Collection Assessment and Evaluation E-forum

How can we best evaluate our collections to ensure their ongoing utility and value? ALCTS recently sponsored an e-forum on Collection Assessment and Evaluation. Questions examined included participant's experiences with collection assessment, methods and tools used for conducting assessments, and evaluation of non-textual collections.

One interesting result of this e-forum was the creation of a Collection Assessment discussion list hosted by the American Library Association mailing list service.

A summary of the e-forum is available along with an archive of the individual messages.  The summary includes links to tools, presentations and articles related to collection assessment.

The ALCTS website describes e-Forums as "two-day, moderated, electronic discussion forums that provide an opportunity for librarians to discuss matters of interest on an ALCTS discussion list. These discussions are free of charge and available to anyone who wishes to subscribe to the list."

Staffing for Digital Preservation

The National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) has just released a report on Staffing for Effective Digital Preservation. The Report showcases the results of a 2012 survey of 85 institutions that have mandates to preserve digital content. Some of the key findings are that most institutions do not have a dedicated department for digital preservation and that many institutions also feel that digital preservation is understaffed. Most organizations are retraining existing staff to meet the challenges associated with digital content, but the report does offer potential qualifications for new digital preservation managers. With a substantial increase in digital holdings anticipated over the next year, this is an issue that will need to be addressed in the near future.

Managing Microforms in the Digital Age

As a result of the changes that have transpired over the past thirty years, a revision of the 1977 American Library Association (ALA) publication, Guidelines for Handling Library Orders for Microforms published by the Resources and Technical Services Division (RTSD), Resources Section, and Bookdealer-Library Committee was necessary. The revised publication, retitled Managing Microforms in the Digital Age, provides librarians and information management specialists with some basic information about managing microform collections. The publication does not attempt to be a comprehensive review of the microform industry, nor does it serve as a guide for preservation microfilm production. Managing Microforms addresses trends in bibliographic control, storage environments, current vendors and resources, and microform terminology.  See the report at http://www.ala.org/alcts/resources/collect/serials/microforms. 

NISO seeking feedback on its Bibliographic Development Roadmap Project

In April, NISO held a two-day meeting to kick off a "Bibliographic Development Roadmap Project." Funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the project is aimed at "effectively transform[ing] how bibliographic data is created, exchanged, and managed in the linked web world."  The meeting generated 40 project ideas in 15 categories; the next phase of the project will involve gathering feedback and  prioritizing the project ideas, which have been compiled at NISO's IdeaScale Input Forum (http://niso.ideascale.com/a/ideafactory.do?id=18685&mode=recent&discussionFilter=byids&discussionID=48211). IdeaScale is a web-based platform that allows a community of registered users to share ideas and provide feedback about them. Those who are not registered users are still able to read the ideas and feedback that have been posted. The two most popular ideas posted as of this writing are: "[i]mprove the ability of our data to be consumed and manipulated," and "[w]ork to make vocabularies work across systems," with 17 votes each.