By learning how to rightsize, you will ensure that both the collection and your institution's available physical spaces meet the needs of your library's users.
Honored with many accolades, including a starred review in Library Journal, the first edition of this book demonstrated the power and flexibility of "rightsizing," an approach that applies a scalable, rule-based strategy to help academic libraries balance stewardship of spaces and the collection. In the five years since Ward's first edition, the shared print infrastructure has grown in leaps and bounds, as has coordination among programs. With this revision, Miller addresses new options as well as the increasing urgency to protect at-risk titles as you reduce your physical collection. Readers will feel confident rightsizing their institution's own collections with this book's expert guidance on
- the concept of rightsizing, a strategic and largely automated approach that uses continuous assessment to identify the no- and low-use materials in the collection, and its five core elements;
- crafting a rightsizing plan, from developing withdrawal criteria and creating discard lists to managing workflow and disposing of withdrawn materials, using a project-management focus;
- moving toward a "facilitated collection" with a mix of local, external, and collaborative services;
- six discussion areas for decisions on participating in a shared print program;
- factors in choosing a collection decision support tool;
- relationships with stakeholders;
- how to handle print resources after your library licenses perpetual access rights to the electronic equivalent; and
- future directions for rightsizing
Industry Reviews
"Project management principles are explored to step through the process from initiation, planning, implementation, and on to closure. This helps guide the reader through all the steps that need to be considered with examples given to help understand and streamline processes. In particular the JSTOR example, for print journal withdrawal, makes it a replicable project for other academic libraries to follow ... I think the principles of rightsizing are imperative for a considered and holistic approach to academic library collection management. The strategies contained within this book are easy to follow, helpful, and will guide readers through the deselection process now and in the future."
-- Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association
"Highly informative for those who need clear guidance on deselection criteria and how to plan for potential collaborations to manage shared print [collections]."
-- Technical Services Quarterly
"I find 'rightsizing' a genuine upgrade from synonyms like weeding, pruning, or deselection. Rather than focusing on what is wrong with the removed materials and rather than acting solely or even primarily in service of space constraints, collections rightsizing seeks to examine materials through a user-centric lens. The collections rightsizing mindset involves affirmative, collaborative, and mindful choices of which materials to keep, resulting in an optimally-sized, attractive, and useful collection ... The authors include plenty of details about how to actually undertake such a project; examples throughout the text include policies to shape and guide a project, print retention memoranda of understanding (MOU) to ensure safety in rightsizing, removal candidate lists (and processes for creating these lists), and suggested procedures at all steps of the way."
-- Technicalities
