Jason Sharp

Part 2.6: Collection evaluation (15% of total grade)

The author is working with the Whitehaven Library, located in Memphis,
Tennessee, to expand the Young Adult Fiction collection. The author is employed as the
Youth Services Representative at this library, which provides him with access to
information about the collection that the public would not normally be able to acquire,
information that he can then use for the purposes of this assignment. Much of the
information for this assignment has been based on his own personal work experience,
internal reports and information gained a large number of community contacts.

The collection evaluation tells the selector the degree to which the existing collection (or
your proposed collection) is adequate or meets the needs and wants previously identified.
A variety of measures and approaches are used. The greater the variety of evaluative
approaches used, the more likely that results will be valid and reliable. Each section
below should close with an appropriate conclusion or "so what."
2.6.1 Delimit the existing collection. Count the number of items available on your
topic. If dealing with tangible items, transform these absolute numbers
into size per numbers using the number of potential users from your
community analysis. Discuss the meaning of your number of items per
likely user ratio.
Using the Community Analysis information gathered from Assignment 2.3, it was
estimated that there are 2400 potential circulating teens, 1200 potential circulating adults
between the ages of 19-25 years, and 1200 potential circulating adults 55 years and above
with a total of 4800 total potential library patrons at the Whitehaven Library (Memphis,
2013, Customer Transacting).
There are 890 Young Adult Fiction items available for circulation at the Whitehaven
Library (Memphis Public Library, 2013) which translates to 18 items for every 100
library patrons. This is less than ideal as the majority of patrons that circulate Young
Adult items typically checkout more than one item at a time (J. Jackson, personal
communication, November 18, 2013) and the community analysis does not take into
account the interlibrary loans that many patrons make use of to request materials from
Whitehaven. In authors experience as the Youth Services Representative, Whitehavens
Young Adult Fiction materials are sent via interlibrary transit twice a day with an average
of six Young Adult Fiction titles sent. This information was corroborated by the Adult
Services Librarian that is also responsible for sending these materials (D. Windham,
personal communication, October 18, 2013).
There are 150,000 total circulating patrons (Memphis, 2013, Customer Transacting)
throughout the Memphis Public Library system and if this total population is taken into
account and divided by the 40% target population that was discussed in Assignment 2.3,
the number of potential library patrons in the Memphis Public Library system that would
desire these materials is closer to 60,000 patrons. This would provide a ratio of 1.5 titles
for every 100 patrons, and although this number is somewhat flawed in that these patrons
are also being served by other libraries, Whitehaven is still responsible for serving these
patrons as well due to the collaboration that all of the libraries in the Memphis Public
Library system engage in.
In conclusion, additional print materials will be incredibly important in supporting not
only the needs of the Whitehaven patrons, but the other patrons throughout the Memphis
Public Library system. According to Whitehavens Circulation Representative,
customers are likely to check out more than one material at a time and are able to
circulate as many as 25 items per library card (J. Jackson, personal communication,
October 17, 2013), meaning that this ratio needs to be much higher in order to best
support its patrons.

2.6.2 Characterize the existing collection: (1) emphasis--which aspects of your
topic receive the most emphasis? (2) degree of difficulty--how easy or
difficult is the intellectual content for the likely audience? (3) special
features--how many items contain helpful special features? (4) currency--
how many items were issued within the last year? The last five years? (5)
format--how many items are available in various formats? Any
appropriate formats missing? Where the collection is small, the evaluator
should examine the collection on an item by item basis considering the
quality and utility of each item and how it relates to current wants/needs.
1. Emphasis
In the Memphis Public Library Catalog, genres within Young Adult Fiction are not
identified. This makes it very difficult to determine the exact number of titles that each
genre contains and the author has had to make use of his experience as the Whitehaven
Young Services Representative and his personal knowledge of Young Adult materials to
answer this question. The author has also consulted with two heavy readers of Young
Adult Fiction (T. Austin, personal communication, November 18, 2013 and R, Flood,
personal communication, November 18, 2013) to provide a balanced perspective.
Books with fantasy elements are estimated to account for approximately 70% of the
collection; this includes titles such as Paranormal Romances, High Fantasy and some
Dystopian novels. Additional Contemporary Fiction novels will be needed to help
balance the collection.
Books with romantic elements account for over 90% of the collection, this percentage
may even be much higher as the author and his teen consultants struggled to name more
than a handful of titles. Additional books focusing on action and adventure will be
needed to support patrons, especially teen and preteen male patrons, that do not wish to
read about romantic elements.
Finally, there is a heavy emphasis on female narrators in this Young Adult Fiction
collection, with an estimated 80% of the titles featuring female leads. Books with a male
voice would be a welcome addition to this collection and may encourage more male
readers to read Young Adult books.
This discussion on the emphasis of the collection is important to help determine not only
what patrons are reading, but what populations may be underserved.

