A crucial aspect of all methodologies is that producing advice and recommendation plans is not enough in itself – actions have to be followed through. EBSM is no different – without taking the time to act on the advice from the EBSM Action Plans, no progress will be made.

Collection Action is therefore the physical act of visiting the shelves and carrying out the advice recommended by the EBSM Action Plans.

A very important point should be noted  – EBSM Action Plans are based on suggested advice. At no point does the EBSM methodology suggest that the advice will always be correct. Librarians should always use their judgement when following EBSM Action Plans to prevent data quality issues from providing erroneous advice. Ultimately, librarians have the experience and local knowledge that should be used to override EBSM suggested actions where appropriate.

A good example of this is a Grubby Item Action Plan. A plan may include items that are clearly not in poor condition when inspected. A reason for this might be that the catalog is wrongly indicating many issues, when in fact the item has only been borrowed a couple of times.

Collection Action is a logistical and operational task that each library must organize according to it’s own preferences. Discussion of how this can best be organized is outwith the scope of this guide.