Proportioning collection space and learning in an academic library: collection performance indicators

Abstract

Assessment on university campuses increasingly emphasizes learning outcomes and student success. Academic librarians need to identify relationships between their collection spaces and the learning activities of the university in order to play a role in the environment of assessment. Measuring the proportions of discipline-oriented content of library collections and comparing those proportions to discipline-oriented learning activities produces collection performance indicators. Academic libraries can use collection performance indicators to assess how well their collection spaces correspond to student demand and student success using readily available metrics. Collection performance indicators answers a gap in library literature pertaining to relationships between collection spaces and learning activities by demonstrating the linkages between learning and the demands placed on physical and digital spaces. Collection performance indicators are used to evaluate the collection space in an academic library at a mid-sized American research university.

Keywords:

• Collection performance indicators
• collection space analysis
• discipline-oriented classification
• learning space in libraries
• library space studies
• student success metrics for libraries