Collection Philosophy

Collection Anywhere

Collection Anywhere is composed of the departments that create, prepare, and manage the physical and digital collections of the Metropolitan Library System:

• Cataloging
• Collection Management
• Digital Library
• Interlibrary Loan
• Technical Processing

Collection Philosophy

We create physical and digital collections that meet the broad and shifting needs of our members, and strive to connect our members with the resources and information they need as soon as they need it. 

We are one library with multiple locations, and will create policies and procedures to support this philosophy.

We work to have the:

Right resources

• Digital resources that allow for a full library experience 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including research databases, ebooks and eaudio, digital access to movies and music, and digital services that offer the kind of assistance you can get at our physical locations, such as homework help, small business assistance, learning new skills, and more.
• Library collections of physical materials designed to delight and engage at every visit, as well as supporting our programming and service needs.  Strong children’s collections that support our goals of early childhood literacy, a love of reading, and building smarter communities.  Adult and young adult collections with new and popular titles in a variety of formats for a variety of audiences.  Strong focus on local authors and artists.  Niche materials to meet the needs of our specific communities. 
• Collection Anywhere Center with a deeper, more complete collection that provides opportunities to access materials that don’t have high circulation in the libraries but which still meet the research, information, and entertainment needs of our members.  Logistics that allow for next-day delivery of these materials to the branches.  Services such as pre-prepared marketing displays and the use of the collection to quickly fill gaps or temporary needs in the libraries as they arise. 

Right way

• A digital user experience that offers improved browsing of the collection, excellent discoverability of all of our resources, and a commitment to constantly improving our platforms for digital materials to make accessing all of these materials more intuitive, seamless, and easy.  Targeted, data-guided marketing that helps us uncover valuable resources to the members who don’t even know they want them. 
• Excellent user-experience within the libraries, using space, shelving and furniture, effective labeling, and merchandising tools to make the library collections attractive and appealing, and to allow for ease of finding identified materials as well as increasing the chances of delightful serendipity in discovering the unexpected.
• Ongoing management of the collections based on the experience of members and library staff as well as circulation data to keep adjusting library collections to meet the different and changing needs of our unique user communities.

Right time

• Digital resources that are always available, configured in the best possible ways to allow for successful, unmediated use of all the digital collections, as well as the availability of technical and customer support at time of need.
• New and popular physical materials in the hands of our members as close as possible to the day they appear for purchase.  A holds ratio that provides an acceptable (to be defined) wait time for the hottest titles. 
• Next-day delivery of materials between libraries and from the Collection Anywhere Center to encourage people to place holds at time of need, knowing they can pick those items up the next day.
• Ongoing consideration of products that can make our physical collections more widely available and accessible 24/7, such as lockers or kiosks. 

How we will do it

• Focus on best practices and processes in every area of Collection Anywhere, including heavy use of data and technology tools to help guide collection decisions and shape our workflow.
• Continuous commitment to staff development and training.
• Priority on service, user experience, access, and speed.
• Commitment to removing barriers and increasing seamlessness and ease of use.

Metrics – How will we measure success

• Collections – goals will be set by audience/format/subject for:
  
  • Turnover rates
  • Percentage of collection circulating at a given time
  • Age of collection
  • Member response
  • Staff input
• Collection Management
  
  • Turnover rates
  • Reduction in zero circ items
  • Reduction in recommendations for purchase
• Cataloging and Tech Processing
  
  • Turnaround time
  • Number of titles/items handled
  • Number of barcodes printed
• Digital Library
  
  • Usage statistics
  • Other web site statistics
  • User experience testing
• Interlibrary Loan
  
  • Turnaround time
  • Fill rate
• Projects
  
  • All projects will have a project plan that includes problem statement, statistics before the project, goals for the project, and statistics after the project.