The Management of Collections Objectives Group was charged to investigate and recommend improvements in the management of the arrangements of and the accessibility to the physical collections in the Yale University Library in order to contribute to the Library’s Core Services Vision to ensure “an environment of discovery and creativity.” Survey results consistently emphasize that being able to find materials and browse the shelf are valued by readers at Yale to be among the most important contributors to their expectations for a high quality academic library.

The Group recommends several objectives to guide the development and execution of a rational and pragmatic program of “space utilization for managed collections.” The following long-term goals are proposed to be undertaken over the next five years to accomplish the overall goal of improving the basic core service to provide “access to resources on campus.”

1. To enhance our readers’ ability to locate identified call numbers and discover new items of interest at the shelf, reader-accessible [“browsable”] collections throughout the Library will be housed with no more than 85% shelf capacity by Summer, 2006. Actions to accomplish this will require moving a projected volume of approximately 643,000 annually to the LSF for 4 years before reaching a transfer level equivalent to growth of collections. An appropriate request for added resources to do so was included in the University Librarian’s budget request for FY04.
   
   
2. To organize reader-accessible collections in a rational manner by Summer 2008, with clear guide signs, such that a reader will not need to go to more than one location for any identified call number. A detailed plan of action is developed, launched by creating an infrastructure in 2003 of staffing to undertake this “rationalization” program. Access Services staff have made progress toward this goal in the SML stacks and LSF staff have assisted a few other locations to shifting collections after space was made available through transfers to Hamden.
   
   
3. To establish and confirm an effective mechanism by January 2005, to maintain a responsive intensive use collection in the Cross Campus Library that will not exceed 150,000 volumes. A weeding program will need to be undertaken in 2004 to act on this. Reports have been prepared and the CCLCollections Group has begun to address the problem in conjunction with program planning for the library renovation.
   
   
4. To complete an inventory of the collections is a complex project that we recommend be first designed and piloted on a small scale and therefore suggest a layered set of objectives. Broadly conceived, we recommend that within twenty years, we inventory and correctly represent in Orbis [or its grandchild] all reader-accessible library collections. By Summer 2005, to design and test on a collection of at least 200,000 items, a realistic plan to inventory reader-accessible collections and to project the costs to do so for the remaining collections.
   
   
5. To improve the ELI Express so that items requested from campus locations will be delivered within twelve hours to a library location chosen for pick-up by the reader. The Group recommends that a quality improvement team be empowered in 2003 to design and implement an improvement initiative toward this goal. A Quality Improvement team has been established and members began their work under the guidance of Russ Westcott, a consultant specializing in quality process improvement. By the end of summer the group should have reviewed the processes involved in providing the service, identified opportunities for improvement and designed a measurable strategy to address them.

Summarized by Danuta Nitecki,
Associate University Librarian

© 2007 Yale University Library
This file last modified 09/04/03
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