Daily Thoughts 2/26/2010

Archibald Macleish, Poet, Writer, Librarian of Congress

Daily Thoughts 2/26/2010

During last afternoons discussion for Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management, someone asked about Record Books Transparent Language USB sticks. They are very popular and easy to use. We have Mandarin Chinese, French, and Spanish. It is another way to manage software for languages. I find them easier to use than cd-roms. They are also easier to copy protect. This may be a better way to distribute software for libraries. http://www.rbfilm.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=rb.transparent

I have been reading more of The Responsive Public Library How to Develop and Market a Winning Collection by Sharon L. Baker and & Karen L. Wallace. It combines a perspective of marketing with collection development. There is quite a bit of interesting material in this book. It tells us that if a book is displayed face out on a shelf instead of sideways, it is seven times more likely that the book will be checked out. This is why book displays are so effective in circulating books. Bibliographies of books are not quite as effective. A book or other item on a bibliography is four times more likely to be checked out than a book which is simply left on a shelf. This is why bookmarks and recommendation lists increase circulation. It reminds me that we need to make our list of African American authors more presentable, print up some more bookmarks, and maybe create a few more suggestion lists.

They also talk about labeling in this book. One of the most effective ways to increase circulation with labels is to simply add the label award to an item that has won any kind of award. There are a lot of well thought out ideas in this book. Unlike other books on marketing in libraries, this book has numbers and statistics to back up many of their ideas.

The writing is well done for a textbook. I found the presentation of ideas to be quite absorbing. There are charts, diagrams, extensive notes, and an index at the back of the book.

I find myself in agreement with the style of collection development which combines with marketing in this book. It is a style which I could easily adapt as my own. In fact, there is so much in this book that could be potentially used, that I will have to pick and choose the best parts.

There is an excellent section which describes how to choose parts of a collection to merchandise while still maintaining the overall dewey category system. I am not a fan of going completely to the Book Industry Standard and Classification scheme. I rather like the idea of using some of the subject headings to do merchandising while still keeping the dewey numbers.