Date:   October 3, 2005

To:       Policy committee

From:   Supervisors

Re:       Change in music collection policy

 

 

Name of Policy: Information Resources Development and Maintenance Policy:

Music Collection 7.D3

 

Recommendation:  We recommend that this section of the policy be expanded for better understanding of the purpose of the collection.

 

Reason for Policy:  The purpose of the policy is to:

·         Define the music collection policy more clearly and to reflect how the collection is being managed

·         Express the changes in direction for the music collection

 

Recommended changes:

7.D.3   Music

The Library strives to develop a diverse and broad collection of music. [in review, based on strategic plan adoption]  The music collection provides popular types/formats of music. The collection is not a comprehensive one. Due to changing technology in the audio field, the library will be alert and react to changes in format.

Popular types in the adult collection include:

·         Rock/Reggae/Rap

·         Country Western

·         Pop

·         Soundtracks

·         Jazz/Blues

·         New Age

·         International

·         Christian/Gospel

·         General Classical

·         Folk

The children’s collection focuses exclusively on music for children.

Background:  The patron survey undertaken as part of the strategic plan process showed that patrons did not feel the library music collection was useful to them. We examined the collection to see how and if it was used, and found that some parts of the collection were heavily used while others were not. The collection was weeded, removing those portions of the collection that were not used, making the popular portions of the collection more accessible. Use of the collection went up after this.

 

  • Circulation of the adult CD collection has increased 8% since the weeding project; youth CD circulation has increased 9%
  • With an average of 42,000 total circulation of all library materials per month, the combined music collection accounts for approximately 10% of our monthly circulation.

 

We no longer collect music as a separate collection in the young adult area, as this collection had very low use statistics.  The few materials from this collection that did have moderate to high use statistics were added to the adult collection.

 

Future strategies: This Collection will continue to be scrutinized as patrons needs and tastes change and different formats become available. Statistics will be gathered yearly to determine collection usage and music subject areas of interest.