s most common types of users, like children, young adults,
genealogists, businesspeople, homeschoolers, or adult leisure readers. It could
also include demographics information, such as what foreign languages are
spoken in the community. Just a short paragraph including these types of
information about the user population could greatly improve the utility of
CPPL’s collection development policy.
Material
Withdrawal
As
discussed earlier, Cedar Park Public Library has a detailed weeding plan in its
collection development policy. This weeding plan is based on the CREW method. The
CREW method is a system for weeding contained in a booklet published by the
Texas State Library and Archives Commission. CREW stands for “Continuous
Review, Evaluation, and Weeding,” and it gives step-by-step instructions for
evaluating a collection. The CREW method breaks the collection down by subject,
and for each subject it says what the oldest publication date in the subject
area should be, within how many years the materials should have been checked
out, as well as specific instructions for the subject matter.
According
to CREW, in the health section anything published over five years ago and
anything that has not been checked out in the previous three years should be
weeded. It also says to be mindful of which health topics change quickly (such
as fertility) and which do not (such as anatomy and physiology). It also
specifies that drug guides over three years old should be weeded. CPPL’s
collection development policy contains special instructions for some subject
areas but not for health, though one of the librarians I worked with prefers
for these materials to have been checked out in the previous two years. The
difference between a book being checked out two or three years ago ended up not
mattering very much, because most books that had not been checked out in two
years were either outdated enough or low-circulating enough to be weeded.
I
was informed at the beginning of my project that the health collection had not
been properly weeded in many years. As a result the average publication date of
the books in the 618 section was 2001, making the section on average 11 years
old. Ideally, I would have liked to weed most of the books published before 2007,
but doing so would have caused almost three-quarters of the section to be
weeded. There would not have been enough well reviewed books published in the
last five years to replace what needed to be replaced, and the library would
not have been able to afford to rebuild the collection right away even if it
did find the books. Because of these problems, I created a tiered weeding
system with two different levels of need for weeding. The top level is level 2,
and books designated in level 2 need to be weeded immediately. Examples will be
given later, but these books generally are quite outdated and/or very low
circulating. Level 1 books are books that should be weeded at this time, but
the inability to rebuild the section right away means that these books can stay
until suitable replacements can be purchased. Books that are designated level 0
do not need to be weeded.
In
addition to creating a tiered weeding system, I assigned each book a subject. I
did this because books on many different subjects are mixed together within
call numbers in this section, and I wanted to better identify subjects that are
popular or unpopular among library patrons. I also wanted to be able to see
which subjects were over- or underrepresented in the section.
I
used four criteria to evaluate the books for weeding: poor condition, low use,
outdated content, and redundant content. These four criteria (which were
outlined in the syllabus) are similar enough to the criteria in CREW that I
felt it was appropriate to use them.
Poor Condition
Because
books are weeded or repaired when they are damaged, there were very few books
that were in too poor of condition to circulate. One such book that was in that
condition was Being Born by Sheila
Kitzinger. The binding was so weak that several pages had partially fallen out.
(See Appendix A for complete list of weeded books along with reasons for
weeding.) Most of the books that I judged to be in poor condition had
unattractive or old-looking covers or pages. (Some of these books also had
outdated content, in which case it was marked as such.) One example of a book
whose content is not updated but whose cover is unattractive and old-looking is
Mother Massage: A Handbook for relieving
the Discomforts of Pregnancy by Elaine Stillerman. Though this book was
published in 1992, it is not too outdated as the discomforts of pregnancy have
remained the same throughout the years, but the book shows its age through
cover design and overall condition.
Low Use
I
also found that sometimes entire subjects suffered from low use while sometimes
only a specific book within a high-use subject suffered from low use. One example
of a low use subject is childhood cancer. The number of users that childhood
cancer applies to is going to be much smaller than the number of users another
subject like pregnancy applies to. There is also a separate call number for
cancer books (616.99), so users may be missing this section when they look for
cancer books. The books in this call number are here because they are about
parenting a child with cancer. I have recommended that two of the three books
in the subject of childhood cancer be weeded because of their low use (and
outdated content): A Parent’s Guide to
Childhood Cancer by Lisa J. Bain and Childhood
Cancer: A Parent’s Guide to Solid Tumor Cancers by Honna Janes-Hodder.
