Skip to main content

Thing 2: The Ebb and Flow

I'm going to be finding out about 'Floating Collections' tonight via an online webinar - 'The Ebb and Flow of Floating Collections'. I'm not really sure what floating collections are but I look forward to finding out! Join me by following this link:

https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/1493901/866A8F74A911315DFE5DBBA1AD608028

Comments

  1. Stephen Leitch12 September 2017 at 14:12

    Interesting webinar. Basically with floating collections items don't permanently 'belong' to one library in particular, they become part of the stock of the library they are returned to. The aim seems to be to try and get stock relevant to the needs of the library community in that library, so more books on the shelves that people want to see there and less moving of books between branches. Sounds good in theory but I'm not convinced after listening to this webinar and hearing that half the speakers have dropped floating library collections from their service, often because of falling issues. Also there appear to be problems around too much stock ending up in some libraries, more time spent actually relocating excess stock, people not returning books to where they borrowed them. One speaker highlighted that city library collections tended to lose more of the top titles to the branches as the branches were good at requesting in books. When i think back to my time int he public library service in Moray this is certainly true of my power library users in Lossiemouth who were often the first to request in new and top titles and many a time i would have liked to have kept them for the stock! The library services featured on the webinar who are or have stopped floating library collections are moving more to using collection management software to better guide purchasing, allocation and movement of stock based on statistical usage, something the Moray Library service was using before I left in 2013.
    The webinar has provided me with in sight into a system i knew nothing about and have had no experience of. Being in the school sector now where I have an independent stock from the other secondary schools in the area, I'll probably not need to worry about floating library collections - though it has been interesting learning about them. Useful article from Fairfax library setting out why they initially went for a floating library collection. Really useful as the webinar folk never once explained what a floating library collection was, so had to some further research o find out. http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/news/floating.pdf

    This is the report from Nashville Library service who were featured in the webinar, with the reasons for ending Floating Library collections.
    https://www.urbanlibraries.org/rethinking-floating-in-collection-development-innovation-1485.php?page_id=531

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rudai 8: Infographics

Here is my first attempt with Piktochart. I thought in advance it would have been a case of changing a bit of text on a template and in minutes an infographic would exist. It took a little more time and ended up going back to look at the help videos. Even using an existing template don't underestimate the time that is required to put together an infographic! However I do think infographic visuals are very effective in making statistics you want to highlight stand out and draw peoples attention to them. I am going develop more for work and to try starting from scratch.Once I have the templates I need then it will be so much easier to just alter the data and publish. These will be very effective especially for end of year reports to highlight what I would like management to see first, and highlighting things like survey results to staff and students. One thing I will have to do is work out how to get better information and reports out of my Library Management system. I know what
2 comments
Read more

Rudai 5: Screencast-o-matic is magic!

Making a screen recording was suspiciously simple to do with Screencast-o-matic. Just a few clicks and I was recording what I was seeing on screen and narrating. So simple, so brilliant. I have tried instruction videos before but this involved propping up ipads, positioning of monitors, sitting in strange places so I wasn't seen on screen, then recording the voice over separately. It did the job though it was so time consuming and awkward. This system is so much simpler, straightforward and will be a boon for recording instructions for using the library catalogue or guides for using specific software etc. I'll certainly be sharing this with my librarian and teacher colleagues. This also has got me thinking about how I could have used this in my previous life in the public sector with providing on line guides to using our catalogue and website, and simple commuting guides. These would be especially useful for people accessing the service remotely, and indeed would be a usefu
2 comments
Read more

Librarian on tour

Ayr Carnegie Library: detail from window On my summer holidays I managed to visit several brilliant libraries, including the Ayr Carnegie Library, the Maybole Carnegie Public Library, and a visit to Scotland's oldest lending library at Innerpeffray - which proved to be an absolutely amazing library! With the future of many libraries uncertain, I do feel we should be supporting libraries whenever and wherever we can, even if that is just to look inside or ask a question. Who knows what else you may find while there. For example, at Innerpeffray Library my friend and I found ourselves leafing through a gardening book from the 1580's, and viewing hand written poems by Robert Burns, which was a privilege and delight to do. What will you discover at library near you? Maybole Carnegie Public Library  Innerpeffray Library: reading room and library
Post a Comment
Read more