| Title Page
Executive Summary
Chapter I: Problem Statement Chapter II: Shelf Reading and Chapter III: Type of Research Chapter IV: Reliability and Validity Chapter V: Summary
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Definition
of the Problems/Issues
This study investigates and makes an assessment of the book and journal shelving quality in the Greenblatt Library at the Medical College of Georgia. The study develops a systematic plan for evaluating the quality of shelving in the book and journal collections. The study is accomplished through the use of cumulative historical data and observations in the collections. The study also compares results in each area (books and journals) to see if one type of collection has a significantly higher/lower shelving quality/standard. Shelving quality - Finding or locating specific books on the correct shelves or a specific volume of a journal in the correct section with other volumes of the same title. For evaluative purposes, if a book or journal was misplaced on the correct shelf or in the correct section this was not considered a shelving error or poor shelving quality because the item would be easily found by library staff or users. This would be considered high quality shelving. Low-quality shelving would be finding a book on the wrong shelf/section or not finding a book which was supposed to be on a specific shelf. Benchmarking - Standards or levels set in a particular area or field which are available for making comparisons or setting goals. The Robert B. Greenblatt, M.D. Library is the Health Science Library of the Medical College of Georgia. It is located in Augusta, Georgia. Primarily it supports the MCG Hospital, clinics, education and research activities and is a health reference resource for the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA), the state of Georgia and other health science libraries. The Greenblatt Library Information Center (LInC) is responsible for the shelving of all books and journals. This is an extremely important activity which needs to be performed correctly. A misshelved item (book/journal) may as well be lost because it is not available to the user when needed. Poor quality of shelving also affects the overall image and effectiveness of the library. The end result of poor shelving quality is the misuse of resources for the entire MCG community service area. Shelving in the Greenblatt Library is done by part-time library assistants and shelf- reading is done by both library assistants and full-time staff. Staff and assistants are generally trained through a process called shadowing. This process is accomplished by assigning a new or untrained person to work with an experienced staff member. The new person then observes the activities of the experienced person until he/she is comfortable and competent in the particular area. Shelving accuracy is checked for correctness by the supervisor on a random basis, especially when new employees are hired. This is done by selecting 10 to 12 books/journals from a cart which are ready to be shelved and scanning them into the library information system. Then the titles and call numbers are printed out for those 10 to 12 selected items. After the books/journals on the cart are shelved the supervisor goes to the stacks and checks to see if the items listed on the printout are shelved correctly. This shelving process explained in the above paragraph has been used in the Greenblatt Library for many years. From general observation and comments from library staff and supervisors it appears to be adequate. The supervisor of the shelving process assumes that the shelving quality standard is high and that it would be at a greater than 95% accuracy. However, up until this study, a comprehensive evaluation of shelving quality (accuracy) had not been performed. This study actually evaluates the current level of quality. In other words, the evaluation study answers whether the books/journals are on the correct shelves and available for library users. This study also provides relevant information which could be used as a benchmark for quality shelving by other health science libraries or libraries in general. The objective of this research shows the quality of shelving for the book and journal collections internally in the Greenblatt Library and provides a baseline or benchmark reference for this collection. This research provides concrete information for management to make operational and financial decisions regarding the number of staff and time needed to adequately shelf read with quality results. This research will be used as a springboard for further studies and evaluations. |
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Library
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