Types of Electronic or Digital Resources
• Online databases
• Online reference sources
• Streaming video collections
• Commercial search engines
• eBooks
• Online tutorials
• Software programs that are licensed
• Websites and portals (web indexing sites)
• More up-to-date
• Changing
• 24/7 access from
anywhere
Unique Features of Electronic Resources
• May need YOU as an
intermediary for instruction, guidance
or access (passwords)
• May be access to technology issues
Let’s review a few terms before we get started.
Read screen, then….
Collection – Try to think beyond the book collection. The library’s collection includes anything that you as the librarian create pathways of access to. So, yes this includes the books which can be located via the online catalog and the way they are organized on the shelves, but also includes websites and databases that you have selected and created access to through the library’s web site or curriculum pages.
Let’s review a few terms before we get started.
Read screen, then….
Collection – Try to think beyond the book collection. The library’s collection includes anything that you as the librarian create pathways of access to. So, yes this includes the books which can be located via the online catalog and the way they are organized on the shelves, but also includes websites and databases that you have selected and created access to through the library’s web site or curriculum pages.
Let’s review a few terms before we get started.
Read screen, then….
Collection – Try to think beyond the book collection. The library’s collection includes anything that you as the librarian create pathways of access to. So, yes this includes the books which can be located via the online catalog and the way they are organized on the shelves, but also includes websites and databases that you have selected and created access to through the library’s web site or curriculum pages.
Let’s review a few terms before we get started.
Read screen, then….
Collection – Try to think beyond the book collection. The library’s collection includes anything that you as the librarian create pathways of access to. So, yes this includes the books which can be located via the online catalog and the way they are organized on the shelves, but also includes websites and databases that you have selected and created access to through the library’s web site or curriculum pages.
This workshop will not address the entire collection development process. That would require much more time. While we will mention the five components of the CD process as shown on this pie chart, we will mainly focus on collection assessment or evaluating what you currently have in your libraries and creating a plan to weed and improve your collection.
Collection assessment for school libraries can be defined as a systematic evaluation of the quality of a library collection to determine the extent to which it meets the library’s mission and the information needs of its students and teachers. Deficiencies are addressed through collection development. Collection assessment is synonymous with “collection evaluation” and since “assessment” is such an overly used term these days, the author of this workshop prefers to use “collection evaluation” instead of “collection assessment.”
What is important for you to know is that collection evaluation or assessment is just one component of collection development and that it needs to be part of a systematic plan—not something you do haphazardly when you have time. You need an on-going plan and much of this workshop will be devoted to planning.
Now that we have discussed terminology and some collection misconceptions, let’s look at collection assessment or collection evaluation. There are basically two pieces to this puzzle—knowing what you have and knowing how it is used.
The “what” is a description of basically how much is provided, how old the physical materials are, and how the collection compares to other similar collections or to recommendations.
The “use” is a description of how the resources are used, including physical checkouts, in-school use (whether in classrooms or the library), and electronic counting of Internet accesses.
Utilize others in helping you gather use data. For example, most IT staff in the school can help you put digital counters on web pages that are portals to various websites or databases. Today, most subscription database vendors offer usage statistics as well as the POWER Library databases. However, you need to contact he vendors to set this up.
Now that we have discussed terminology and some collection misconceptions, let’s look at collection assessment or collection evaluation. There are basically two pieces to this puzzle—knowing what you have and knowing how it is used.
The “what” is a description of basically how much is provided, how old the physical materials are, and how the collection compares to other similar collections or to recommendations.
The “use” is a description of how the resources are used, including physical checkouts, in-school use (whether in classrooms or the library), and electronic counting of Internet accesses.
Utilize others in helping you gather use data. For example, most IT staff in the school can help you put digital counters on web pages that are portals to various websites or databases. Today, most subscription database vendors offer usage statistics as well as the POWER Library databases. However, you need to contact he vendors to set this up.
There are many types of electronic or digital resources that you might have in the library “collection.” Today there are also ways to make access paths to them via a library website and possibly via an online catalog.
