What a wonderful site. Many, many thanks to all who responded! Most remarkably, a
former school parent of mine responded. I knew he was working on his MLS but
hadn't heard about his present job. What a small world!
This is a compilation of the responses I received to my question about standards
(especially NC) for the average age of different parts of the collection. Many
suggested Follett's Titlewave for assistance in determining holes in the collection
and for suggestions in weeding. The standards suggested mostly come from
publishers. I did get one suggestion for further research for me to do to find out
state standards and where I should search. Many, many thanks for all those who
replied. These guidelines will help in the grant proposal.
Average collection age
I teach in NYC. We were told that S.S. and Science need to be updated every 5
years, as they're the ones that have the most changes. Everything else is ok to
stay 10 years, with replacements as necessary. That's what we're told. Whether
everyone does it is another story....
Here's a link that might help, look at the CREW GUIDELINES BY DEWEY CLASS
http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/pubs/crew/guidelines.html#guidelinesforweeding
I would think different Dewey numbers would demand different standards. I am
working on the update to the Wilson Middle School catalog and we look
carefully at anything older than 2000. I would think you could make a good
case by looking at certain numbers, cloning, environmental concerns,
astronomy.
I uploaded my collections files to Mackin (www.mackin.com) and they ran a report
detailing the holes in my collection as well as areas that were outdated. It tells
in the report they were comparing it to a "Blue Ribbon" something. You may go to
their web site and see if it can give you some more information.
From the MSLMA.org standards page
(http://www.mslma.org/whoweare/standards/standardsrev.html), in
Massachusetts, the recommendation is for 70% of the total collection
published within the last 10 years.
I have also had great success with anecdotal evidence, such as showing the
set of encyclopedias we had on our shelves in which the periodical table was
much so much less populated than those you'd find published currently
because many of the elements hadn't been discovered yet!
Good luck! Grant writing is grueling work!
According to Follett Titlewise collection development program (available
free online), the average age of the collections in each age sensitive
Dewey decimal range should be:
Years
003-007 Systems/Computer programs 3
320-329 Political Science
5
361-369 Social Problems and Services 5
370-379 Education
5
380-389 Commerce, Communications and Transportation 5
520-529 Astronomy and Allied Sciences 5
570-579 Life Sciences/Medicine 5
910-919 Geography, Maps, Atlases 5
If you are automated you can export your data and then upload to
Follett's Titlewise for a collection analysis. One of the things they
do is 'age' the collection and give suggestions for weeding. Don't know
if this is what you want but it might help.
This table was from Follett:
Dewey Ranges
Acceptable
Age (Years)
003-007
Systems Data/Computer Programs
3
320-329
Political Science
5
361-369
Social Problems and Services
5
370-379
Education
5
380-389
Commerce, Communications and Transportation
5
520-529
Astronomy and Allied Sciences
5
570-579
Life Sciences/Biology
5
610-619
Medical Sciences/Medicine
5
910-919
Geography, Maps, Atlases
5
I'd love to know what you find out about this topic! On Friday, my superintendent
came to me needing some of this same information. We are on Spring Break this next
week, so I am browsing for information to present to him when we get back. One
thing I discovered is that our Circ. system (Athena) doesn't give the average age
of the collection. When I contacted their tech. support, I discovered that they
have a program called Benchmark that will give reports that I need. There is a
free trial at http://sagebrushcorp.com This site compares the collection with a
standard. I am currently looking through the site for more information to
determine where these standards came from. Maybe this can help you too
Robin Chandler
Media Coordinator
Immaculata School
Hendersonville, NC
rchandler@immac.org
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