Hello everybody. Mostly I stay on the sidelines, but I'm going to jump in the game to clarify SwapAway's role in balancing the collections. As you know, one of the benefits of a floating collection is that over time, each branch's collection will more closely reflect the tastes and interests of the people who use it. We're letting the patrons decide where materials should go -- and speaking as one of the people who used to make that decision, it is a huge relief!
The key phrase here is "over time". We really have to be patient and let the system work. And everyone has to accept that their library's collection is not going to stay the same. It's going to be more fluid, and some things are going to float away forever and not come back. When that happens, it is a sign that they belong somewhere else, and that's OK.
I'm asking all of you to refrain from using SwapAway to micromanage your collection. If you have too much of something, weed and shift (if you can) before trying to send it somewhere else. If you see an area that's getting thin, wait for a while and see what happens. It might fill up again. I'm not saying that you shouldn't use SwapAway at all. But if you see an area that seems out of balance, watch it for a week or so to see how it changes on its own instead of posting right away. You might find that it takes care of itself. In fact, I would advise you not to ask for materials to be sent to your branch for the time being -- just until we have a better macro-level view of how floating is working.
I understand that this is all kind of loose and open to interpretation. I believe the picture will become clearer as we go along. Please feel free to comment or contact me in some other way.
Julie
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