These two books have each only circulated three times since 2000 and 2002,
respectively. I have also recommended
that the replacement book be cataloged in the 616.99 call number so that it may
be more easily found.
While
childhood cancer is a low circulating subject, autism is an extremely high
circulating subject, so any book that is circulating less than four times per
year is comparatively low circulating. One such book is The Handbook of Autism: A Guide for Parents and Professionals by
Maureen Aarons. It has circulated seven times since 2000, which makes it too
low-circulating to remain in the collection (it is also outdated in a rapidly
changing area like autism). Because it is so low circulating compared to the
other autism books, I would not recommend trying to find a newer edition when
different autism books are so much more popular. There were also a few books
whose content is not outdated, but have been low circulating enough to
recommend for weeding, such as Fertility:
A Naturopathic Approach by Jane Semple, which has a publication date of
2008, but has not circulated since entering the collection in 2009.
Outdated Content
When
judging whether a book was outdated or not, I looked at the subject because
some health subjects have changed very little over the last several years while
others are changing rapidly. One example of a subject area that has not changed
very much is that of helping a child who cannot sleep. A book written ten to twenty
years ago, like Solve Your Child’s Sleep
Problems by Richard Ferber, will likely contain theories or techniques that
will help a parent put their child to sleep. While it is not ideal to keep
these older books in the collection, they are not factually incorrect or
misleading, so their need to be weeded is not immediate enough to be designated
in level 2.
There
are certain subjects, however, that need to be kept much more current. For
example, of the three books on surgery in this section, two were published in
1995 (Breast Implants: Everything You
Need to Know by Nancy Bruning and The
Woman’s Guide to Hysterectomy: Expectations and Options by Adelaide Haas).
Very little of the content in these two books would still be accurate, so they
need to be weeded immediately. Another rapidly changing subject that needs to
be kept more current is ADHD. Any book published in the 1990s should be weeded
immediately because preferred treatments change so quickly. Keeping current the
content of the ADHD section is especially important since it is such a high
circulating section.
Redundant Content
I
found that there were only one subject areas where there was a real problem
with redundancy, that being the general medical guides for children’s health
and symptoms. The library has nine books on this subject, five of which have
not circulated in the last two years. For example, the book Your Child’s Health: The Parents’ One-Stop
Reference Guide to Symptoms, Emergencies, Common Illnesses, Behavior Problems,
and Healthy Development by Barton D. Schmitt was published in 2005 and
added to the collection in 2006, yet has never circulated. The book is in good
condition and has lots of useful information, but there are too many books with
similar content. The subject area is too low circulating to warrant nine books,
so I recommended that only the two most recently published books stay in the
collection.
Material
Selection
I
used several types of review sources to select new materials to add to the
health collection. The two sources I used the most were Library Journal and Booklist.
I particularly liked the Library Journal
reviews because each one had a “verdict” that gave the reviewer’s overall
impression and recommendation for the work. I also looked at blogs,
organization websites, Amazon reviews, and even an academic journal to find
more books to supplement those I found in Library
Journal (LJ) and Booklist.
One
book I found through a blog was Surviving
Miscarriage:--You Are Not Alone by Stacy McLaughlin. (See Appendix B for
Book Selection List.) CPPL currently has three books about miscarriages, two of
which were weeded for outdated content, so I decided that I needed to find at
least one book to add to the miscarriage section. After searching LJ and Booklist in vain, I stumbled across a pregnancy blog called
thebump.com where I found a list of recommended books about pregnancy, one of
which was the book mentioned above. After confirming that it had positive
reviews on Amazon.com, I added it to my book selection list.
