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CRITERIA FOR EVAI,UATING THE QUALITY- OF LIBRARY COLLECTION

S L SnNceutT S KthlsA,n*$

O INTRODUCTION

r!" fuodamental principre of librarianship is that ,Books are for use,.It will be a waste of time, cnergy and money, if the reade^ """"rr--S.ithe desired information in the library. The resources of a modern ribrary

are records of human.thought and experience in the form of books,periodicals, manuscripts' fllaps, pictoriar reproduction, motion pictures,filmstrips, phonograph.records etc, all designed for use. It is the oriy "ievcry member of the ribrary staff to pro*oi" the use of library resources.If tbe librarian'fairs in his duty, he iairs as a ribrarian, and the libraryalso ceases to function. The rcar varue of a librar.v is judged neither byits enormous cofiection nor by its magnificient uuita;ng, f,ut by its use-fulness to the readers.- Tbe effective Gctioning and miintainini qualityin the tribrary mainry depends on two factors: (i) tue quality ia ihe col-lection which serves as main source of information,-aad"1il) emcienttrained persoanel who serve the readers. I'herefore, the coliection ofiibrary being intended for use must be evaluated from time to timewith certain sriterion. Regarding the colrection evaluation, a numtrer ofstudies have been made viz, Mc-Grath1, Magrills, Rices, RavichandraRao,'etc.

I REASONS FOR COLLECTION EVALUATTON

i - l ro frnd out whether the information that is avairabre in tae nb{z_r is meeting the specific needs of readsrs-

'Leecr, Dcpartmeot of Library & Informrtioa Science, Gulburga Univcrsity,fuftlrSa , !(2163tels).- .-trr.-..r- U i::-ari an, G u I bur ga Un i versi ry Li brary, Gulburga (Karnataka).

,}

ruI

194 SLSAXCAIdAHDTSKUMBAR

I.2 Tc' check and revise th.e aqui*itio* policy"I.3 To justify budget demands and to devise a budget allocation

formula.1,4 To shorv the affiliation body that th* institutioa possesses the neces-

sary materials to support instruction/research in a certain subject field orat a certain acadernic level.

1.5 To demonstrate how the library contributes to the development ofthe parent body.

1.6 To present the valuable evidence that the Irbrary adminis-tration is sensitive to the library's assigned purposes to the specialinterest of its potentiai usbrs, and ?o the limitation of its resources.' 1.7 To compare its resources and efficiency of the staff with otherneighbouriag libraries.

l.B To augment the resources and improve thestaff.

efficiency of library

2 CRITERIA FOR COLLECTION EVALUATTON -.../

The commou criteria for collection evaluation are described below.

2l Cor,r-scrlNc rEB Stausncs

Compllatioa of statistics serves as the most useful source to measurethe quality of the coliection. The foilowing rnethods can be used for thispurpose.

(i) Straight Caunting

Counting the number of volumes availabie in the iibrary, i e refer-ence book, text books, bound periodicals, current periodicals and othernon-print materials, wili show the balance in the collection. These canbe classified according to CC, DDC o:'UD@and separately counted asper the sub divisions. These two types of statistics would show the cor-relation between the size of tbe library and quality.

(ii) /{ew Additions

Direct or subjectwise counting the new additions will show the aanualgrowth of the resources. These figures can be compared with last fewyears flgures and rqsources development can be assessed.

(iii\ Per-capita

\\-hole collection and annually added volumes may be divided on per-:=:.:: hasis viz, books per student, per teacher etc.

l

(T!:l3IT fDR EVALUATING TI1B QUALITY OF LI!]RARY COLLECTION 195

t:r"t C:::c't:ing il e Rsqa€:is

Resuests made by the readers for the reading materials can be record'

* ..i ,livided into subject and month.wise, This reveals the materials

rC.ci are availabie in the library'

(s) Requesi for Inter'Library l'oaa

Counting the requests received from the other libraries for inter-

Iibraryloanrvilishowqualityorstrength,ofthecollection'

(vi) Circulation of Material

The daily statistics of the documents issued to the readers can be

counted and compared with monthly and yearly statistics. Another point

to note is that how many times a particular document has been issued'

by counting the issue dates from due date slips sticked to the book. The

quality of the collection can be easily recognised'

(v11) In'House (Jse of Materials

Each docuurent added to the library should have a separate slip on

which rea<ler should be instructed t0 put date and sign upon the use of

every document. These dates and signature may be courted at a fi;icul

interval and that will reveal the quality of each document'

(viii) Expenditure on Collectian

Counting the total monetaly value of the collection and expenditure

by type of documents viz, books periodicals, reports etc. The subject-

wise 'expenditure aod per capita expenditure will also reveal the quality

in the collection.

{ix) Cost - Bexefi t AnatYsis

Totai cost of procuriug and maintainirg a document divided by the

number of times it is used will reveal the worth of each document.

Tbe advantages of these methods are that chey are: (i) easy to com-

pile; (ii) easy to understand; and (iii) easy to compare. The_disadvant'

ug", *r"t (i) mere collection of data will not measure ,the quality; (ii) the

distinction between titles and volumes is very difficult; (iii) counting the

accuracy of non-print materials is difficult; and (iv) inconsistency in the

data will be a great Probletu.I

3 CHECKING LIST*/

Following are the source8 which help to check the resources of the.

t9{

frt ::y.