2. Difficulty
The degree of difficulty can be difficult to measure because the existing collection is
designed to support a wide range of patrons. In the community analysis discussed in
Assignment 2.3, the primary readers of Young Adult Fiction were determined to be
teenagers from the ages of 12 to 18 years, recent high school graduates from the ages of
18-25 years and retirees from the ages of 55 years and up. Although the majority of the
readers that are ages 18 years and up will likely find the materials to be somewhat easy,
this may be part of the appeal for those age groups. The author primary reads Young
Adult materials not because he needs to, but because it can be a way to relax after reading
complex graduate level work. This sentiment is shared with some of the other older
Young Adult readers that the author has informally interviewed throughout the years,
many of these adults have expressed that they enjoy the high interest stories that Young
Adult titles often provide and that reading these titles does not feel as much like work as
some of the adult titles.
It is important to remember that although the readership at Whitehaven tends to be older,
the titles themselves are often designed to be read by teenagers and actual Young Adults.
The author interviewed a group of five teen readers at the Whitehaven library (R.
Roberts, personal communication, November 11, 2013 [note: R Roberts is the only name
listed as that patron is over the age of 18. The other readers are under the age of 18 years
and the author does not have parental permission to list their names) and all reported that
the titles they had read in the collection were at appropriate reading levels. When pressed
to provide more information, a few teens mentioned titles that although some words in
certain books like Elizabeth Weins historical fiction title Code Name Verity (2012) were
somewhat confusing, they did not find it distracting because the book was interesting and
they were able to skip over the words they did not know. They also likened this
particular book to titles in fantasy or science fiction genres that provide new vocabulary
that readers learn throughout the book and did not find it too difficult to understand.
In conclusion, the difficulty of the materials was determined to be an appropriate level for
most students. The books with high reading levels that are required for school are
typically placed in the nearby Classics section and books with an adult level are
appropriately catalogued in the Adult Fiction area. These particular books have a range
of reading levels that range from middle school to high school, however the fact that they
are all high interest materials can help students overcome some of these barriers to
reading and can even help teach students new vocabulary.

3. Special features
Whitehavens Young Adult Fiction collection will be somewhat lacking in special
features compared to many of the other collections throughout the Whitehaven Library,
although there will be some to features to discuss that focused on the use of illustrations
and artwork.
Many of the Fantasy titles have maps of the fantasy worlds at the beginning of the story,
notable titles include Christopher Palolinis Eragon series (2001-2011), Michael Grants
Gone series (2008-2013) and Rick Riordins Percy Jackson series (2005-2009).
Other titles include intermittent full page black and white pictures such as Neil Gaimans
The Graveyard Book (2008) or Patrick Ness A Monster Calls (2011). Each of these had
approximately five black and white sketches that were included to help supplement the
story, although the pictures were not necessarily to the story being told as they are in
items such as childrens picture books. The most notable use of illustrations came from
Frank Beddors fantasy title The Looking Glass Wars (2006), this included eight full page
illustrations and detailed concept art, although once again it added little to the story.
The final title that included special features is the most notable: Mishio Fukazawas
Witches Forest. This book was different in that it not only included some small
illustrations, it also contained a cooking recipe in the middle of the book and a mini
pocket monster encyclopedia that referenced the monsters included in the story.
These special features were overall very minimal, especially compared to the special
features that titles from the surrounding fiction areas contained. In the Classics section,
there are several Young Adult titles that have author interviews at the conclusion of the
story, such as Laurie Halse Andersons Speak (1999) or the added authors notes in
William Goldings Lord of the Flies (1954). The Childrens Fiction section had the most
interesting special features; Emily Roddas Deltora Quest series (2000-2002) included
high quality collectable cards inside the book and Rick Riordins 39 Clues series (2008-
current) had cards that could be used to play an interactive game on the internet that
required participants to solve clues in order to win 10,000 dollars (Grand Prize
Winners, n.d.).
In conclusion, the fictional books in the Young Adult area had extremely limited special
features and only included illustrations and maps. Future titles that include interactive
web games, collectible cards and CDs will be considered for purchase to help increase
interest in the titles.