Online databases such as full-text periodicals (e.g., Ebsco, ProQuest, HW Wilson)
• Online reference sources (e.g., ABCCLIO, Facts on File, HW Wilson, Worldbook Online, Encyclopedia Britannica Online, Grolier Online, Greenwood Electronic Media)
• Streaming video collections (e.g., unitedstreaming, Discovery Education)
• Commercial search engines (e.g., Nettrekker)
• eBooks (e.g., Thomson Gale, NetLibrary, Follett, ABC-CLIO)
• Online tutorial services (e.g., Atomic Learning)
• Software licenses for productivity and curriculum programs (e.g., Inspiration, Accelerated Reader, Reading Counts)
One could also add e-journals and e-zines, as well as other free, educational websites and web indexing sites/portals, like Google Scholar.
While we will not delve into all the components of the collection development process for electronic resources (which would be a workshop in itself!), we will briefly discuss selection and evaluation.
Now that we have discussed terminology and some collection misconceptions, let’s look at collection assessment or collection evaluation. There are basically two pieces to this puzzle—knowing what you have and knowing how it is used.
The “what” is a description of basically how much is provided, how old the physical materials are, and how the collection compares to other similar collections or to recommendations.
The “use” is a description of how the resources are used, including physical checkouts, in-school use (whether in classrooms or the library), and electronic counting of Internet accesses.
Utilize others in helping you gather use data. For example, most IT staff in the school can help you put digital counters on web pages that are portals to various websites or databases. Today, most subscription database vendors offer usage statistics as well as the POWER Library databases. However, you need to contact he vendors to set this up.
Now that we have discussed terminology and some collection misconceptions, let’s look at collection assessment or collection evaluation. There are basically two pieces to this puzzle—knowing what you have and knowing how it is used.
The “what” is a description of basically how much is provided, how old the physical materials are, and how the collection compares to other similar collections or to recommendations.
The “use” is a description of how the resources are used, including physical checkouts, in-school use (whether in classrooms or the library), and electronic counting of Internet accesses.
Utilize others in helping you gather use data. For example, most IT staff in the school can help you put digital counters on web pages that are portals to various websites or databases. Today, most subscription database vendors offer usage statistics as well as the POWER Library databases. However, you need to contact he vendors to set this up.
Now that we have discussed terminology and some collection misconceptions, let’s look at collection assessment or collection evaluation. There are basically two pieces to this puzzle—knowing what you have and knowing how it is used.
The “what” is a description of basically how much is provided, how old the physical materials are, and how the collection compares to other similar collections or to recommendations.
The “use” is a description of how the resources are used, including physical checkouts, in-school use (whether in classrooms or the library), and electronic counting of Internet accesses.
Utilize others in helping you gather use data. For example, most IT staff in the school can help you put digital counters on web pages that are portals to various websites or databases. Today, most subscription database vendors offer usage statistics as well as the POWER Library databases. However, you need to contact he vendors to set this up.
Now that we have discussed terminology and some collection misconceptions, let’s look at collection assessment or collection evaluation. There are basically two pieces to this puzzle—knowing what you have and knowing how it is used.
The “what” is a description of basically how much is provided, how old the physical materials are, and how the collection compares to other similar collections or to recommendations.
The “use” is a description of how the resources are used, including physical checkouts, in-school use (whether in classrooms or the library), and electronic counting of Internet accesses.
Utilize others in helping you gather use data. For example, most IT staff in the school can help you put digital counters on web pages that are portals to various websites or databases. Today, most subscription database vendors offer usage statistics as well as the POWER Library databases. However, you need to contact he vendors to set this up.
Now that we have discussed terminology and some collection misconceptions, let’s look at collection assessment or collection evaluation. There are basically two pieces to this puzzle—knowing what you have and knowing how it is used.
The “what” is a description of basically how much is provided, how old the physical materials are, and how the collection compares to other similar collections or to recommendations.
The “use” is a description of how the resources are used, including physical checkouts, in-school use (whether in classrooms or the library), and electronic counting of Internet accesses.
Utilize others in helping you gather use data. For example, most IT staff in the school can help you put digital counters on web pages that are portals to various websites or databases. Today, most subscription database vendors offer usage statistics as well as the POWER Library databases. However, you need to contact he vendors to set this up.
