Book Review: Floating Collections: A Collection Development Model for Long-Term Success

Floating Collections: A Collection Development Model for Long-Term Success. By Wendy K. Bartlett. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited, 2014. 128 p. $55 paperback (ISBN: 978-1-59884-743-7).

In these uncertain economic times, library administrators are often faced with tough budget decisions. They are encouraged to “think outside the box” for creative strategies to help cut costs while not diminishing services to library patrons. Wendy Bartlett’s Floating Collections: A Collection Development Model for Long-Term Success offers one such creative and thought-provoking strategy, particularly for public library systems. Bartlett defines a floating collection as “a system-wide collection wherein there is no owning branch designation” (xiii). She explains the history of floating collections and suggests floating as a cost-cutting measure for libraries facing budget challenges. Savings from floating accrue from the lack of expenses to process, ship, and reroute books and media back to their home branch. Moreover, shelving can be done promptly, and patrons are satisfied as material is available more quickly and not perpetually in transit. To help libraries decide whether floating is right for them, Bartlett offers the “Library Float Evaluation” checklist, which a library would complete only after reading about the advantages and disadvantages of floating. Bartlett has experienced these issues; she writes with a clear desire to make it easy for the next group of libraries to make informed decisions whether or not to float their collections.

Rather than a manifesto on the merits of floating, this book is written to illuminate the variables to be considered within a library system and to reinforce the concomitant need for good communications at all levels. Bartlett offers guidance about communicating with staff prior to implementing a floating collection. She encourages visits to library branches so staff understand what a floating collection will mean for their workflows. She discusses new and positive workflows for shelving, weeding, and running library system reports. Bartlett encourages teamwork, communication, and an open mind so that floating produces less surprise and more positive results for patrons and staff alike.

There is plenty in this book to interest collection development librarians. Floating may be easy to do from the library system point of view, but it changes the approach to purchasing for individual branch collections. She encourages collection development librarians to visit their branches and observe library workflows firsthand. Although Bartlett suggests that collection development librarians weed before floating begins to avoid creating imbalances in collection size across branches, a good portion of the book deals with resulting imbalances that may occur from floating.

Floating Collections includes helpful scenarios, charts, and worksheets spread throughout the book and gathered in the appendices. There is also a list of libraries organized by state that have moved to floating, useful for consulting with libraries of comparable type and size.

Bartlett has written the guide on how to float and live to tell the tale. She provides ample guidance for answering staff questions and helping libraries determine whether floating would be a positive initiative financially and for patron service. I recommend this book for large public libraries as well as academic libraries to whom floating appeals.—Amy Lewontin (a.lewontin@neu.edu), Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts