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Since the majority of collection management will now be part of the Access Specialist II position, will there be a training course on how to use Collection HQ? I know that when it was originally rolled out there wasn't much training for the librarians.
I look forward to being able to be out in the stacks and make my branch look awesome!
Thanks!
Thank you very much for asking. Yes, the Collection Management department will definitely be planning a great deal of training on weeding in general, Collection HQ specifically, and also on how to figure out what will go to the Friends versus what we'll want to keep for the Collection Anywhere Center. You'll be hearing more in the relatively near future. We want to make sure we clarify expectations, tasks, and processes and give everyone the tools and the information they need to do this (awesomely fun) part of your jobs.
It does seem rather strange that, within the last year or so, collection duties were taken away from Associate Librarians/Access Specialist IIs and deemed the sole responsibility of Librarians and now Librarians are not going to have any responsibility for collection whatsoever. All this flip flopping is not good for staff morale generally. We understand that job descriptions are changing but there is concern that in the future Collection Management will be merely a perfunctory task.
We have really big plans for collection management in the months and years to come, and are already beginning to plan for a variety of ways we can provide the best possible collections for our members. We will be looking at how materials, both physical and electronic, are presented to our members both in the libraries and online. We're working on ramping up our use of Carl-X and Collection HQ data to help us learn more about how our collections are being used and to guide Collection Anywhere and Access staff in doing great work with selection, transfers, and weeding. We're also planning to have Collection Anywhere staff working closely with Access staff in the buildings to make sure every library has resources that delight their members and keep them coming back for more. We're going to be looking at our collections from every possible angle to make sure they're working hard for us and providing what is needed. And the Collection Anywhere Center that is in the planning stages right now will also be a big part of making sure we can get your members what they want quickly, and will also be able to provide other services to highlight various parts of our collections through curated displays and marketing. I think that Access staff will find some really amazing opportunities to learn and do more to shape our collections and make them shine!