Best Collection Ever OLA Superconference 2015 Anthea Bailie – Collections Development Strategist Fred Whitmarsh – Branch Manager

What We Will Cover Today MPL at a Glance Collections – Before Collections – After What you can do now!

MPL at a Glance Population 331,053 Branches7 Total Circulation4.37 million Total Visits2.32 million Languages20

Before

Work Not Assigned Effectively Librarians with too much to do Supervisors not responsible for collections

Lack of Staff Engagement Impact at the branch level Communication about collections procedures

“Customer Focus”? Emphasis on anecdotal information Lack of objectivity

“Training”? Lack of training for branch staff Right information in the wrong hands

After

Assigning Work Properly Collections Development Strategist Branch Librarians Library Services Associates Communicating with vendor

Staff Engagement Share information Ask for suggestions Staff Picks

Customer-Centered Collections Customer usage patterns – How are customers using your existing collection – What are they requesting more of? – What are they requesting that you don’t have? Collection Placement and Transfers Direct customer feedback Sociodemographic data

Customer-Centered Collections Customer usage patterns – How are customers using your existing collection – What are they requesting more of? – What are they requesting that you don’t have? Collection Placement and Transfers Direct customer feedback Sociodemographic data

Training Position-specific Teach yourself

What You Can Do Right Now!

What you can do right now! (Strategy) Weed Merchandise Look & Feel Review procedures (process map) Take an Excel course Data clean up New collections

What you can do right now! (Quick Wins) Unlimited renewals Holds ratio Up sell Celebrate reading

Questions?