Online Collection Evaluation, Course by Course

In view of the fact that evaluating library collections is so valuable in learning to what degree they lend support to all phases of curricula, it is surprising that so little attention is paid to evaluation techniques based on library support for individual courses of instruction. Surveying relevant library materials for specific courses is much superior to merely analyzing collection support for academic departments or programs. The first step in the process usually involves assigning call numbers to courses in order to measure the library shelflist and count the number of relevant materials. This is a laborious and sometimes frustrating experience, but not without significant advantages for librarians pursuing such quantitative evaluations.