Up To Your Um…Armpits in AlligatorsConsiderations for Creating a Collection

Development Plan

Carter NipperCentral Georgia Technical College

Presented at GaCOMO, Oct. 4, 2012

“When you’re up to your @$$ in alligators, it’s hard to remember that your original intention was to drain the swamp.”

– Various forms variously attributed

Photo courtesy MarathonBooks.com - http://marathonbooks.com/Alligator.html

Who Do I Think I Am?

Milledgeville Campus Librarian at Central Georgia Technical College

Over 30 years experience in public, correctional, and academic libraries

Been there, done that

Part 1 – The Swamp

Image courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Libraryhttp://digitalmedia.fws.gov/

The Eternal Question: Why?

What got you to this point? Personal Initiative?▪ What were you thinking?

Assigned task? What do you hope to accomplish?

Budgetary guidance Acquisitions guidance

Who Do You Think You Are?

Who is going to do all this work? You individually?▪ Where will you find the time?

A team?▪ Who’s in charge?▪ If you propose it, be prepared to be the boss▪ How good a manager are you?

People Time Money

Get buy-in from all involved

What Are You Doing?

Focus! How detailed will you get? How will you know when you are

finished? How far ahead do you want to plan?▪ 5 years is probably too much. 3 years is

doable. Get clear on this! This is your “original

intention” Define your personal limits

Don’t stretch yourself too thin What compromises are you willing to

make?

The Gators in the Grass

Who is going to pay for all of this? Time Materials

Speaking of time… Where will you find the time? Set a firm timeline (and be prepared to

adjust it!) Stay on track. Keep your original

intention in mind

Part 2 – The Alligators

Image courtesy PictureWendy Under Creative Commons CC BY-NC 2.0http://www.flickr.com/photos/picturewendy/6589866439/in/pool-alligators/

Where Do You Start?

Educate yourself Read, read, read! Make sure you know what

you are getting into.▪ Books (of course)▪ Journal articles (of course)

Don’t reinvent the wheel A lot of libraries have their plans freely

available online.▪ Will what they did work for you?▪ If so, why?▪ If not, why not?

Ready? Set? Go!

What Do You Have?

Quantitative collection assessment Counting volumes by subject Analyzing the age of the collection What is being used▪ Circulation statistics▪ Reference question statistics

Citation analysis

What Do You Have? (Part 2) Qualitative collection assessment

User surveys Focus groups List checking Collection mapping (Conspectus) Commercial products (e.g., WorldCat Collection

Analysis, Bowker Book Analysis System) Experience and intuition

Roll your own Combine methods Invent your own

What Do You Need?

Give ‘em what they want Circulation analysis Reference question analysis

Give ‘em what they need Curriculum analysis Recommended collections

If you build it, will they come?

Part 3 – Getting The Upper Hand

Image courtesy wpclipart.comhttp://www.wpclipart.com/American_History/Postcards/Alligator_Joe.png.html

Now What?

The End Is Near Don’t burn out now

Lots of raw data What does it all mean? What are you going to do with it?

Decisions, decisions Again, how detailed will you get?▪ Not too broad, not too focused

How far will you project your plan into the future?▪ 5 years is probably too far; 3 years is doable

Details, Details, Again With The Details!

Sweat the small stuff A little more work now will go a long way

later Presentation is key

Human-readable▪ Don’t jargonize

Organize▪ Outline!▪ Follow your outline rigorously, but be

prepared to tweak it if necessary

Let’s Do This!

Finish! Write it up! Put it in a binder! Present it to whomever! Have a tall, cold one!

When All Is Said and Done…

Evaluation and review Circumstances change -- be willing to

change with them Constant, on-going▪ Annually at a minimum

So what are you waiting for? Get to it!

Questions, Comments?

Contact:

Carter NipperMilledgeville Campus LibrarianCentral Georgia Technical

College54 GA Highway 22 WestMilledgeville, GA 31061(478) 445-2319cnipper@centralgatech.edu