4. Currency
According to the authors circulation report (Memphis Public Library, 2013), 236 items
were issued in the past year which accounts for 26.5% of the total collection. This same
report identifies 652 items having been issued in the past five years, accounting for
73.2% of the current Young Adult Collection, although the number of purchased
materials over the past five years should be quite a bit higher than 652 items as this report
would not account for items that have been weeded or marked as missing over the past
five years.
This high number of titles issued to the Whitehaven Library lends support to the idea that
the Memphis Public Library system considers Young Adult titles to be an important
investment; the most important thing at this point is assisting the collection development
team with choosing the right titles.

5. Formats
Although this Young Adult Fiction collection only includes print fiction materials, there
are alternate formats available in other areas of the Whitehaven library and via the
Memphis Public Library Website.
The author was able to perform a catalog search for Young Adult Audiobooks (Compact
Disc, n.d.), however this returned the erroneous result of only three titles. The author
compared this with what he observed on the shelves and found that in the library catalog
the majority of the Young Adult Fiction Audiobooks are incorrectly identified as Adult
Fiction titles, despite having Young Adult stickers on the audiobook box sets. The author
was able to perform a physical count of materials and determined that there were at least
fifty-four Young Adult Audiobooks as of 11/16/2013, although this will not take into
account audiobooks that are currently checked out. These inaccuracies have been
reported to library administration so these items can be catalogued correctly in the
Memphis Public Library Databases.
The Memphis Public Library system also has a limited number of E-Audiobooks
available through its website and the author was able to locate a total of twelve titles that
would be considered Young Adult Fiction; six titles are meant for Middle School
students (Audiobooks, n.d.a) and six titles are meant for High School students
(Audiobooks, n.d.b).
The selection of eBooks is somewhat more substantial with a total 23 eBooks available
through its website; 10 titles are meant for Middle School students (eBooks, n.d.a) and
thirteen titles are available for High School students (eBooks, n.d.b).
The author also performed a physical count of Graphic Novels adaptations of popular
Young Adult Fiction titles as there are no identifiers in the Memphis Public Library
catalog and found that there are thirteen items currently available. These include
adaptations of Orson Scott Cards Enders Game (1985), Stephanie Meyers Twilight
(2005) and Kami Garcias Beautiful Creatures (2009) among other less notable series.
In conclusion, materials in alternate formats are somewhat limited and act as a
supplement to existing materials rather than a replacement. A separate collection
development project may need to be undertaken to focus on building a more substantial
Young Adult eBook and E-Audiobook collection, although the relatively high cost of
these materials would have to be justified by first establishing sufficient customer need.