I
encountered a similar problem with diabetes books as I did with miscarriage
books. The library only has two books on parenting children with diabetes, one
of which needs to be weeded, but I could not find a recent book on that subject
from the traditional review sources. I ended up finding a recommended book (The Everything Parent’s Guide to Children
with Juvenile Diabetes by Moira McCarthy) through the Juvenile Diabetes
Research Foundation website.
I
created a tiered system for my book selection list like I did with my weeding
list. The books of highest priority are level three; those of medium priority
are level two; and those of lowest priority are level 1. The priority level of
each book was determined by a combination of factors, including the review
source, how recently the book was published, how badly the subject area of the
book needed more titles, and whether I found other titles in the same subject
area. For example, Life at the Edge and
Beyond: Living with ADHD and Asperger Syndrome by Jan Greenman was given a
level three priority because it was recommended in LJ, it fit in the popular subject area of Asperger’s syndrome, and
because it is a narrative account of raising a child with a specific disorder,
which is a popular type of book in the 618 section. An example of a level one
book is Anxiety Disorders in Children and
Adolescents (2nd ed.) edited by Tracy L. Morris. This book was
given a level one priority because although it is a needed update to the 1995
edition that the library already owns, it was still published eight years ago.
It would not have made the list at all, except for that I could not find a
newer reputable book with similar content.
Though
I usually selected books to fill a general need in a certain subject area, sometimes
I would select a book specifically to replace a book I had recommended for
weeding. For example, I recommended that Being
Born by Sheila Kitzinger and The
Illustrated Book of Pregnancy and Childbirth by Margaret Martin both be
weeded because they are in poor condition. Both of these books contain visual
depictions of the stages of pregnancy and birth, one with ultrasound images and
photographs and the other with illustrations. Since both were popular but were
being weeded and there are no similar books in the collection, I needed to find
another book that visually depicted pregnancy and birth to replace them. I
ended up finding a perfect replacement book in LJ: The Pregnant Body Book:
The Complete Illustrated Guide from Conception to Birth by Sarah Brewer.
While
I was searching for new materials to select for this section of the collection,
I came across several books of a subject that fits within my section and used
them to fill a hole in the collection. The subject is fathers and
pregnancy/childbirth. The library’s only book on the subject is Husband-Coached Childbirth by Robert A.
Bradley, so besides recommending adding an updated edition (because the book is
high circulating), I recommended that the library add three other books that
are intended to help the fathers while the mothers are (or are not) pregnant,
all of which were reviewed in LJ.
Budget
The
prices in my book selection list were retrieved from Amazon.com the week of
April 22, 2012. Because most of these books are available at a reduced price on
Amazon.com, I believe that the actual cost of the shelf-ready books ordered
through Ingram Book Company (the vendor from which CPPL orders most of its
books) would be somewhat higher than the Amazon prices; however, I will still relate
the Amazon prices to the budget since I do not know what the Ingram prices will
be.
The
budget for the books to rebuild this collection comes from Cedar Park Public
Library’s Fund 09—Non-fiction and Reference. Fund 09’s allotment is $13,700,
which is 13.7% of the total collection budget. Because my section is a small
part of the library’s non-fiction and reference collection, it has been
allotted only $450 from Fund 09. The total price of the 49 books I selected is
$777.02. (See Appendix B.) Because of this difference in budget and price, I
have prioritized the books so that the ones most vital to the collection will
be purchased first. (For a full explanation of the tiered book selection
system, see “Book Selection” section.) The total price for the 30 books with
high priority (level 3) is $428.81. The library should be able to purchase all
high priority books. The total price of the 13 medium priority (level 2) books
is $180.42, and the total price of the 6 low priority (level 1) books is
$167.79. If there is leftover money in Fund 09 at the end of FY 2012, then it
can be spent on the medium and then the low priority books.
Reference
Gregory, V.
L. (2011). Collection development and
management for 21st century library collections: An introduction.
New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers.
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