Library Journal’s ‘Library of the Year 2012’, San Diego County Library serves a wide variety of customers, in rural and urban settings in areas as diverse as the mountains, desert and coast. To keep pace with their customers’ different needs, the library system became among the first in the United States to start using collectionHQ, the software tool that applies the principles of Evidence Based Stock Management (EBSM) to library collections.
New York Public Library (NYPL) is a 90 branch system serving a population of over 3,000,000. Gaining insight into the reading trends of different communities to plan the budget at the library was not straightforward and so collectionHQ was taken on in 2010 to enhance this amongst other tasks. It has since proven an indispensable tool at the library.
Great River Regional Library (GRRL), Minnesota is a 32 branch library system serving a population of 451,125. GRRL has a pre-dominantly “floating” collection and freely shares materials as needed throughout the region. Selection is handled centrally, but each branch is using collectionHQ to manage the collection needs of that location by refreshing and removing materials based on collectionHQ reports.
The Free Library of Philadelphia is made up of 54 branches serving a population of over 1,500,000. Managing the collection across such a large system requires making cost effective choices. Staff required a system that would make more efficient use of collection dollars as well as streamline daily tasks. Following a structured roll out of collectionHQ the Library noticed positive results.
Brazoria County Library System is made up of 11 branches and serves a population of over 300,000. Maintaining a high standard of collection in an efficient and cost-effective way across the system was to prove difficult and so collectionHQ was implemented at the library.