Floating Collection : Sarasota, FL
Fruitville Library Open Books (Via SRQPIX)
My mom, who is super cool, works at the Fruitville Public Library within the Sarasota FL County Library system. While chatting on gmail she told me about the new Floating Collection project they launched in their library system. I had never heard of a Floating Collection and found the presentation and information they presented to the Florida Library Association interesting.
The Staff Intro Document (available here) outlines the definition and princple advantages of a Floating Collection :
The concept of floating collections relates to the idea of one system, one collection. Materials “float” freely among system libraries rather than being “owned” by a specific location. When a patron returns a circulating item, it is shelved at the location where it was returned instead of being sent back to the location from which it was checked out. Upon check in, the location is automatically updated in the library catalog to show where it now resides.
In essence, this concept of materials management eliminates the shipping and delivery of the selected floating collection. Libraries that have implemented floating collections have seen a significant decrease in
materials being shipped between libraries.For patrons, this means that materials will be immediately ready for check out or to place holds on as they will no longer be “in transit” to the home library. In addition patrons have new materials to browse in their neighborhood branch.
The concept is fairly simple with an extremely powerful outcome. The Library System is able to keep materials in circulation much faster, refresh the materials available so the selection is always interesting for patrons and reduce costs incurred by constantly shipping items. What I find most interesting about a floating collection is that it taps the hive mind of the community. If a particular library circulates more books and has higher amount of traffic, this library will naturally grow to best serve its community. The community of Sarasota is very diverse with each branch serving a very different group. The hive mind may be further exploited when patrons of a particular branch/community begin to obtain, and continually check out, works from the circulation that have sparked interest within the community.
It seems that the Floating Collection is the first step towards USER GENERATED LIBRARIES and that is something I find absolutely inspiring. By organizing and uniting the entire collection of the Sarasota Library System these librarians will be able to leverage their materials to best serve the entire community.
Reading Garden Fruitville Public Library (Via Sasota County Library)
I work for Sarasota County Libraries and worked on this project and the presentation for FLA conference. I wish that we had thought to use the terms “hive mind” and “user generated libraries” before the conference!
I’ve been thinking about your post since someone sent me the link this morning. In an ideal situation, I think a floating collection would work just as you describe: library users create their library’s collection out of the entire set of materials available to them throughout the system by checking out and returning those materials that are most interesting and useful to them.
What I see in our real implementation of floating is that library staff either have to or just feel a need to interrupt the natural course of the float. Unfortunately, shelf space is finite and especially tight at “drop off” libraries. And, seeing “too many” copies of something on the shelf can be an irresistible invitation to interfere.
I don’t think Sarasota County is alone in this. Most of the other libraries who have shared their floating experiences mention the need to weed before starting to float (to make space on the shelves if for no other reason) and to have a rebalance plan to redistribute materials that have floated to the “wrong” places.
It would be really exciting to see a floating collection float without any intervention. I hope floating as it is now evolves to that.