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Stock, as our core business, needs to be managed and maintained during its life to achieve the maximum usage possible. We need to ensure we get the best value out of what we buy and provide the space in our libraries to best display and store our stock. Care and management of stock is the responsibility of every library staff member and once stock reaches the end of its shelf life, it needs to be withdrawn and disposed of.
Stock editing is about considering all types of stock in our libraries and judging whether to keep it on our shelves. Editing our stock maintains the quality of what we offer our customers; it removes dirty or damaged stock and any stock which has outlived its useful life to make way for newer items.
Essex Libraries uses evidence-based tools (including a range of bibliographic tools, statistics (PowerBI), consortium resources and CollectionHQ) to benchmark and monitor the performance of stock and help to prioritise spending on materials.
These reviews will identify both shortfalls and over-provision of each stock genre and provide validation against the catalogue, resulting in the following benefits:
Statistics available from the Library Management System (LMS) can also be used for performance monitoring eg issue and renewal statistics are available on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis and can be broken down branch-by-branch and also by stock category eg DVDs, Crime and Children’s Fiction etc.
CollectionHQ is used to maximise the effective use of stock by identifying under-used items at individual libraries and circulating them to other libraries to generate increased use. This will increase the range of different titles presented to customers, reduce unnecessary expenditure, and increase issues of books overall.
A regular programme of stock checks for all material will be carried out to identify stock which has been stolen, not returned from loan, or missing. Procedures and systems are in place to reduce stock loss including security systems and overdue notices to customers.
Stock will be removed or relocated from a library branch if it becomes grubby, damaged, or no longer current. It is essential for the health of the catalogue to remove both dead and grubby stock so that the stock on the shelves in libraries remains up-to-date, appealing and in a suitable condition for loan.
Items that are available for transfer will be classed as dead and not issuing in that branch. Each library has its own set of parameters for when an item is classed as available for circulation. These parameters are set by the Stock Champions and can be amended as needed.
Report |
Producing system |
Schedule |
|
Stock Take |
Symphony |
Annually |
|
Popular Author/Subject Transfer |
CollectionHQ |
Quarterly |
|
Transfer List |
CollectionHQ |
Quarterly |
|
Missing (Items marked as missing) |
Symphony/Blue Cloud |
Quarterly (but one session will be covered by stock take) |
|
Missing: Collection Check (Potential Missing) |
CollectionHQ |
Annually |
|
Missing in transit (not arrived at destination) |
Symphony/Blue Cloud |
Monthly (both in and out) |
|
Unfilled Holds |
Symphony/Blue Cloud |
Monthly |
|
Grubby Refresh |
CollectionHQ |
Quarterly |
|
Grubby Item removal |
CollectionHQ and visual inspections |
Every six months |
|
Dead Item removal |
CollectionHQ |
Annually |
|
Out of Date (Non-Fiction) |
CollectionHQ |
Annually |
|
Assumed Lost |
Symphony/Blue Cloud |
Automatic as stock reaches certain criteria |
|
Dead on arrival (Fiction) |
CollectionHQ |
Annually |
Performed annually and is set for December.
The following reports will be run for fiction and non-fiction and in some cases for non-book collections:
Highlights items that can be transferred to a selected branch to support current reader demand, scheduled quarterly to maximise current reader trends and demands.
Items that have been marked as missing within a three-month period will have a second shelf check. Items remaining on the missing ticket for longer than three months and not found will be removed from the system. All missing items will have been searched for by staff on at least two separate occasions before being removed from the catalogue.
This report will identify items that may be missing due to lack of movement. Stock in this report may also be grubby or in need of additional promotion. Scheduled to complete this annually as this work will reduce the number of items that appear on the other missing and dead reports.
Similar process to Missing (marked as missing).
We perform a Missing in Transit report (outgoing stock) for items that have been in transit for over four weeks, and a Missing in Transit report (incoming stock) for items that have been missing in transit for over eight weeks. If items remain Missing in Transit for over 12 weeks the items will automatically be moved to marked as missing status and will no longer be considered available stock.
Grubby stock are items that have been loaned multiple times and should be removed if there are obvious signs of wear.
This report enables staff to select replacement items from other branches to replace grubby stock in their branch.
These are reports for stock that should be removed from the catalogue because of poor condition or lack of reader interest.
As with Grubby Refresh, items in the Grubby Removal report can have their individual parameters amended to override removal if still in good condition or if the item has sporadic usage eg dictionaries or seasonal books.
Items that appear in the Dead Removal report can be overridden if the library staff feel these items will benefit from additional time and/or promotion.
In the largest libraries some specialist and high-level non-fiction and some minority genre fiction may be retained beyond the standard period.
This report lists items that are classed as out-of-date from the day of publishing. This report is used for non-fiction stock only as this stock dates factually and stylistically. Books that are presented in an out-of-date fashion will likely not issue and as a reputable source of information public libraries should not hold out of date stock, such as books on law or travel.
For the majority of non-fiction stock, the parameter is currently set at picking up items that are 10 years old, with a separate parameter for stock that dates sooner set at five years. Fiction stock does not age in the same way as non-fiction and in most cases is removed via the dead and grubby reports.
Some types of non-fiction have a limited shelf life due to legal, medical and/or accuracy constraints and therefore should be removed when a new edition is received if before the set parameter. Some medical books do not contain clinical information as they are a personal testimony about illnesses; these will be retained.
This report automatically processes items that are long overdue. This helps identify items that may not have been returned and are in demand from the catalogue. Items that are considered Assumed Lost are items more than 49 days overdue (35 days overdue for DVDs and music CDs).
A weekly Assumed Lost report will run in Symphony where the cost of replacement overdue items will be automatically added to the borrower’s record. The Recommended Retail Price (RRP) at the time of purchase will be used (or Default value if there is no RRP). The item’s location will change to LOST-ASSUM, and the title will no appear in the public catalogue.
Items will remain on the customer’s account as an inactive loan until the cost of replacement is paid or until the item is returned.
The report helps Essex Libraries make best use of its new stock supplied by the Supplier Select process and enables us to identify if stock is in the wrong location. This report is run annually and lists new stock that has not issued and may need promoting, relocating or replacing if missing, or never returned from the first issue.
Withdrawn stock will normally be resold or recycled through our partnerships with Shopiago Collections at World of Books.
All staff continually assess the condition of stock. Any items that are found to be damaged will be withdrawn from the catalogue.