Stock Quality Health Check
Rachel Van Riel
Opening the Book
www.openingthebook.com
© Opening the Book Ltd
Reader-centred stock selection
• Chooses a range of books for a range of different
reading audiences
• Knows the balance in the collection in terms of different
appeal to different audiences
• Uses this information to plan purchase and collections
development
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Do you know
• The balance in your collection in terms of the appeal to
different age groups?
• The balance in your collection in terms of appeal to male
and female readers?
• The different audience needs within a genre like crime,
eg, traditional/lesbian/comic/literary?
• Now you can begin to analyse these.
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The health check
Must be:
• Easy to use
• Cost-effective (outputs in proportion to inputs)
• Visibly ‘fair’
• Applicable to all sizes of authority
• Updateable not a one-off
• Helpful to library managers not punitive
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Statistical background
• Of 149 English authorities, 97 had sufficient detail in
2000 on adult fiction stock, issues and expenditure to
enable more detailed analysis.
• The differences between authorities were not determined
by the type of authority or size of population.
• The standard statistical profile is insufficient to test the
quality of fiction collections and their use.
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Data averages per type of authority
Min
Max
Min
Percentage of fiction stock on loan
Max
Min
Fiction acquisitions as % of total book acquisitions
Max
Min
Fiction issues as % of total book issues
Max
Min
Fiction stock turn
Max
Min
Expenditure on fiction per 1,000 pop
Max
Min
Expenditure on fiction as % of total books expenditure
Max
Fiction per 1,000 population
London
376
746
17
46
25
54
27
50
2.3
8.4
253
1257
20.6
43.2
Mets
Unitaries Counties
471
331
362
636
848
638
23
24
31
44
61
55
34
25
29
72
63
52
46
36
35
63
63
62
4.3
4.1
5.9
9.3
12.3
11.7
245
65
288
1,164
1,357
718
27.9
5.9
26
54
63.5
44.2
Based on CIPFA 1998-99 Actuals
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The approach
• Quality defined as range – do you have books which
cater for all reading audiences?
• Checking individual titles on catalogue is only practical
and cost-effective way to deliver information
• Representative list drawn up – NOT a definitive list, must
avoid setting a canon, types of read not specific titles
• Total numbers of copies in different categories taken as
an indicator of collection balance and also of
accessibility to users – location of copies irrelevant
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Selection of titles – 2000 List
Individual titles as information indicators to be interpreted:
• minor title of major author not best known
• out of print titles no longer available in bookshops
• old titles which should no longer be held in quantity
•
first novels
•
early novels of popular writers
•
second / third novel of current writer
•
classics including black heritage, cult classics
•
range of publishers
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Selection of titles – 2004 List
Automated process – less interpretation
• better-known title of major author
• bestselling titles of popular writers
• bias towards 2002-3 titles in classic reprints, mainstream genres
and 1994-2004 categories
• continues with some out of print titles, some old titles which
should no longer be held in quantity
• continues to include range of publishers
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The sample size – 2000 List
• One genre covered in depth, chose crime as most
popular and varied
• List of 200 crime titles includes nearly all crime writers
• 370 titles to cover the rest of fiction
• Tested with 12 pilot authorities to check if this size gave
useful and sufficiently accurate results
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The sample size – 2004 List
• 28 categories kept the same for longitudinal comparison
• 9 new categories including poetry
• 40 titles from last quarter to test keeping up-to-date
• Need four times sample size to double accuracy –
balance of effort and reward
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Selection of titles 2004
• Chicklit is younger, no overlap with 2000 List
• Historical has increased in importance since 2000,
therefore more recent titles, fewer ‘oldies’
• Male/female appeal – example New Bestsellers
Joanne Harris and Sophie Kinsella = F
Andy McNab and John O’Farrell = M
Amitav Ghosh, Ian McEwan, Harlan Coben and Zadie Smith = N
Mike Gayle read more by women so neither
McCall Smith probably more women than men but some men
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Selection of titles 2004 - Poetry
• Bias towards accessible reader-friendly
anthologies
• Poetry classics, Poetry world and Poetry 19942004 follow same categories as fiction
• Poetry independents – range, accessibility,
Poetry Book Society choices
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First level analysis
• Authors and titles present
– indication of the breadth of the authority’s collection
but not the availability to the reader
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Second level analysis
• Comparison of 41 / 37 stock areas
– includes data on numbers of copies and therefore
indication of availability to the reader
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Third level analysis
Cross-cutting checks pulling specific titles from across
all the areas
2000
Younger/older audience appeal
Black and Asian writers
First novels
2004
Male/female audience appeal
Independent presses
Poetry
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Sample results from 11 authorities on
older / younger audience appeal
25
20
15
10
5
0
A
B
C
D
E
Younger audience
F
G
H
I
J
K
Older audience
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Sample results from 11 authorities on
representation of Black/Asian writers
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
© Opening the Book Ltd
Sample results from 11 authorities on
representation of first novels
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
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Bookshop competition
• 2000 List was tested with a branch of a major bookchain
• Bookchain coverage of total range not as good as
libraries
• Large quantities of key current titles evidence of popular
demand that libraries had not yet picked up
• Percentages of younger audience appeal, black/Asian
writers and first novels much higher than in libraries:
• 13.9% of total sample were younger audience
appeal
• 12.7% of total sample were black/Asian writers
• 20.1% of total sample were first novels
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Moving from inspection to self-evaluation
• Audit Commission, DCMS and Arts Council England
commissioned 3-year development programme from
Opening the Book
• Methodology endorsed by SCL and CILIP
• Set in context of CPA
• Helps to deliver Framework for the Future
• May help to inform public library standards on stock
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Scoring
• Bias towards older readers in library use taken into account – ratio
of 1.4:1 scores Excellent
• Bias towards female readership of fiction taken into account – ratio
of 1.4:1 scores Excellent
• Norms for areas such as black and Asian writing set low so
applicable everywhere
• Recognition that some important stock such as poetry has small
readership
• Weightings to be further discussed in the light of results
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Questions
• Is the population profile relevant?
• What difference does circulating stock make and how to include
this?
• What difference does promoting stock make and how to include
this?
• Should third-level analysis be titles and authors present or
proportionate (include numbers of each title and check proportion of
the whole)?
• What proportion of the total should the 40 last quarter titles
represent ideally? 15 early returns varied from 10.5% to 23%. Not
used in scoring yet.
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Future possibilities
• Programme for regular updates
• Connect to issue history of titles?
• Scale down to give advice for smaller libraries?
• Adapt and test methodology for non-fiction?
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Stock Quality Health Check Development
Group
• Brian King, Audit Commission
• Les Pedrick, DCMS
• John Hampson, Arts Council England
• Martin Molloy, Society of Chief Librarians
• Sarah Wilkie, MLA
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