Using Evidence in Practice
Retroactive Collection Development: Gap Identification through Citation
Analysis
Kealin M. McCabe
Research and Learning Services Librarian
University of Northern British Columbia
Prince George, British Columbia, Canada
Email: mccabek@unbc.ca
Received: 16 June 2016 Accepted:
19 July 2016
2016 McCabe.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons‐Attribution‐Noncommercial‐Share Alike License 4.0 International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly attributed, not used for commercial
purposes, and, if transformed, the resulting work is redistributed under the
same or similar license to this one.
Setting
The University of
Northern British Columbia (UNBC) is a small research intensive university
located in Prince George, British Columbia (BC), in BC’s central interior. The
university opened its doors in 1994, serving as a primarily undergraduate
university. Since its inception, it has grown to include 18 different graduate
degrees. The university is supported by the Geoffrey R. Weller Library, which
serves faculty and students doing research on both local and regional campuses.
Problem
The 2014/2015
academic year marked the 25th anniversary of the university. As a
young institution, our library collection, upon analysis, appears quite
immature. In the past, comprehensive in-house studies have been conducted
relating to our journal collections, specifically in the areas of economics,
political science, and international studies. In the process of building our
monograph collection, particular attention had always been paid to the purchase
of current items as they relate to course offerings and the research interests
of faculty and graduate students. Therein lies the problem. Past evaluations
have shown the effectiveness of our journal collection, but we have failed to
assess the strength of our monograph collection in these areas and its ability
to meet the research needs of our students and faculty.
As is common with
most libraries, collection budgets continue to diminish, while the price of
materials continues to skyrocket. Librarians must be judicious in their
selection process. The abundant funding of the 1990’s is no longer occurring,
meaning that librarians’ approach to collection development must be strategic and
purposeful (Knievel, Wicht, & Connaway, 2006). Based on this evidence, the
following exercise was undertaken to assess the strength of our current
collection and the potential absence of core texts published prior to the
library’s opening in 1994.
Evidence
Retroactively
filling a library’s collection is important. A 2013 Western Illinois University
(WIU) study sought to identify core journal and monograph titles through the
examination of PhD. level syllabi on a national (United States) level (Johnson,
Stierman, Stierman, & Clark, 2013). Their analysis showed that 24% of the
monograph titles cited in top-tier journals had a publication date of 6-10
years, thus “…showing that currency is not always king” (Johnson et al., 2013,
p. 204).
In order to analyze
the gaps in our collection at UNBC, we used the following process. Thompson
Reuters Journal Citation Reports (JCR now InCite) was used to identify high
impact journal titles within the discipline of economics. This list was further
refined through the examination of each publications’ scope to determine
relevancy, which narrowed the list to 20 journal titles within the area of
development economics. The bibliographies of the 50 most cited articles were
examined within each high impact journal to identify monograph titles. The year of publication for the high
impact articles ranged from 1956-2014 with a median date of 2001.
In total, 1000
bibliographies were examined resulting in the identification of 11,800
monograph titles. Exclusion criteria were applied to remove reference texts
(e.g. dictionaries, handbooks, encyclopedias), government documents, bulletins,
and conference proceedings from the results. EndNote Desktop citation
management software was used to manage the bibliographic records of identified
monograph titles. The titles were either exported directly into EndNote or
entered manually. In instances where articles
or their bibliographies were not readily available through our existing
collection, the physical items were requested through interlibrary loans (ILLs).
Classification of
publication recency was based on Fasae’s (2012) categorizations, as illustrated
below in Table 1. Of the identified titles, 43% (n=5,044) were cited two or
more times. The average year of publication for these
titles was 1983. The findings indicate that within the discipline of
development economics, 78% of the cited monograph titles are classified as “not
recent”, indicating that older texts play a vital role in informing experts
during the research process.
Table 1
Recency Classification a
|
Recency Classification
|
|
Year
|
Recency
|
No. of Citations
|
Percentage
|
|
< 5 years
|
Very Recent
|
91
|
2%
|
|
6 - 10 Years
|
Recent
|
214
|
4%
|
|
11-15 Years
|
Not Very Recent
|
805
|
16%
|
|
16 Years +
|
Not Recent
|
3934
|
78%
|
|
Total
|
|
5044
|
100%
|
a Classification based on Fasae (2012).