2.6.3 Weeds fall into three categories. The first includes items that are not used.
Before proceeding, you need to identify an appropriate time period to
measure collection use. Then, use transaction records, observation or
whatever to identify those items not used. Characterize those items least
used. If you cannot do this, say why and move on. What common traits do
they share? To what degree is the collection being used? [You may skip
this one if developing a collection where you lack access to this
information.].
The Memphis Public Library Policy and Procedures Manual section on weeding existing
collections ("PPM315: Existing Collections: Weeding, n.d.) recommends the weeding of
materials that have not been circulated in the past three years. This also is the most
appropriate time period to measure collection use for Young Adult materials according to
the authors primary contact (A. Andrews, personal communication, November 12,
2013). The author obtained access to an Excel spreadsheet from the Memphis Library
Virtual Branch Manager (K. Dixon, personal communication, November 7, 2013) with
information on the number of circulations each item had over its lifetime, the date the
item was added to the system and the last charge (checkout) date. The author isolated
the materials that had not been checked out within 3 years and pulled these from the
shelves to evaluate their usefulness.
23 items fit this criteria, however only 16 of those items were weeded from the
collection; the other 7 items will be discussed in the following section. Of the 16 items
that were discarded, 13 were categorized as contemporary fiction; however all of these
were published over 10 years ago, making them less relevant and slightly outdated for
todays teens. The author administered an informal survey to a five teen patrons
regarding their opinions on the discarded books and all five agreed that the covers were
outdated and boring (R. Roberts, personal communication, November 11, 2013
[note: R. Roberts is the only name listed as that patron is over the age of 18. The other
readers are under the age of 18 and the author does not have parental permission to list
their names). The other three books were are categorized as high fantasy titles and
likewise had boring titles according to the surveyed teens with each book being
published over 10 years ago.
This collection has seen heavy usage, especially considering its size of 890 Young Adult
Fiction titles (Memphis Public Library, 2013). The 23 items that have not been
circulated in over 3 years account for only 2.6% of the total collection and this number
will change to less than 1% after the 16 materials have been weeded.
Using this collection development report, the author has also found that 790 of the 890
items have been circulated at least once in the past two years which means that the
Whitehaven library has circulated 88.7% of its Young Adult Fiction materials in the past
two years. Looking at the circulation history in the past year reveals that 645 of the 890
items have been circulated, meaning that 72.4% of the Whitehavens Young Adult
Fiction materials have been circulated in the past year. These are very impressive
statistics to draw from for the purposes of this collection development project and
demonstrates the need for new materials due to the broad usage of the materials.

