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Inventory

Page history last edited by Kim Miller 15 years ago

March 9, 2009

 

Scott Dermont, IA

Question:

I am wondering if any states have public library accreditation programs or annual survey questions that would require libraries to perform a full inventory on a regular basis. This was brought up in response to a question about how libraries determine the number of missing or stolen materials in a collection.

 

Personally I think it is a bit much to require that libraries do this to meet accreditation, but I wanted to see if anyone was doing this and what your experiences were.

 

Thanks.

 

 

Comments: 

DariaBossman, SD

I agree--a bit much.  Like Iowa we have some (ah, many)  tiny libraries which are just struggling to survive.

 

Even if we loaned them the equipment, the time and technical expertise to do an electronic inventory is just not feasible. Perhaps for top tiers to reach accreditation this might be required...perhaps.

 

Bruce Pomerantz , MN

Minnesota-No.

 

An interesting point, however. During my 15 years on the front line, I never participated in any such inventory. In these days of ILS, I would assume that when a book is declared missing or discarded, at some point someone deletes the electronic record. 

 

We do ask the last year libraries purged their registrations. 

 

Ann Reed, OR

We here in Oregon don't have PL library accreditation, but then, libraries get little state aid as well.  Lacking a substantial carrot, the state library acts as resource, advocate, and cheer leader.  I admit there are times we long to straighten out some collections, but we restrain ourselves.

 

Michael Golrick, LA

I think this rarely happens, although I do know of one Wisconsin public library which completes an inventory over the course of three years. They spend a few weeks each year doing a portion of the collection.

 

I think it will be more feasible with the advent of RFID, but several of the libraries I was involved with have collection sizes (and as Bob Molyneux pointed out, budget issues) which will prevent implementation of RFID until the unit prices of the tags drop dramatically. (Think about a collection of 750,000 items with a cost per tag of even $0.50 – before calculating the staff time.  That library began data entry on its collection in the early 1980s and finished in about 2001.)

 

Most places which have looked at loss rates use either the data from the ILS, or sampling of the collection (i.e. comparing a list of items which are supposed to be in a section with what is actually there).

 

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