1. Action research: Meredith College’s carlyle campbell library
Sarah Clemons LIS 610 Fall 2015

2. About Meredith College
Women’s College founded in 1891
Located in Raleigh, NC
About 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students
Accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools

3. Carlyle Campbell Library
Named after former Meredith College president
Built in 1970
60,000 sq ft and 12,000 sq ft of remote storage space
Library Mission Statement
Advance knowledge by providing access to materials, tools, and information that open up global perspectives.
Empower learners in their pursuit of excellence and academic success.
Strengthen the Meredith community

4. Technical Services Department
Includes the following Services:
Cataloging
Archives
Acquisitions
Four staff members
Head of Technical Services
Technical Services Assistant
Archives and Technical Services Assistant
Catalog Librarian

5. Head of Technical Services
Ted Waller
Has worked at Meredith for 29 years
Oversees acquisitions, cataloging, collection development/management, library website, ILS, and college archives

6. Collection Development Policy
General Guides to Selection
Priority
Format considerations
Format selection considerations
Current publications v. out-of-date publications
Multiple copies
Non-English language materials
Cooperative agreements
Consortial purchases

7. Collection Development Process
Each department of the library supplies a list of materials they would like to add to the collection and the Technical Services department acquires the items
Library sends out a list of potential materials to each academic department and the faculty highlight and sent back their choices
The library doesn’t receive a lot of student requests for materials, but if they do the students tell the circulation desk

8. Working with vendors Established leasing agreements for e-books
Approval Plans
Use lists of recommended materials provided by book vendors to determine what to buy
Library saves a lot of time in the Collection Development process by relying on vendor’s assistance
Demand Driven Acquisitions (will buy materials based on how often they’ve been used)
Saves the library money, by only buying materials that are being used, but allowing them to have a large amount of materials available if needed

9. Buying From Vendors Negotiate with vendors on pricing
Typically have a set discount or incentive (Ex. free shipping)
Buy collections of books as a package

10. Deselection Process An on-going process at Carlyle Campbell Library
Heavily driven by space/storage issues
Assess use statistics to determine what to weed
Evaluate material formats that are no longer useful or used
For example, recently discarded a large collection of Laserdiscs, records, and VHS tapes that weren’t being used and were taking up a lot of space
Goal of this process is to lighten the research process for students so they aren’t bogged down with materials they can’t use

11. College Archives
The Archives focus on preserving Meredith College’s history and culture
Very active department in the library
Archives contain DVD recordings of annual traditions like Cornhuskin’ event
Hold Meredith memorabilia from different time periods
Display case on third floor features rotating materials from the college archive

12. Display Case Featuring Items from the Library’s Archive

13. Special Collections
The library houses a large collection of vinyl records featuring many classical and opera recordings.

14. Strengths and Weaknesses
Successfully adapted to emerging technologies
Established system and process for development and management that doesn’t need a lot of revision every year
Weaknesses:
Lack of faculty and student involvement in the selection of materials

15. The End