At a glance
A single platform to manage materials and gauge usage
A floating collection was pooling at certain branches, and diverse purchasing was tracked on spreadsheets. A methodical Collection Check rollout across ten locations changed both.
Branches, plus a bookmobile
Population served
First tool rolled out
The challenge
What the library was up against
Marin County Free Library has a floating collection, but staff reported "pooling" — a surplus of material building up at certain branches. Part of that imbalance was down to infrequent weeding and little space for new items.
The library's administration also wanted to improve the representation of diverse communities in the collection, with no way to track it beyond the team's own spreadsheets.
The solution
What they did
collectionHQ was identified as a decision-support platform that would enable efficient development of a diverse collection matching the reading trends of the library's community.
A branch-by-branch rollout
Collection Check was rolled out first. Each branch manager received clear instructions on the steps to carry out, supported by virtual drop-in sessions where branch staff could ask questions.
Staff buy-in from the start
Staff buy-in was built by communicating the end benefits — a more appealing collection and a more accurate catalog — and progress at each location was monitored in collectionHQ throughout.
The results
What changed
A more accurate catalog
Significant improvements to catalog accuracy across all ten locations, with staff enthused about continuing to work with collectionHQ.
Straight on to Long Overdue Check
The team moved on to Long Overdue Check to improve catalog accuracy further.
Spending guided by evidence
Circulation and turnover charts in the Dashboard now guide where spending is allocated.
Diversity, measured directly
Representation of diverse populations can be evaluated directly with DEI Analysis.
“We have a mandate to buy more diverse books, but we had no way of tracking them other than our own spreadsheets.”
Clara McFadden
Collection Development Librarian, Marin County Free Library
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A decade-long collectionHQ customer cut Dead on Arrival stock from 17.5% to 14.1% while lifting DEI representation from 21.9% to 24.9% — by promoting books rather than weeding them.
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Manual tagging showed the diversity of new material but never the whole collection. DEI Analysis gave Oak Park a holistic view across twelve industry-respected DEI topics.
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