[PADG:1228] Preservation assessment survey of multiple libraries and collections

[Lene Palmer <lenep@xxxxxxx>]

I am the preservation librarian at George Mason University, a fairly large public university in Northern Virginia.  We are instituting a preservation program, and one of our initial actions will be to conduct a survey of the collection to establish its condition.  We have a distributed library system which means that we have one main library and three smaller "branch" libraries all in one system with a shared catalog.  I have two basic questions: 

1.  How should we deal with the fact that we have one collection distributed in one main and three smaller libraries?  A sample of 400 randomly selected volumes seems to be sufficient for a statistically valid sample, but is that enough for the entire collection, or should I select 400 volumes from the main library and then smaller samples, say 150 volumes from each of the other three libraries?

2.  What should we survey?  If we survey only the circulating collection, how to we then assess the reference collection and its preservation needs?  The reference collection, of course, is much more heavily used than the circulating collection and will have different needs, so if we survey them together, the results will probably be skewed.  Should I simply concentrate on the circulating collection first and then consider the reference collection, government documents, maps, etc. later as we gain more experience and hopefully more staff?  We intend to do the survey using our current staff as there is no budget for hiring a consultant.

Any insight or good advise anyone can give me on either or both of these questions will be very much appreciated. 

Thank you.

Lene Palmer, Collection Development and Preservation Librarian
Fenwick Library
George Mason University
4400 University Drive
Fairfax, VA 22030
Phone 703-993-2667
email: lenep@xxxxxxx