2.6.4 Before discarding items that appear to be useful but which have not been
used, physical and intellectual access should be checked to see if non-use
is a function of access. In some cases, where useful, usable items are not
being used, the selector should promote these items and make them more
visible before considering discard. Identify items which should be
promoted and those which should be discarded and indicate why.
Of the 23 items that have not been circulated in the past three years, seven have been
determined to be useful and usable and will be promoted so to avoid unnecessarily
discarding useful materials.
In simplistic terms, the items that were discarded were contemporary and high fantasy
fiction that had unattractive covers and had a publication date of over 10 years old. The
author could not envision why his teen and adult patrons would be interested in these
particular titles and previewing them with one of his teen regulars confirmed this lack of
interest (R. Flood, personal communication, November 13, 2013).
The titles that were not discarded appear promising for multiple reasons. Remembering
Raquel (2007) is a contemporary fiction title that was published in the past five years, has
an attractive cover and was written by Vivian Vande Velde, an author that appears in
Appendix A (Memphis Public Library, 2013) as the author of one of Whitehavens
most circulated Young Adult titles. The premise of the title sounds interesting and it is
worth promoting to see if circulation of the title improves.
Three of the seven potential discards are part of various series and will not be removed as
long as the other titles in the series retain a reasonable number of circulations. A
common complaint from Whitehaven patrons is when a series is incomplete at a
particular branch (R. Flood, personal communication, November 13, 2013) and the
author has made it a personal goal to help fill in the gaps of some of the various series.
Removing these items contradicts this goal and does a disservice to the patrons that wish
to read the complete series at their local library.
Two of the titles were not discarded due to the accolades placed upon them. Angela
Johnsons Heaven won the 1999 Coretta Scott King Award (Coretta Scott, n.d.) and
David Almonds Kits Wildness won the 2001 Printz Award (2001 Printz Award, n.d.).
These are both older titles, however the prestigious awards placed upon them affords
these titles a second chance to be promoted correctly.
The final title has been reevaluated because it may fare better in a different area. The title
Lord of the Fries and Other Stories by Tim Wynne-Jones (1999) was catalogued for the
Young Adult Fiction area, however the author noticed that it is also catalogued for the
Childrens Department at the Central library. At that location, it has had fifty-two
checkouts and was circulated as recently as June 2013 (Memphis Public Library,
2013). The author browsed the book and noticed it had a lower reading level than most
Young Adult books and found a suggested age range of 10 and up on Amazon.com
(Lord of the Fries, n.d.). This item will likely have better checkouts in Whitehavens
Childrens Fiction section and the item has been sent to the cataloguing department to
have the record changed.
In conclusion, weeding these materials not only helped to remove books that were no
longer used, it also helped the author locate materials that required additional promotion
and a possible location change.
2.6.5 It is important to know which items in the collection are most popular so
that you can select similar works in the future. Use the same methods as
above to identify the most popular items in your collection. What would
you look for in adding items to the collection that will be popular?
The author was not able to obtain access to the Holds List for the purposes of this
assignment, although the author is able to access a particular items hold list using the
Library Catalog if he suspects a title may be in high demand.
Instead, the author was able to use the Young Adult Fiction circulation report (Memphis
Public Library, 2013) and sort all titles by the number of checkouts to determine what
items are the most popular. This is a very useful method of discovering which item
copies have been circulated the most, however it should not be the sole method for
purchasing items in collection development as it will provide information that is biased
against new titles and titles with multiple copies. New titles will not be fairly represented
because a popular item that has checked out five times in the past two months will still
have less checkouts than a title that has only checked out six times in the past ten years.
The other issue is that a title with multiple item copies will have its checkouts split
between the items themselves, this may place an item like Suzanne Collins Mockingjay
(2010) with 35 checkouts in 8
th
place and once again 16
th
place with 31 checkouts
(Appendix A; Memphis Public Library, 2013) much farther down on the list than if
there was only one copy to choose from. With this in mind, the author has provided
Appendix A detailing the top 25 items by the number of circulated items. This data will
be organized by genre in the text below to get a sense of the genres that are most in
demand. Titles from a series such as Mockingjay will not be listed out separately and
will be included in its series name to help better organize the titles. Notes will also be
made on the various title when appropriate.
The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton (1968) is the most popular title on this
list, however this is required for school reading and will not be counted towards this list
as it should actually be included in the Classics section.
Contemporary fiction focusing on teenage girls rank among the top titles circulated with
popular authors such as Sharon Draper, Meg Cabot and Rachel Cohn. These remain an
important genre to purchase to best support our teen female readers.
Fantasy and Dystopian fiction remain popular, with several of the titles acting as movie
tie-ins. Twilight, Hunger Games and Harry Potter rank near the top along with titles that
have not yet been adapted to film such as Holly Blacks Tithe.
Prior to this assignment, the author had been previously unaware of the popularity of the
title Josephine and Solider and has placed orders with his contacts in Collection
Development to immediately purchase more of this title and related books in the genre of
Historical Romances with African American characters (A. Andrews, personal
communication, November 12, 2013). The author had previously been unaware that this
was an genre that Whitehaven patrons desired materials in and purchasing a limited
number of additional materials may help determine if the interest is in this particular book
or related books as well.
The final important lesson from this assignment is to consider purchasing more short
story collections. RL Stine and Vivian Vande Velde each have highly circulated horror
anthologies and Sharon Flake has another popular contemporary fiction short story
collection listed in in the top 25 most circulated items.
In conclusion, organizing data by circulation checkouts can be a very useful method of
locating titles to purchase. Access to this information provides the selector with
documented evidence on what materials patrons are actually circulating, and this
information can be utilized alongside suggestions from patrons and professional reviews
to help ensure that collection development purchases are based on a reliable and accurate
view of the needs of a target population.

2.6.6 Those items which are not useful because of level of treatment, language,
lack of accuracy, and obsolescence should be identified. Items which are
no longer useful should be weeded even if they are being used. In some
cases, where a variety of viewpoints need to be represented in the
collection, one may retain items which are inaccurate and/or out of date.
Most information professionals will use inclusion in a standard best list as
an indication of quality, utility, and accuracy. In some fields where
currency is important, and where information cumulates, copyright date,
publication date, or date added to the server may be a good proxy for
accuracy. To what degree is the existing collection useful? Provide
examples of not useful items and why. Identify particular items for discard
as appropriate.

