The Complete Collections Assessment Manual: A Holistic Approach

Assessment is increasingly integral to building, managing, and justifying library collections. Unfortunately, assessment can also be a daunting undertaking. And though every institution is unique, as this manual demonstrates, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Spanning both concept and practice, Kelly offers a holistic assessment framework suitable to a variety of collections and contexts. With a structure that makes it applicable as both a training tool for practicing librarians and a useful course text for library students, this manual introduces foundational assessment methodologies then provides concrete guidance on how to contextualize those methodologies within a holistic collections assessment program; covers topics such as assessment goals, assessment stakeholders, selecting data and methodologies, working through project constraints, and project planning; includes sample assessment program structures and other useful templates; provides step-by-step instructions for more than a dozen specific methodologies, describing which aspect of the collection is being measured, what goals the methodology can address, technological requirements, recommended visualizations, and other helpful pointers; and shares best practices for communicating effectively with internal and external stakeholders about assessment projects, with sample communication plans that can be easily adapted.