Now that we have discussed terminology and some collection misconceptions, let’s look at collection assessment or collection evaluation. There are basically two pieces to this puzzle—knowing what you have and knowing how it is used.
The “what” is a description of basically how much is provided, how old the physical materials are, and how the collection compares to other similar collections or to recommendations.
The “use” is a description of how the resources are used, including physical checkouts, in-school use (whether in classrooms or the library), and electronic counting of Internet accesses.
Utilize others in helping you gather use data. For example, most IT staff in the school can help you put digital counters on web pages that are portals to various websites or databases. Today, most subscription database vendors offer usage statistics as well as the POWER Library databases. However, you need to contact he vendors to set this up.
Now that we have discussed terminology and some collection misconceptions, let’s look at collection assessment or collection evaluation. There are basically two pieces to this puzzle—knowing what you have and knowing how it is used.
The “what” is a description of basically how much is provided, how old the physical materials are, and how the collection compares to other similar collections or to recommendations.
The “use” is a description of how the resources are used, including physical checkouts, in-school use (whether in classrooms or the library), and electronic counting of Internet accesses.
Utilize others in helping you gather use data. For example, most IT staff in the school can help you put digital counters on web pages that are portals to various websites or databases. Today, most subscription database vendors offer usage statistics as well as the POWER Library databases. However, you need to contact he vendors to set this up.
Now that we have discussed terminology and some collection misconceptions, let’s look at collection assessment or collection evaluation. There are basically two pieces to this puzzle—knowing what you have and knowing how it is used.
The “what” is a description of basically how much is provided, how old the physical materials are, and how the collection compares to other similar collections or to recommendations.
The “use” is a description of how the resources are used, including physical checkouts, in-school use (whether in classrooms or the library), and electronic counting of Internet accesses.
Utilize others in helping you gather use data. For example, most IT staff in the school can help you put digital counters on web pages that are portals to various websites or databases. Today, most subscription database vendors offer usage statistics as well as the POWER Library databases. However, you need to contact he vendors to set this up.
Now that we have discussed terminology and some collection misconceptions, let’s look at collection assessment or collection evaluation. There are basically two pieces to this puzzle—knowing what you have and knowing how it is used.
The “what” is a description of basically how much is provided, how old the physical materials are, and how the collection compares to other similar collections or to recommendations.
The “use” is a description of how the resources are used, including physical checkouts, in-school use (whether in classrooms or the library), and electronic counting of Internet accesses.
Utilize others in helping you gather use data. For example, most IT staff in the school can help you put digital counters on web pages that are portals to various websites or databases. Today, most subscription database vendors offer usage statistics as well as the POWER Library databases. However, you need to contact he vendors to set this up.
Now that we have discussed terminology and some collection misconceptions, let’s look at collection assessment or collection evaluation. There are basically two pieces to this puzzle—knowing what you have and knowing how it is used.
The “what” is a description of basically how much is provided, how old the physical materials are, and how the collection compares to other similar collections or to recommendations.
The “use” is a description of how the resources are used, including physical checkouts, in-school use (whether in classrooms or the library), and electronic counting of Internet accesses.
Utilize others in helping you gather use data. For example, most IT staff in the school can help you put digital counters on web pages that are portals to various websites or databases. Today, most subscription database vendors offer usage statistics as well as the POWER Library databases. However, you need to contact he vendors to set this up.
Now that we have discussed terminology and some collection misconceptions, let’s look at collection assessment or collection evaluation. There are basically two pieces to this puzzle—knowing what you have and knowing how it is used.
The “what” is a description of basically how much is provided, how old the physical materials are, and how the collection compares to other similar collections or to recommendations.
The “use” is a description of how the resources are used, including physical checkouts, in-school use (whether in classrooms or the library), and electronic counting of Internet accesses.
Utilize others in helping you gather use data. For example, most IT staff in the school can help you put digital counters on web pages that are portals to various websites or databases. Today, most subscription database vendors offer usage statistics as well as the POWER Library databases. However, you need to contact he vendors to set this up.