J I. SANCAM AND T S ;:;"1){r.+t:i

3l Llsnnny Carerocue

raling the catarogues of important libraries attached to differentr6e:eiised institutions- and comparing them with the library colrection.Tn:s nill show the subject strength in the collection.

32 Specl,rr Sunrecr BlsrloonapHrrs

Special subject bibriographies incrude rists pubrished by: (i) profes-sioral, technical and iearned societiesi (ii) Cuides to subject literarure andreference sources; and (iii) comprehensive Lr seletcive Libriographies insubject areas. These serve as usefur source to check the qialiiy of thecollection.

Collectiod can be evaruated by the outstanding book serlers, pubrishers,professional Associations, rist of the best book If ,nr yrui, prii. *iro".,

33 SreNpano Care,locurg

and book lists etc.

34 Cat-tEcrioN or prnroolcels

Tlt engineering and medicai colrege ribraries are facing many probremsia allocating the required budget foi acquisition of journars. Budgetaryrequiremonts for journais are usuaily fai more trru" *nui ir ,.[oir.a ro.books' These probrems can be tackred most efficientry and effectively byapplying Bradfordss Law. His law states that ,,if *ir"i,g"l""rrut, u..arranged in order of decreasing productivity of articres tn a givensubje*, they may be dividert into a nuclem oip.;;oJ;;ir-;; particut-arly devoted to subject and se'rerar groups or z.nes containi'g the samenumber of articles as the nucleuso *n*o it r zones wiil be as r | fi: n . . ",,.,In other words if the top n periodicers contribute 33.33% of the totalnumber of articles on a given subject, the next ns perioaicals contributeonly 33.33/, of the literature (i e 33.33%) is scattered in nr periodicals.Thus, it is suggested that a proper quaniitative analysis to determine thecore coliection of perio<Jicars on a given subject may be carried out toassist a decision to bc taken on the sJection oi documeotu.

35 CmarroN ANalysrs

C:::::c. acalisis consists in countirg tbe number of times a document:"--,-,..: -tf

r fcol cotes. references, bi"bliographies of significanr works.- x€ ...q: r: :.:a:or anall.sis in collection. evaluation is based on the.&!E--T.,.-i --:t: i:r: :: :3::eifs refect use petterns and that f*S;;;

)

II-ALU^TING THE QUALITY OF LIBRARf COLLECTION 197

: ":::! arc likell'to be more valuable to a library collection thanIlrE ::ff :avs be.. cited rarely,-1,.i:ir:!ag3: of checking lists ar6: (i) a good nurirber of specialised! L-: ::;'l:'a'.'ailable aad it is easy t* check the co!lection, (ii) most&r::::I a:: compiled by competent professioaal librarians and subject

:s:-.- .:.ence we can rely on them. Disadvantages of chocking liitsrT

-Ll:shed list soon becomes out-dated and is not updated immedi-y : ;':'>lished lists are not being prepared by keeping in vierv the

cr ::ceds of a particular library reader community; and (iii) Iistsm of :=ndard quality.

,/ING USER OPINIONS V'

opinions may be obtaiaed with the help ol ioterview or ques-methods regarding the quality of the library coliection.

41 OprxroNs oF THE Ressancg Scsolers

Researci: scholars are more familiar with the existing literature in aject field and they are aware of the source of the liferature, so .same

y b,e acquired and added to tb.e collectioa-

42 Op:NioNs os TI{E FACULTY MEMNERS

in the acadenric institution nlny be col-the collection.

The opinions of the facultyto evaluate the quality in

43 SrunrNrs AND GrNBnal Pueltc

Opinions of the studeots andrce in the academic and publicary collection.

Librarian and his

general public (users) arc the mainlibraries to evaluate tl'le quality of the

lection evaluation.rculation section is

readers.

5 USEFULNESS OF COLLECTION EYALUATION

i Streugth and weakness of the collection can2 Helps to frnd out how old is the coliection.3 Helps to identify ao appropriate item to the

uEcrs.

44 Ortxraxs oF THE LrsnA.ny Srnrp

professional colleagues are often cr:nsulted in theParticularly the staff working in refereace andconsulted because they are in direct contact with

be easily assessed.

particular grorip of

_:i)y0 apllroreil. io f Ji* criteria for e'aluating the qualii3r of' -'rrlecrin,ri is or:rv iin *ttr:mpt towar<Js a totar ,yui**, approach,- -:i:ririoii ir:rr:r:'v*rk ir r:itrrer ;liirery qxantitative nrii pu.r,,t1.,r . ---'-'r'. lr rs a cr;;rihii':rrii*r: rir"boiir whicri is desirable in sueh i.r roi{

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..:. ,t,i:.:iitr;. rliisiirf i+llecl.irr d*e_q ;nat*l:i the trachimfi rr- ._r: l:ri'{}j.i.iirr,1rl,.fs il] iit s.ripporfed i:;,, 1i* iibrarv.:li:i'li r* i;1ld citl tl:r ;rvailabiliiy *i th{j perccrtape cf liri::..' :-.: :rlf : jfi !i t.;t1i:d l-,..r r:sfrt.

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