Language was not considered to be an issue for this collection, all the materials are
written in English and no materials were found to have language inappropriate for their
target audiences. Materials that are obsolete or outdated are the biggest issues in a fiction
collection and the author used the Memphis Public Library Systems Young Adult
Fiction weeding policy to help determine what materials needed to be weeded.
PPM 315 ("PPM315: Existing Collections: Weeding.") states Any title over ten years
old that is no longer featured on reading lists is suspect and should likely be weeded.
With this policy in mind, the author was able to locate Young Adult Fiction materials that
had been entered into the system more than ten years ago searching the obtained
Circulation Report and sorting by the date each record was created (Memphis Public
Library, 2013). This search returned eleven titles for review. Of these eleven, four had
already been discarded in Section 2.6.4 based on a lack of usage over the past three years.
The remaining seven titles are categorized as Contemporary Fiction and although the
author performed general Google searches on each title, only one appeared to be notable:
Betsy Byars The Summer of Swans. This particular title won the 1971 Newbery Award
(Newberry, n.d.), an award provided to notable Childrens Fiction titles, and although it
deserves to be included in the collection based on the idea that it still appears on some
reading lists, it should be included in the Childrens Fiction area. The author performed
an online catalog search and found three copies available in the Childrens Fiction section
at the Whitehaven Library (Summer of the Swans, n.d.), making this particular copy
unnecessary and able to be safely discarded.
In conclusion, the majority of the collection is considered to be useful. The remaining
879 titles have been added to the collection less than ten years ago, this may be in part
because the Whitehaven Library was built in October 2004 (Jones & Orrin, 2013) and the
author as informed by his manager that the building received brand new collections when
it was built (T. Braswell, personal communication, November 15, 2013 ). These
scattered titles from before 2004 may have been donated from other library branches,
however they do not adhere to the collection development weeding policy described
above and can safely be discarded. Finally, the usability goals of a nonfiction collection
are very different from a fiction collection, if the primary purpose of nonfiction is to
inform, it could be argued that the primary purpose of fiction is to entertain. These
materials meet this goal based on the circulation statistics discussed in previous sections;
as long as they are being used frequently enough, they are shown to be meeting the needs
of the readers.

2.6.7 The last of the major weeding categories consists of those items which
are not usable because of physical condition. This would include broken
links, digital files that do not download properly or are corrupt as well as
books or periodicals that are worn or torn. Examine tangible items for
wear and damage. Items which are not usable or need attention now so
that they will be usable in the future should be divided into these
categories: (1) those that should be fixed or repaired and (2) those that
should be discarded. Identify and briefly discuss those items which are no
longer usable.
The staff at the Whitehaven library are very thorough at finding items that need to be
discarded due to wear and tear, circulation staff will oftentimes discard materials without
having to consult with reference staff, but will leave these materials for reference staff
after discarding them so reference staff can determine whether the items should be
reordered.
The author was able to find three titles that needed to be discarded due to poor physical
condition, each title will be detailed below with observations made from the author and
one of Whitehavens Circulation Representatives (J. Jackson, personal communication,
November 18, 2013).
Josephine and the Solider by Beverly Jenkins (2003)
The pages have started to yellow with age on this paperback book and the binding was
loose, so the one of the Circulation Representatives attempted to glue the binding and
place booktape on the spine of the book to keep it in good condition. This proved to be
ineffective and the author and Circulation Representative later found a missing page near
the end, so this title was discarded.
Killing Mr Griffen by Lois Duncan (1978)
Opening this book revealed that binding had split in half and the Circulation
Representative determined this could not be repaired. The author also found torn pages
and underlined sections throughout the book and discarded this title.
Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix (book 5) by JK Rowling (2003)
The pages in this book were dirty from overuse, a small animal seemed to have nibbled
on some of the pages and there were signs of water damage on some of the pages. The
binding was otherwise tight and none of the pages were lose. Based on the water damage
and possible mold, the book was discarded without attempting repair.
In conclusion, three titles were determined to be unusable and in need of discarding. One
repair was attempted, however it was found to be ineffectual. Overall, the various
collections at Whitehaven are closely monitored to ensure that materials are usable and
that only materials in good physical condition remain. This is especially true for
collections such as the Young Adult Fiction collection that are heavily circulated as it
provides circulation and reference staff with more frequent access to the materials and
ensure that the materials are not easily forgotten.

2.6.8 Has weeding created a gap in your collection? How should this gap be
filled?
Weeding these materials has created a gap in the collection, however it is a small one. A
large number of contemporary fiction materials needed to be weeded, however they were
unused for over three years and most patrons will not notice the removal of these items.
The biggest loss to the collection will be Beverly Jenkins Josephine and the Solider
(2003) and JK Rowlings Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix (2003) due to their
popularity. Josephine and the Solider was one of a very limited number of historical
fiction books and the only historical fiction focusing on an African-American girl. The
demographics at Whitehaven are almost exclusively African-American (Whitehaven,
n.d. page 4) and this title or ones similar to it will need to be ordered immediately. The
other major loss will be Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix as it is Whitehavens only
copy of the fifth book in the series and removing this item will leave this very popular
series incomplete. This will also need to be ordered immediately to ensure that readers
will have access to this series at the Whitehaven Library.
In conclusion, this weeding project has not significantly impacted the Whitehaven
Library. The author has been periodically weeding materials in the Young Adult Fiction
area and those responsible for collection development have been very generous with
providing new materials to replace these items. Patrons will still have access to materials
at other branches and this will make for a more attractive collection now that materials in
poor condition and materials that have not been circulating have been removed.

2.6.9 Identify or create one or more selective or comprehensive "best list" for your
collection. Remove from the list those items that are clearly irrelevant to
local needs and wants. Match the list against local holdings and produce a
holdings percentage. Compare items held with those available for use to
produce an availability percentage. Multiply the holdings percentage by
the availability percentage to arrive at a performance rating. How does the
existing collection perform? What does the performance ratio or
percentage tell you?
One of the most thorough annual lists for readers ages 12-18 is the Young Adult Library
Services Association (YALSA) Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (2013 Quick Picks,
2013). A committee of librarians and teachers selected 59 Fiction titles for reluctant
readers, although the full 59 titles will not be included here because some of these
choices are not categorized as Young Adult materials and would not be purchased for this
area. All of these titles will be detailed in Appendix B (2013 Quick Picks, 2013); the
three titles that are not categorized as Young Adult Fiction have been crossed out, but
still remain on the list while the items the Whitehaven Library owns have been
highlighted in the Appendix [Authors Note: This appendix has been removed due to
potential copyright issues, the full list can found at 2013 Quick Picks, 2013.]
Of the 56 items remaining, 14 items are owned by the Whitehaven Library. This
provides a holding percentage of 25%.
As of November 18, 2013, 13 of the 14 items are currently available at the Whitehaven
Library, with only one copy of Ellen Hopkins Tilt currently checked out (Tilt, n.d.).
This provides an availability percentage of 92.8%
Multiplying the Holding percentage of 25% and the Availability percentage of 92.8%
provides a performance rating of 23.2%
Each of these percentages are problematic, the Holding Percentage needs to be increased
and additional titles from this Best of list should be evaluated and considered for
selection. The Availability percentage is rather high, but that could also be taken that the
materials are not circulating; a Best of list is only useful if the target population agrees
and wants to read the titles.
In conclusion, YALSAs recommended list is just one resource used to find high quality
new titles. It should be used as a resource and not as the sole deciding factor in the
selection process; each material will still need to be evaluated on its own merits to
determine whether it meets the needs of the Whitehaven patrons.

2.6.10 The last and most important evaluation is to match the specific list of wants
and needs generated from the community analysis with the existing
collection to identify strengths and gaps. From the perspective of the
community wants and needs, discuss the gaps and strengths of the existing
collection.
Print materials related to popular culture, such as books related to recent movies, were
one of the top requests from Assignment 2.3s Community Analysis. The Whitehaven
Library owns approximately 20 titles according to the authors circulation report
(Memphis Public Library, 2013), however this number needs to be drastically
improved to meet the high demand of patrons when a new movie is released. Two
examples of this are Orson Scott Cards Enders Game movie (Enders Game, 2013)
and Suzanne Collins Catching Fire movie (Catching Fire, 2013) that have each
released in the month of November. The author has had frequent requests for the books
these movies are based on and the author has observed hold lists with over a dozen
patrons waiting on each book in the past month. The Whitehaven Library needs to
anticipate these requests in the future and ensure that enough materials remain for patrons
when they are most needed.
Contemporary fiction titles were another highly requested genre from the community
analysis, the Whitehaven Library owns approximately 90 titles in this genre, but this
accounts for only 10% of the total collection and additional titles will be needed in the
near future.
Alternate formats such as Graphic Novels, eBooks and E-Audiobooks were mentioned as
being in high demand during the community analysis, although this could not be
substantiated through the circulation report, the limited options available also
demonstrate a need for additional purchases to provide a greater variety of materials.
One strength of this collection is that there are a large number of fantasy and dystopian
novels, these are circulating at high levels as demonstrated in the top circulating items in
Appendix A (Memphis Public Library, 2013) and it appears that the new titles, such as
the ones in Appendix B (2013 Quick Picks, 2013), will continue to be published and
highly praised. Many of movies and TV shows that are based on Young Adult books are
also typically categorized as Fantasy and Dystopian fiction and purchasing these items
may help fulfill the goal of amassing a sizeable collection related to highly sought after
popular culture materials.

2.6.11 In a brief summary, describe and comment on the state of the collection.

The Whitehaven Library has a very impressive existing collection with 72.4% of the
collection having been circulated in the past year. This is a collection that is well used
and will only benefit from a wider variety of high quality materials. The materials are
considered to be usable in that they are constantly evaluated for potential weeding and a
large portion of this collection is very good physical condition. The level of usefulness is
debatable; this collection does now provide new information in the way that nonfiction
materials might, however frequent circulations and loyal patrons that visit the author
looking for more materials help demonstrate that many patrons view the collection as
valuable in some way. Whitehavens Young Adult Fiction collection is an impressive
collection that shows much promise and can only benefit from additional high quality
titles.

References
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Appendix A: Top 25 Circulated Items in YA Fiction
Hamilton, Virginia The house of Dies Drear / Virginia Hamilton 65
Cohn, Rachel Pop princess / Rachel Cohn 59
Collins, Suzanne,
1964-
Catching fire / Suzanne Collins 44
Jenkins, Beverly,
1951-
Josephine and the soldier / Beverly Jenkins 38
Draper, Sharon M.
(Sharon Mills)
November blues / Sharon Draper 36
Meyer, Stephenie, Breaking dawn / Stephenie Meyer 36
Stine, R. L Nightmare hour / by R.L. Stine 36
Collins, Suzanne Mockingjay / Suzanne Collins 35
Black, Holly Tithe : a modern faerie tale / Holly Black 34
Meyer, Stephenie,
1973-
Eclipse / Stephenie Meyer 34
Rennison, Louise Angus, thongs and full-frontal snogging 34
Collins, Suzanne,
1964-
The Hunger Games / by Suzanne Collins 33
Cabot, Meg Princess in waiting / Meg Cabot 32
Johnson, Angela Gone from home : short takes / by Angela Johnson 32
Rowling, J. K Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 32
Collins, Suzanne Mockingjay / Suzanne Collins 31
Rowling, J. K Harry Potter and the half-blood prince 31
Brashares, Ann The second summer of the sisterhood / Ann Brashares 30
Moore, Stephanie
Perry
Sober faith / Stephanie Perry Moore 30
Myracle, Lauren,
1969-
Kissing Kate / Lauren Myracle 30
Vande Velde,
Vivian
Being dead : stories / by Vivian Vande Velde 30
Flake, Sharon
Who am I without him? : short stories about girls and
the boys in their lives
29
Nixon, Joan Lowery Nightmare / Joan Lowery Nixon 29
Haddix, Margaret
Peterson
Just Ella / Margaret Peterson Haddix 28
Lore, Pittacus I am number four / by Pittacus Lore 28
Note. Memphis Public Library, 2013