Editorial Note

As collection management librarians, our responsibilities, in a nutshell, are to buy the books/journals/databases, etc., to organize them, and to evaluate them for retention – always with our users’ needs in mind. This issue, like most of our issues, deals with these. However, another important aspect of acquiring is working with gifts and donors. And we also have an article on donor relations. This issue of Collection Management begins with three peer-reviewed articles that are case studies. Therefore, each looks at how an individual library handled a collection project. The first two address the collection evaluation process of downsizing projects. Zachary Valdes, at Sam Houston State University, describes his library’s methods and workflow in moving library materials to the Texas A&M Joint Library Facility. Those libraries considering consolidating collections into joint repositories will want to read the challenges and successes of this case study. The second article also addresses the evaluation process, this time evaluation of subscription databases. Summer Durrant’s article goes beyond just looking at “cost per use” statistics and describes an evaluation grid used at the University of Mary Washington Libraries to assess the more holistic value of the databases to their users. The third article will be of interest to libraries using Kanopy to provide streaming videos. Because Kanopy has two major access models, Sandra Urban’s library investigated which model to choose. They choose the mediate access model and found that this has not led to significant delays in providing access to requested materials. The fourth peer-reviewed article is on the important aspect of acquiring materials, donor relations. Alison Day and Maja Krtalić looked at the donor relationships at five New Zealand galleries, libraries, archives and museums institutions. The author interviewed nine participants to study the policies and procedures related to donors. The issue concludes with a non-peer reviewed article in our “Tools of the Trade” column. This article is also a case study on weeding. Adrienne Hieb and Sian Seldin describe weeding the government documents collection at the Research Library at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C.