CFP: Against the Grain special issue on collection usage
You may be familiar with the scholarly magazine Against the Grain (http://www.against-the-grain.com). In September, ATG will publish a special issue on usage. I, Rossi Morris, Media Relations Coordinator at EBSCO, will be a guest editor, along with Elizabeth Lorbeer, Associate Director for Content Management at the Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences at the University of Alabama Birmingham. Our directive from ATG Editor Katina Strauch, Assistant Dean for Technical Services and Collection Development at Addlestone Library, College of Charleston, is to use a vendor-neutral approach.
This special issue will feature articles by librarians and other industry experts on a wide range of usage-related topics, including how implementing usage metrics in collection development decisions has shaped a library’s
collection, budget, policy, and staff; how impact factor drives usage; and librarians’ analyses of vendor usage gathering/reporting tools — just to name a few.
We are looking for librarians to write about their library’s experience with implementing usage analysis in collection development decisions. Particularly, we want to feature the stories behind the challenges and the successes. Details we want to share with ATG readers are what the library is measuring and why, in
addition to the library’s collection goals; the challenges encountered; and the tools, methods, or systems employed to track usage and gather data. Ultimately, it would be interesting to note what is done with this data after it is collected — and the benefit it provides to the library and its users. Also, if a librarian has been using a third-party usage gathering/loading tool, an article on that experience would be really great.
Interested librarians should contact Rossi directly at rmorris@ebsco.com.
