untitled怎么创建html文件,untitled1.html

Brief Tests of CollectionStrength

"Brieftests almost always yield results that librarians can

use. The scores areinformative in

assessing collections of any size, in any subject, in anytype

of library."

Publisher's page for Howard D.

White's:

This book gives librarians who use RLG or WLN

collection-levelscales a new tool for setting

collection levels or for verifying those subjectivelyset.

Brief tests are short lists of titles ranked through an innovativeuse

of OCLC holdings counts to create "power tests" for librarysubject collections. As few as 40 titles,

appropriately ranked, constitutea test that can be used to grade a collection by scale levels such

as RLG's:

0 = Out of Scope: the library does not collect in this area.

1 = Minimal Level

2 = Basic Information Level

3 = Instructional Support Level

4 = Research Level

5 = Comprehensive Level

These tests have already undergone hundreds oftrials across scores of subject areas in several types of

libraries. Theyarean economical alternative to cumbersome evaluation methodologies ofthe past.

Intended audiences:

librarians

generally

collection

developers

subject

bibliographers

library

school teachers and students

bibliometricians

This book:

Shows that librarians can

understand and use brief tests without statistical background.

Gives results of about 300

trials of brief tests in more than 70 subject areas, mainly in academic but

also public and special libraries.

Presents many results through

graphs.

Challenges the notion that collections can be assessed only

with huge checklists.

Pits an 80-item brief test against a 1,000-item checklist

in evaluating French Literature collections at 21 of America's top research libraries.

Ties in with the RLG or WLN Conspectus scales of collection

levels used by many libraries.

Clarifies

the definitions of collection levels and strengthens the theory of scale-based

collection evaluation.

Shows empirically that collection patterns in American

libraries are in fact cumulative: strength is built upward, level by

level.

Shows that the nation's research collections are strong at

all levels, not just in "research-type" items.

Demonstrates

how brief tests can be used to evaluate collections in a library consortium

(through trials at Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore Colleges).

Contains a lively critique of features of the Conspectus

and of Conspectus-style verification studies involving coverage of

literatures.

Discusses

issues of validity and presents empirical results that tend to validate brief

tests.

Breaks

new ground in interpreting OCLC holdings counts and discusses potentially

interesting uses for these counts beyond brief tests.

Contains eight brief tests in full with illustrations of

their use.

Related collection evaluation

tools: