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Shouldn’t this be at a Public Library? A Collection to Support the Community, not the Curriculum.

Presented by Morrisville State College Librarians: Adam Saunders, Angela Rhodes, and Mandy Babirad

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Where is Morrisville?

  • ~40 minutes east of Syracuse, 2 hours from Albany
  • Geographic center of New York State!
  • “The middle of nowhere”
  • Agricultural community

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The Ag and Tech Life

  • Morrisville’s rural location makes it perfect for agriculture, dairy, and equine programs.
  • Morrisville also hosts a number of other programs under the umbrella of applied learning.
    • Automotive
    • Business
    • Information Technology
    • Nursing
    • Physical Therapy
    • Education
    • Criminal Justice

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A Diverse Campus

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The Sheila Johnson Grant

  • The Sheila Johnson Institute was established in order to provide funding which contributes to and fosters faculty and student collaboration in learning, community service, and professional development within a diversity focused framework.
    • A brief overview of the project, including dates;
    • The name of the sponsoring group (or person) and a brief description of what the group does;
    • What students are targeted and how many;
    • A description of how the project will benefit the students directly involved and how the campus and/or community overall will benefit;
    • A listing of each specific objective of the project that is to be achieved and a description of how each objective will be assessed;
    • A narrative describing the expenditures to be incurred and how they relate to the objectives listed.

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Who is Sheila Johnson?

  • Entrepreneur Billionaire Philanthropist
  • First African American to have a net worth of over a billion dollars.
  • Co-founded the BET and owns several sports teams
  • Was appointed to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities by President Obama.
  • Has donated millions through the years.
  • Connected to Morrisville through a school official and her involvement with the U.S. Equestrian Team. She is known for having a passion for horseback riding.

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What is the Sheila Johnson Collection?

  • A book & DVD collection of (mostly) fiction titles, diverse in nature, and catered to the needs of our students.
  • Aside from circulating technology (charging cables, etc) it is the highest circulating collection in the library.
  • The collection features graphic novels, young adult literature, street lit, romance, supernatural, fantasy, science fiction, and more.
  • We collect titles students want to read!
  • Collection development funds come from the Sheila Johnson Grant.

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Collection Development Policy??

  • No written policy!
  • We are:
    • White, cisgender, hetero, 3 women and 1 man
      • It is impossible to collect objectively!
  • So how do we do it?
    • LOTS of research
    • LISTEN to students
    • LOOK at circulation statistics
    • COLLAB with student groups
    • Recognize that we are going to fall short of inclusivity, but we can keep trying and getting better

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Location, location, location

  • The library reading room
  • An open, accessible space and public space
    • Array of different seating arrangements: High chairs, bar counter, couches, corner nook
  • Strategic placement of the collection
    • Outward facing shelves
    • Close to the front of the library
    • Recreating the public library experience
  • Titles must be easy to access
    • Non-Circulating titles are relocated to the general collection on the second floor.

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Marketing & Displays

  • GNED 100 (First Year Experience) students participate almost universally in library orientation
    • Sheila Johnson Collection is prominently highlighted
  • Inevitably Sheila Johnson books are frequently chosen for monthly displays (Women’s History Month, Black History Month, International Authors, etc.) as titles that fit a diverse array of themes
    • Rotating curated collection of books are on display almost every month

(Beyonce)

Sheila book!

Also a Sheila book!

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Collection Use

  • 1.66 Transactions Per Title (on average) for Sheila Titles
  • 35% of everything that circulates comes from less than 5% of the total collection
  • Nose Dive of DVD’s w/ newer laptops w/out Drives

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Collection Use: Hot Titles 2013-2018

Books:

  • Z rated: Chocolate Flava III by Zane x24
  • Addicted by Zane x21
  • City of Bones by Cassandra Clare x20
  • G-Spot: An Urban Erotic Tale by Noire x19
  • My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante x18
  • Total Eclipse of the Heart by Zane x17
  • Push by Sapphire x17
  • White Lines by Tracy Brown x16

Videos:

  • Game of Thrones Season I (HBO) x128
  • Game of Thrones Season II (HBO) x93
  • Brave (Disney Pixar) x40
  • Harry Potter Years 1-6 (Warner Bros.) x39
  • The Help (Dreamworks) x33
  • Land of the Lost (Universal) x32
  • Avatar (20th Century Fox) x30
  • Alex Cross (Block/Hanson) x29

