Mount A Libraries: Library Renovation Project: Evaluation Guidelines

Evaluation Guidelines

To ensure our collection remains current, relevant, and useful to our community, librarians are using the following guidelines based on collection care evaluation critera:

Duplicate Copies: Multiple copies of the same title, where only the best copy will be retained.
Superseded Editions: Older editions where newer editions are available and preferred.
Physical Condition: Items that are damaged, worn, or in poor physical condition.
Circulation History: Items that have not been checked out or used in-house in the past 20+ years.
Publication Date: Items published before 1990 or 2000 (depending on the subject area and discipline).
Access to equivalent digital surrogates: For low-use items or items where digital access is preferred.
Relevance: Items that no longer support the current curriculum or research needs.
Currency: Items containing outdated or obsolete information.

Not all items in our collection are candidates for withdrawal. Items related to local history, significant or core works, special collections, and other resources considered rare or valuable for our University community will be retained.

Snapshot

When we began this process in 2021, the Mount Allison General Collection (MAGEN) comprised more than 271,000 titles.

Black text on white background. A timeline appears bottom centre, with a red circle that reads 1973.

The average publication date of items in the MAGEN collection was 1973, highlighting the need for modernization.

Black text on a white background to the centre left. There is a red and yellow pie chart on the right hand side.

Analysis revealed that 11% of our collection had never been borrowed or used in-house, indicating that these items were not aligned with the needs and interests of our community.

Following a comprehensive review of these flagged titles, we expect to reduce the MAGEN collection by 15%.

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This reduction will grant the library additional space to accommodate our anticipated growth of 5%.

After a 15% reduction and allowing for subsequent 5% growth, our goal collection size will be approximately 241,867 print books in the Mount Allison General Collection.

Quick links

Learn more

For the most up-to-date information on the Library renovation project, visit R.P. Bell Library: Centre for Innovation and Learning

Questions?

If you have questions about this project or any other aspect of the library renovation, please contact Dean of Libraries & Archives, Rachel Rubin rrubin@mta.ca.