Travis Sherrill
LIS 610 Action Research Project
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Nov 19, 2013
For my action research project, I chose the E.H. Little Library on the campus of Davidson
College. I want to work in an academic library, preferably at a small, liberal arts institution and I
thought this would be the perfect opportunity for me to learn how a small liberal arts institution
like Davidson manages a collection.
Davidson College History
Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina was founded by the Presbyterians in
1837. Davidson is located about 20 miles north of Charlotte. Davidson’s current enrollment
stands at 1,740 with a student faculty ratio of 10:1. The reduced class sizes enable faculty to
work closely with students, engaging them directly in original research and creative work across
the arts, sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Opportunities for undergraduate research are
imbedded within the curriculum with Davidson faculty who are dedicated to an immersive
higher education experience for their students and themselves.
The E.H. Little Library was constructed in 1974. The library is centrally located on
campus and houses the main collection of books, periodicals, films, and government documents.
Davidson College has a separate library for the music department. The music library is located
in Sloan and houses the primary music collection. The music library is staffed with a full-time
music library manager and Davidson College student workers. Martin Chemistry Building used
to hold the primary chemistry collection, but due to a shortage of space in the Martin Chemistry
Building, the collection has temporarily moved over to the E.H. Little Library.
The Collection
Davidson College is a small, liberal arts institution that prides itself on academic
excellence while providing diverse academic programs. Below are a few statistics that reflect
their collection:
Travis Sherrill
LIS 610 Action Research Project
Total Collection Volume Count-print
Total Bibliographic Record Count
Total Current E-journals
Total E-books
Total Books and Bound Vols. added in the year
Total Audiovisual and streaming videos
Total 2013 Acquisitions materials budget
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561,427
1,064,556
92,645
887,091
6,471
49,639
$1,693,427
The Interview
My interview was with Susanna Boylston, Collection Development Librarian at
Davidson. As Collection Development Librarian, Boylston is responsible for the selection and
acquisition of new materials, needs assessments for the overall collection, evaluation of the
collection, serial selection and management, and preservation and conservation of the collection.
Boylston “provides leadership and coordination for developing and assessing the library’s
collections in support of the college’s instructional and research programs.”
Books, DVD’s, one time purchases, and such
Davidson’s collection of eBooks, DVD’s, scores, books, and such is developed by
college faculty members and the collection development librarian. The collection librarian
selects eBooks, reference material, and other material that support the academic programs at
Davidson. Faculty members request other materials that are subject-specific to particular faculty
members’ teaching style and/or research. These requests are established by filling out an online
form which is automatically sent to the acquisitions department of the library. Faculty must
include the following priority code with their request:
1. Item is needed for a class during the current semester.
2. Essential purchase for existing or new class and/or research. You expect high use from
students in the future or indicate titles needed for reserves for next semester.
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LIS 610 Action Research Project
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3. Good title but not essential; you expect lower use. Will be ordered after #1 and #2
priorities for the department have been ordered?
4. Might be nice to have. You expect little use by students. Would interlibrary loan
suffice? Will order at the end of the fiscal year if funds are available?
Continuations: journals and databases (print and electronic)
Enquires or requests concerning journals and databases are handled by Boylston.
Boylston will gather the information, negotiate prices, set up trails, and explore options for the
department making the request.
Weeding and De-Selection
Librarians usually do not like the word weeding and many libraries do not weed.
Boylston states, “for a long time, libraries put a lot of value in volume counts” and weeding
simply deceased those numbers. As a collection development librarian, whether weeding is
something that you enjoy, or whether it is your least favorite task, the ultimate goal of your
library is to provide patrons with the most up-to-date relevant resources, you must weed. Prior to
Boylston coming to Davidson, systematic weeding was something that was an afterthought.
Everything I have learned in this class teaches us that we should weed once a year or at least
every couple of years. We have also learned that a library can weed certain parts of a collection
at certain times of the year as long as they are consistent. Davidson does not follow any of these
weeding principles. Davidson is constantly weeding. Occasionally, different parts of the
collection may be targeted for weeding based on space needs, but overall, weeding is an ongoing
project. The E.H. Little Library on the campus of Davidson College is not just a building filled
with print and electronic resources; the E.H. Little Library also houses the Center for Teaching
and Learning (CTL). The CTL occupies valuable space that was formerly utilized for academic
resources. Due to the fact that the library knew about the CTL moving into the library, from a
collection management stand point, the library was able to prepare by performing large-scale
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LIS 610 Action Research Project
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weeding projects. Davidson chooses a format for a particular item based on need, expected use,
and appropriateness for the type of material. The library does not take into consideration
whether they have space for a print title. If a print book is needed, the print book is acquired.
A. Collection Development Policy
This course has taught me so much about collection development and management.
Probably, the most important thing that I will take away from this course is the importance of a
collection development policy. Surprisingly, Davidson College does not have a public collection
development policy. One of our class projects was to create a collection development policy.
Davidson was the perfect scenario for this project with no policy in place. I created a collection
development policy for a small academic library like Davidson using many of their current
practices. They will likely not adopt it but I have realized the value of a written policy and how
it clarifies the management of the Library’s collection.
B. Accessing the collection
One question that came to mind was what criteria does Davidson use to weed the
collection without a collection development policy to outline these policies and procedures? First
of all, the collection as a whole must be assessed. When a certain item in the collection is
assessed, the criteria that determines whether the item will remain as part of the collection
include, but are not limited to; past use, condition, subject matter (that is, is it related to current
or anticipated curricular and/or research needs; is it related in some way to the college, the area,
etc.), edition (has it been updated or superseded; is there a reason to keep an earlier edition),
author (is it an author whose other works are needed at Davidson), listing in resources like
Resources for College Libraries and other authoritative lists, whether it has won significant
awards, availability in other formats, local, regional, and national availability (that is, how many
other libraries have copies), and so on. Looking back on what I have learned in this course, the
criteria that Davidson uses to determine whether something should be weeded from the
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LIS 610 Action Research Project
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collection is similar to the criteria outlined in all the resources I have read throughout this
semester. The weeding process for government documents is similar but since the documents
are owned by the government, some additional criteria are followed.