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Interlibrary Loan Data

  • Over 250 Sheila Johnson Loans in the past year
  • SJ accounts for ¼ of all Interlibrary Loans
  • Over 100 unique titles were loaned. On average a title was loaned 2.5 times.
  • Titles were loaned to over a hundred other libraries, many of these within the SUNY system.
    • Top Requesters - Geneseo: 19 Requests, Syracuse University: 15 Requests, University of Buffalo: 15 Requests, Sarah Lawrence College: 9 Requests, Cornell University: 9 Requests
  • Over 90 requests had to be cancelled because the item was already out on loan.
  • Popular ILL Requests include
    • Little fires everywhere - 18 Loans
    • The power: a novel - 13 Loans
    • Turtles all the way down - 12 Loans

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Student Voices

What do they like about the collection?

  • “Everything”
  • All of it
  • The books always look awesome, just wish I had more time to read them
  • They are my favorite!
  • This is the best spot on campus
  • I like the selection
  • There is always something new here
  • I don’t know what to read next
  • Thank you for these books!

What do they want more of?

  • “Everything”
  • More superhero graphic novels
  • Young adult fiction
  • More fiction books for adults
  • Christian fiction
  • Manga
    • A lot of shonen requests (manga targeted towards young adult boys).
  • Fifty Shades of Gray
  • The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
  • The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
  • Chocolate Flava 3 by Zane
  • A subscription to Vice magazine

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Sheila Johnson Book Deep Dive

  • Director asks, “We know our Sheila Collection is popular. What is really circulating? More than title… what regions, what genres?”
  • Method: 5 Years of Circulation matched to Sheila Titles
    • Identified “first blush” subjects by LC Call Number (only author origin for fiction)
    • Deep Dive: Identified and pulled popular fiction subject headings in groups, matched system numbers to Sheila list
      • Romance/Erotic, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Mystery, Comic/Graphic Novel, Horror/Suspense, History, Crime/Drugs/Gangs, Detective/Police, Urban/City, LGBTQ, YA, Women, African Americans, Latinos, Indians of North America, Religion (Muslim, Christian, Jewish, other), Region
    • Run pivot tables to answer questions, and plan for the future
      • Count of titles and number of transactions for each parameter examined
      • Low count of titles in categories shows areas for bolstering the collection
      • Transactions per title shows where money has been well-spent

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6.9: Af.Am. <3

  • What is really circulating?
    • Literature: Romance/Erotic: 5.04 transactions per title
    • Non-Fiction: Crime, Terrorism, Substance Abuse: 2.09 transactions per title
    • Location: First Floor collection: 3.79 transactions per title
  • What do we need?
    • East Asian Graphic Novels (Manga): 7.33 transactions per title (we only have 3 titles)
    • LGBTQ Romance: We have none with both subjects
    • South America: Author origin and subject

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What does this say about Morrisville?

  • Millennials still love to read! (physical books)
  • Outside of their studies our students want literature that speaks to them
  • Options to acquire non-academic literature are limited
  • The diversity of our student body can be seen through their reading habits
  • Certain titles (50 Shades of Grey, My Lesbian Experience) tend to regularly go missing or moved to hidden locations.

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What does the future hold?

  • Sheila Johnson funding is drying up
  • Allocate other collection development funding to continue purchasing these types of resources
  • How will the collection change over time?
  • Encorporate Sheila Johnson collection development tactics into other subject areas.
    • We are already doing this to a degree with DVDs
  • Advocating for diverse collections in both leasure reading and academics

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Why is this important and final thoughts

  • Students might not be able to get access to public library cards away from home
  • Sometimes difficult to get materials on a certain topic away from your community (as public libraries will collect for their communities and could be very different from where students are attending college)
  • Some topics and interests difficult to ask about, don’t want to ILL certain materials
  • Collection development budget only cover “academic material”? Speak up and make it work!
    • Collaborate with english and literature faculty

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Questions?

Thank you for attending!

Adam Saunders - saundear@morrisville.edu

Angela Rhodes - rhodesam@morrisville.edu

Mandy Babirad - babiraal@morrisville.edu