A list of
monograph titles cited 4 or more times (n= 329) in the literature was compiled
and compared to the library’s current holdings. The titles on this list were
designated as being “core” titles necessary for a strong collection. Of these
titles, 49% (n=161) were not in our collection.
This process was then applied to faculty
publications and graduate student theses.
Analysis of these publications confirmed the above findings. Faculty
publications and graduate student theses relied on monographs with a
publication date of 16 years or more, 36% and 44% respectively, thus confirming
the importance of older texts in the research process.
Implementation
Given the
evidence, current funds already allotted to the purchase of monographs was used
to fill the gaps. Monograph funds are allocated to disciplines taught at the
university. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the field of development
economics, funds from the other disciplines (political science and
international studies) were used. This was done without compromising or
undercutting one discipline’s fund. All 161 titles were purchased using
existing funds. It is important to note that 69% (n=111) of the titles
purchased were originally published prior to the university opening its doors.
Outcome
The outcome of
this study will only become evident with time. To measure the impact of
retroactive collection development, the following measures are being proposed.
Circulation of the retroactively purchased titles will be monitored to measure
their impact and use in addition to tracking citations in student theses and
faculty publications. Further attention will also be paid to requests placed
via our ILL service. In addition to this, we will continue to monitor ILL
requests for titles of monographs being requested within the discipline of
development economics.
Reflection
Overall, this
process has allowed us to develop a core collection as determined by the
experts within development economics instead of relying on traditional book
reviews and the occasional patron request. The analysis allowed us to see how
influential older texts are in the creation of new scholarship. The overall
methodological approach for this project provided great insights, but a few
issues were encountered during this comprehensive study. The collection of data
was labour intensive and time consuming. Bad data was problematic where the
records contained incorrect information. This meant that much of the data
exported had to be manually manipulated in order to be used. Humans are not
perfect and neither are their bibliographies. Many articles referenced items
incorrectly, including errors in author names and dates of publication.
This study relied
heavily on the Web of Science database. While the records for journal article
citations were generally accurate, the citations for cited monographs were rife
with errors and oftentimes incomplete.
The study began by
utilizing RefWorks as the citation management software, which was user friendly
and allowed for the import of duplicate records, which was key to the
completion of this study. One of the major obstacles encountered during this
time was the library’s decision to discontinue its subscription to RefWorks in
favour of EndNote Web. This meant that the records already collected had to be
exported to EndNote and that extra care had to be taken when continuing to
export records, as EndNote does not allow for duplicates in the same library.
This meant that a new process for importing and organizing bibliographic
records had to be undertaken in order to ensure that duplicates were recorded
accurately.
This approach
would prove useful in identifying key reference texts that should be purchased
or subscribed to on an ongoing basis. Reference texts are oftentimes very
expensive and measurement of their use can be difficult, to say the least. The
process of exploring the extent of their use through expert citations could
prove useful in ensuring that libraries are purchasing titles that are of high
caliber and value. While reference texts were excluded from this study, their
inclusion could have proven useful in identifying heavily used items that are
worth collecting.
This process works
well for the exploration of a small and focused area of a collection,
specifically, sub disciplines like development economics. This process would
not be appropriate to use for a broad sweeping analysis of a collection area in
a larger discipline. This type of analysis would be useful in instances where
in-depth knowledge of the collection is necessary such as budget requests, the
development and support of new advance degree programs, external reviews, or in
instances where a college transitions to a degree granting institution.
Overall, the evidence collected emphasizes
the importance of retroactively filling your book collection for new academic
libraries. It demonstrates that emphasis should not be placed on electronic
access to journals and the purchasing of newer titles alone. The results of
this evidence informed assessment indicate that equal weight should be given in
the purchase of older and well-established titles in the creation and
maintenance of a well-rounded collection.
References
Fasae, J. K. (2012). Citation analysis of
dissertations and theses submitted to the Department of Agricultural Economics
and Extension, Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria. Library
Philosophy and Practice. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/
Johnson, D. T., Stierman, J. K., Stierman,
J. P., & Clark, B. F. (2013). Using syllabi to determine the core journal
and monographic literature in doctoral finance programs. Journal of Business
& Finance Librarianship, 18(3), 191-207. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08963568.2013.794666
Knievel, J. E., Wicht, H., & Connaway,
L. S. (2006). Use of circulation statistics and interlibrary loan data in
collection management. College & Research Libraries, 67(1), 35-49. http://dx.doi.org/10.5860/crl.67.1.35