At a glance
Clearing overflowing shelves at Portage District Library
Severely overstocked shelves and IT-run reports left staff managing the collection largely by hand. collectionHQ helped the library cut dead stock by almost two-thirds and bring its catalog back in line with its shelves.
Population served
Fewer dead stock items than in August 2019
Items with no use removed
The challenge
What the library was up against
Portage District Library serves a population of 56,304 in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. Before adopting collectionHQ, shelves were so overstocked that staff set up overflow carts for patrons to browse, and nonfiction sections carried outdated material.
Checking acquisition or publication dates meant relying on IT staff to run manual reports through the ILS, including a shelf-by-shelf list rebuilt in Excel every month. The library had also gone more than a decade without a full inventory, so the catalog likely no longer reflected what was on the shelves.
The solution
What they did
Abigail Pylar, Head of Circulation and Technical Services, had used collectionHQ at a previous institution. Once the team saw what it offered, the decision to adopt it was unanimous.
Weeding before the move
When a 2021 building renovation required moving the entire collection off-site, the team used collectionHQ to weed decisively first, clearing the majority of the library’s backlog of dead stock.
Monthly, self-serve reporting
New reports land automatically each month, so collection managers no longer wait weeks for an IT-run report that is outdated by the time it arrives.
The results
What changed
A healthier collection
Dead stock fell from 13,261 items in August 2019 to 4,827, giving staff room for new growth and shelvers room to keep items on the shelf.
Evidence the board could act on
Usage reports showing several years of decline gave the board clear evidence to discontinue the audio CD collection without hesitation.
A more accurate catalog
Inventory work through collectionHQ means patrons are far more likely to find an item exactly where the catalog says it should be.
More case studies
Other libraries, other pressures
Collection management
Rebuilding stock management after deep budget cuts
After service closures, a third fewer librarians and a change of LMS, South Gloucestershire used collectionHQ to re-establish a collection management process — and gave dead stock a second life worth 9,017 extra circulations.
South Gloucestershire Council Libraries
South Gloucestershire, UK
5 min read
DEI
Curating an inclusive collection at Evanston Public Library
A decade-long collectionHQ customer cut Dead on Arrival stock from 17.5% to 14.1% while lifting DEI representation from 21.9% to 24.9% — by promoting books rather than weeding them.
Evanston Public Library
Evanston, Illinois, USA
5 min read
DEI
Curating an inclusive collection at Oak Park Public Library
Manual tagging showed the diversity of new material but never the whole collection. DEI Analysis gave Oak Park a holistic view across twelve industry-respected DEI topics.
Oak Park Public Library
Oak Park, Illinois, USA
5 min read
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