Collaboration and Assessment with Faculty
In academic libraries, when talking about weeding, many resources I consulted
throughout the semester stated that it was crucial to consult faculty prior to weeding certain
materials from the collection. It is important to bring faculty into the libraries who are experts in
particular subject areas to weed the collection. This also gives faculty members a firsthand
account of how weeding works. At Davidson, they take it one step further. They not only
consult faculty members who teach in the particular subject area that is being weeded, but they
also bring in other faculty members because often times, faculty members use materials from
other academic areas of study than their own. For example, the chemistry library collection is
currently being evaluated. Boylston consults with the chemistry faculty. Boylston prepares and
sends lists of materials that have the potential to be weeded and request input. Boylston also
sends these lists to other faculty members who may use these materials. These faculty members
are located in humanities as well as other sciences departments. It is Davidson’s philosophy that
a library should be as inclusive as possible when it comes to determining whether something
should be weeded from or retained in the collection.
Thus far, we have talked about the overall collection at Davidson and the policy on
weeding. Managing the overall collection and weeding the collection are two extremely
important jobs that fall on the shoulders of the collection development librarian. Maybe the most
important job of the collection development librarian is maintaining positive, open
communication with all faculty members. Boylston works directly with all Davidson College
faculties on their needs in continuations. It is Boylston’s responsibility to find useful resources
for all academic departments that not only are a good deal financially for the college, but
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resources that also fit directly into the curriculum being taught throughout all academic
departments. After finding resources of this caliber, Boylston will bring those directly to the
faculty for evaluation to see if they are adequate for the curriculum being taught. In saying this,
Boylston points out that; “Building and maintaining close working relationships with faculty is
key. The librarian needs to understand their needs, research interests, and research and teaching
habits.” While most of this falls on Boylston’s shoulders, the faculties have to trust that as
collection development librarian, she will do what she can to provide the best resources for the
faculty and students that are available. “The faculty needs to be able to trust the librarian. We
want our collections to be useful … and used. My job is connecting people and resources.”
Vendor Relations
If nothing else, one thing that this action research project is teaching me is that the
collection development librarian has to build and maintain positive relationships with many
different people. Another group of people the collection development librarian must maintain a
strong relationship with are vendors. Boylston negotiates packages from vendors for electronic,
one-time purchase content with continued annual access fee or no regular access fee, the licenses
and special offers offered by vendors. Building these relationships with these vendors is crucial
but it is something that does not happen overnight. Boylston points out that often times the
vendor’s needs are often times different than those of the library, especially if the library is
working with a for-profit company. As far as working with vendors, Boylston’s primary job is to
articulate the needs of Davidson College as far as content, cost, license terms, and technical
needs.
Accessibility
A collection development librarian can get the best, most up-to-date resources in every
subject area supported by the institution, but if the resources are not accessible to all parties then
the resources do not fit the overall needs of the library. The collection development librarian has
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LIS 610 Action Research Project
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some control in making sure that all resources are accessible. Most of the time, due to the fact
that most electronic resources come from a third party service, the collection development
librarian can do nothing. So what are we talking about, making sure that all resources are
accessible? If someone comes into the library, if they can read, they should be able to access all
resources right? There are two different kinds of access we are talking about here. The first type
of access is, let’s use Davidson as an example, does Davidson open all resources up to anyone
who is capable of walking through the library doors? The answer is no. Only patrons with valid
log-in credentials are permitted to use all resources at Davidson. Accessibility of electronic
resources not only extends to the patrons but also to the libraries available software and
technology. Selecting an online resource that requires costly or and special software does not
meet the purchasing requirements for most libraries.
The other type of access we are talking about is making sure that people with disabilities
can access all resources. One thing I have figured out, from the time I was in undergrad until
now in graduate school is that these 3rd party vendors that most electronic resources come from
do not think about visually impaired patrons who may need to utilize the resources they created.
Just because someone is visually impaired, does that mean they should be denied access to a
particular group of electronic resources? As a visually impaired library patron, this is something
I am passionate about and something I hope to work on after obtaining my MLIS degree.
The third aspect to assuring that all resources are accessible is simply making sure that
the online portals that house these resources are working. At Davidson, to assure that all
resources are accessible in this manner, Boylston must work with vendors and maintain the
proxy server. When dealing with anything electronic, at some point, there are going to be issues.
When there are problems, the source of the problem could be with a vendor (a server crash or
other system problem). A conflict could also arise between a campus security setting and the
software the product needs to run. Making sure things are accessible require three things, trouble
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LIS 610 Action Research Project
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shooting, understanding of the products, and close relationships with vendors and the campus's
IT department.
Conclusion
A collection development librarian has many responsibilities. At Davidson, these
responsibilities fall on the shoulders of one person. Collection development librarians have to
build and maintain the collection, assess the collection, weed the collection, and build and
maintain positive relationships with faculty members and vendors among other people. Every
library handles all aspects of collection development a little bit different. Davidson proves this
point by not having a collection development policy. The bottom line is even though they do not
have a collection development policy, what they are doing works for them. This project has
taught me a lot about every aspect about collection development. One day, when I become a
library professional, I think I will be able to look back on this project because, while it is just a
small sample size, I gained a little bit of experience learning how a small, liberal arts academic
library handles every aspect of collection development and management.