Archives for November 2013

Objectives: Handouts and Slide Set

Parable of the Talents from the Book of Matthew

“Unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.” — Matthew 25:29

Here are the slides and handouts for the seventh entry in the Designing Collection Experiences workshop series: Objectives.

We looked at the implications of three inseparably related objectives for collection planning: size, age, and annual additions. These targets are implicit in all collection practice, even if a library does not choose to consciously address them. We completed an exercise using the Expectation of Life formula to generate targets for multiple rhizomes.

In the last workshop on Tuesday, November 19 — Plan Do Check Act — we will introduce an Excel linear programming model for setting effective objectives for age, size, and annual additions; discuss PDCA (Plan Do Check Act) as a basis for collection planning; and close with a review of the central themes of the Designing Collection Experiences series.

Some of the points we covered in the Objectives workshop:

  • The Expectation of Life formula can be used to explain the relationship between collection size, discard age, and annual additions: Age = Size ÷ Additions.
  • Set objectives in the context of a long-range plan for attaining a stable collection size.
  • Review and adjust targets for size, age, and additions annually.
  • Set targets among multiple rhizomes with a fundamental presumption of supply/demand equality.

Slides

Handout

Demand Tables (Also posted at the Availability workshop)

Rhizome Objectives