| Evaluation Strategy |
Description |
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
Usefulness in context |
| collection profiling |
A statistical description of the collection at a point in time. It may list information such as a count of titles in a particular section of the collection, a count of titles by imprint year etc |
Provides baseline data for future collection development activities. Provides quantifiable data for presentation to stakeholders. Can identify areas that need improvement and support budget requests. |
Does not consider the breadth, condition or quality of the titles counted or how well those titles meet the identified needs of the school community. |
Collection of this data may be useful as a jumping off point, however, for meaningful evaluation to take place, complementary strategies would need to be employed. |
| list checking |
Librarians check items held against a trusted list of quality resources. |
Simple to apply. Lists are available that are relevant to many contexts. Credible and reliable lists are assured by the reputation of those compiling them. |
Lists used must be relevant to the specific context. Lists must be regularly updated. |
If a suitable list could be obtained that matched the specific context, this is a useful technique. This strategy could be combined with circulation analysis and curriculum/collection mapping |
| direct collection analysis |
A person who is familiar with what a quality collection includes in a particular field physically inspects the resources provided to meet those needs. |
Useful when the collection or scope is small. The physical state of the collection can be ascertained and plans for repair, replacement or augmentation framed. Useful for evaluating several aspects of the collection at once |
Only considers the condition of the resources actually on the shelf at the time. Best suited to small, narrow collections. Librarians might not be objective. |
To some extent, this is done in primary school libraries each year during stocktake. |
| comparative statistics |
Comparison of various vital statistics with those of a trusted, aspirational model. May include collection size, materials expenditure, staffing levels, etc |
Can assist in identifying the relative strengths and weaknesses of the collection. Data is readily available and quantitative comparisons simple to draw. |
Numerical counts can not measure quality or the extent to which the resources counted meet the identified needs of users. |
This sort of evaluation provides limited useful information in a primary school setting. |
| application of standards |
Collection and resource standards are compared with the current collection to determine the extent to which the collection meets the relevant standard. |
Clear areas of strength, weakness and non-strength can be identified and strategies extrapolated to move forward. |
Standards are the result of opinion. Different circumstances and contexts might require different standards (meaning they are no longer exactly “standard”). |
If a suitable set of standards could be sourced, this would be an interesting activity to undertake. I would assess one element or section at a time in order to improve the overall library experience over time. |
| citation studies |
Similar to list checking, librarians look for commonly cited texts in a particular field and then determine whether those titles are available in the collection. |
Identifies items for selection consideration. Data is readily available. |
Lists of commonly cited texts can be difficult to attain in the primary setting. Teacher librarians could study student bibliographies, however, this will be heavily weighted in favour of items that are present in the collection. |
In the primary school setting, citation of fiction texts is much less common than citation of non-fiction. Students may struggle to identify quality sources, so citations may be weighted in favour of what is already available. It may be difficult to seek citation aggregates from the wider community in this age group. List checking might be a more valuable tool in this area. |
| circulation studies |
Provides data about how frequently resources are circulated by interrogating LMS. |
Indicates that particular titles are being heavily used and may need additional copies purchased, or that resources are not being circulated. Can be used to compare patterns of usage and possible changing community needs. |
A negative circulation record does not indicate why the resource is not being borrowed. A positive circulation record only shows the resource is being borrowed, not how it is being used. Does not consider items that are not present in the collection, but desired by users. |
This data forms a valuable starting point and points to areas for further investigation, but is not conclusive in and of itself. |
| in-house studies |
Gathers data about resources that are used on site but not borrowed. |
Captures information missing from circulation studies. |
May interfere with user privacy perceptions. Only captures data about resources located, does not include unsuccessful searches. |
Requires all resources used onsite to be retrieved or reshelved by staff, which, given the available staffing levels, is not realistic in the primary school setting. |
| user surveys and focus groups |
Users are asked for feedback on target areas. Responses are analysed and aggregated. |
Can help to identify areas in which needs are not met. Data collected can be both quantitative and qualitative. |
Does not capture the feedback of non-users. Users might not have a sophisticated understanding of what a quality collection should be like. Users may be unaware that their intended uses and actual behaviours may vary. Structuring effective survey questions can be difficult. |
This could be an effective strategy for a primary school setting if care is taken to include a cross-section of the school community in the survey/focus groups. |
| interlibrary requests |
A user who checks the catalogue for a particular item, finds it absent and decides they still need it, might request the item from a partner library. Statistics can be obtained allowing librarians to study patterns in the requests. |
Could help identify resources for selection consideration. Gathering of statistics is simple. Any changes in this area could indicate a shift in user community needs. |
Does not capture users who go elsewhere to find required resources. Relies on inter-library loans being available. |
As primary school libraries are usually stand-alone entities, interlibrary loans are not common. |
| document delivery test |
Library staff simulate users. First, determine whether the library holds a particular item on a citation list, then go get it. See how long it takes to supply the target item. |
Provides an objective measure of the libraries ability to meet the needs of users. May identify issues relating to cataloguing or collection management. |
Library staff are more familiar with the collection than most users, so this test may not show up some issues. Compiling a list of representative titles can be challenging. |
This could be an interesting strategy for evaluating the fiction and junior fiction collections as students are often looking for particular titles or authors. In the primary school setting, users tend to seek non-fiction resources on specific topics rather than individual titles, so it might be more beneficial to take a collection mapping approach in this area. |
