Making Informed Collection Decisions in a Research Environment
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Presentation given as part of panel sponsored by EBSCO at the 2012 Medical Library Association Conference
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Making Informed Collection Decisions in a Research Environment
- 1. Making informed collection decisions in a research environment Janet Crum Director, Library Services City of Hope jcrum@coh.org
- 2. Overview • Setting and situation • Why make data-driven decisions? • Types and sources of data • Other sources of information to support collection decisions • Challenges • Key takeaways • Q&A
- 3. The City of Hope setting • Patient care, biomedical research, small graduate school in biological sciences • Research focus: translational research in cancer and diabetes • Graff Library: 7.5 FTE, $1.3 million collection budget, nearly all subscriptions electronic only • No history of regular data gathering -> started from scratch 2 years ago
- 4. Why data-driven decisions? • Complex e-resource environment • Budget constraints – more with less • Larger context of research administration – Accountability – Metrics – Demonstrate return on effort
- 5. Data for decision-making: what we use • Staff requests • Usage and cost per use – Varies by discipline • ILL requests • Other access options – open access, aggregator packages, pay-per-view • Where indexed • City of Hope authors or editors
- 6. Data we would like to use • Citation metrics • Availability studies – Crum, J. (2011). An Availability Study of Electronic Articles in an Academic Health Sciences Library. Journal of the Medical Library Association 99(4): 290-296. DOI: 10.3163/1536-5050.99.4.006. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3193371/
- 7. Other sources of information • User surveys – but not too often • Info about new programs and directions in research, clinical care, curriculum, etc. • New hires • Conversations – committees, chats, etc. – Share your data – Involve your stakeholders
- 8. Biggest challenge – lack of time • Time to gather data • Time to put it together, analyze it, and make it actionable
- 9. Key takeaways • Need quantitative and qualitative data to make sound collection decisions, demonstrate value/return on effort • Engage users in various ways • Participate in your organization – get out of the library
- 10. Questions? Ask now or get in touch later: Janet Crum jcrum@coh.org 626-256-4673 x68614 Thank you!
Editor's Notes
- Introduce selfIn my short time with you today, I’ll tell you a little about how we make collection decisions at City of Hope—especially the kinds of data and other information we use and our challenges. Even if your setting is very different from mine, you may find a few tips you can use. But please note: if you are already a seasoned collection development librarian, this information will seem a bit basic, so feel free to take a nap until the next speaker comes on
- Other access options – is it a core thing that we need to “own,” or is access good enough?Where indexed – esp. PubMed. If not indexed there, many researchers will never find it.
- Citation metrics – what our authors are citing? And which journals publish articles that cite them?Availability studies – citation is for one I did at my previous library. Sampled link resolver logs to see what people were attempting to access and how successful they were. Rich source of data—detailed, article-level metadata from openURLs for what users wanted (vs. usage stats which tell you only what they were able to get) and across all publishers and platforms (vs. turnaway reports from a single vendor). Wish more vendors (hello, EBSCO?) provided access to link resolver logs rather than just aggregated stats.
- Usage and other quantitative data is important but shouldn’t be used in isolation. Be careful to avoid survey fatigue. We do every 3 years.Be involved in your larger organization – serve on committees, task forces. Go to seminars. Get out of the library! Learn as much as you can about the work of your organization, ask questions, listen. Read annual reports, strategic plans, other documents that may indicate changes in direction or emphasis.New hires can indicate new programs, especially in the sciences, where a new PI will often head a new lab, represent a new research direction. I reach out to all new hires with a boilerplate message introducing the library. For new hires that might represent a new direction (new PIs, dept heads, hires in new areas), in addition to the boilerplate, I ask them if they would like to meet to discuss library resource needs or review our holdings in their area. Casual conversations can be informative, but you can also share your data, include your users in the decision process. Example: Reviewed a big package, needed to cancel a few titles b/c of budget constraints. Identified small list of highest cost-per-use titles, shared that list with researchers, and asked for feedback re: titles to cancel. Learned that some titles were low use but critical for a small group of researchers doing important work. Also started several conversations with researchers who were surprised at the per-article cost and recommended canceling in favor of ppv. Even got a couple of open-access activists to come out of the woodwork. Want to involve stakeholders as you can, sharing information with them and soliciting feedback—and not just when you need to cancel titles. All parties will learn something, and you’ll open the door to ongoing feedback that will help you make your collection relevant, ensure good return on investment.
- As with so many other areas of modern society, there’s too much information – heaps of data, all of which can be useful. Gathering it together takes time, but that isn’t enough – need to put various data points together (e.g. usage, cost per use, citation data) and analyze and display it so that it’s actionable. We’re a small library – no staff dedicated to e-resources, data analysis, assessment. Gets tacked onto various positions, including mine.