Newton Public Library

Presenters: Marcia Hannon Sue Koenig Elizabeth Miller Tiffany Newton

About Newton and the Library

North of Wichita Population of ~19,000 78% White, 16% Hispanic

~91,000 items in collection ~155,000 items circulated from Sept 2011 - Aug 2012

The Collection Policy

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

Detailed list of how the library can be a service to their community. Curriculum-Related Service Interlibrary Loan Openness to suggestions from their patrons and staff members. Evaluation of Materials Selection Aids list

Weakness
The policy does not contain any information pertaining to the following: Informational formats available to patrons Media equipment Scope of materials contained in adult, youth or children's sections of the library Public access Assessment of patrons needs

Budget in Collection Policy

Currently Price/Budget is the 12th bullet point out of 13 in the General Criteria section. Leave price and move budget to this section's opening paragraph with something like Within the Newton Public Library's budgetary guidelines, all acquisitions....

Needs of the Patron Group

Community Composition

Predominantly Mennonite Community Bethel College - 4 Yr Liberal Arts Mennonite College 6 Schools- 1 High School, 2 Middle Schools, & 4 Elementary Schools Senior Community

Patron Needs
Informational and Recreational Supplement study Support a variety opinions Stimulate self-understanding & growth Enhance job related skills Increase knowledge of public affairs Support community activities

Highest Circulating Materials

Current State of Collection

My visit to NPL

Fiction and Paperbacks

Fiction sorted by author's last name then title

o

Different first named authors were mixed.

Stickers on spines for genre

Paperback sorted by genre then author Integrate paperbacks into fiction Easier to assess fiction by genre for circulation stats

Children and Young Adult

Highly circulated books Looks difficult to locate a specific book due to lack of catalog locations
o

various displays, not in any order

YA books sorted by author YA NF mixed with adult NF with no distinguishing markings.

Vague Collection Policy

Hard to tell if there are inconsistencies Hard to tell exact patron needs Hart to tell circulation stats with current orgization system Continuous weeding, removal of old, worn books

Electronic Resources

Electronic Resources: E-Books

E-books
o o o

Consortium Sunflower eLibrary State Library Free Online Separate Statistical Sources Print - Polaris E-Books - OverDrive

Preference
o

Electronic Resources: Databases

Databases
o

No collection policy on databases

Database duplication
o

State Library Mango Languages Learning Express EBSCO Ancestry (similar to Heritage Quest)

Strategy

Analysis

Do a formal Community Needs Analysis Evaluate magazine subscriptions using Journal-Worth Model (Evans & Sapanaro, 2012, p. 192) Update Collection Development Policy
o o o

Add electronic resources Include formats (print, non-print, electronic) Include information about scope of collection

When Facing a 15% Budget Cut

Duplicate databases (~8% of the budget) Low Use Magazine Subscriptions (~1%) Information also available online (~1%)
o

travel, recipes, knitting patterns

use donation money to supplement

CDs and audiobooks (~3%)

o

Cut spending on fiction (~1%) Don't purchase duplicate copies (~1%)

References

Collection Policy of NPL

Evans, G. E., & Saponaro, M. Z. (2012). Collection Management Basics (6th ed.). Libraries Unlimited.
United States Census Bureau. (2012). State & County QuickFacts [Data file]. Retrieved from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/20/2050475.html

Any Questions?