Did you know that some of the Library’s collections are floating again?
Or that our floating collections save time and money, decrease hold times and expand the diversity of materials at a branch?
In library terms, “floating” means that certain Library collections – such as mysteries, DVDs and children’s comics — stay at the Library branch they have been returned to instead of being transported back to their original branch (as they would in a traditional Library collection model).
For example, if a patron checks out a mystery from the Broadview Branch and returns it to the Rainier Beach Branch, that item shows up as belonging to Rainier Beach in the catalog and it stays on the Rainier Beach shelves. This means that the Library doesn’t have to put it into transit and ship it back to Broadview, and our patrons are able to access the item again more quickly.
It also means that patrons directly contribute to collection development through the kinds of materials they request and return to their branch.
The Library started piloting floating collections in 2015. The approach was paused during the pandemic, and restarted in early November 2021.
Only some of the Library’s collections float. Currently, these include mysteries, large print (all ages), adult and teen biographies, children’s readers, children’s comics and all media (except for oversize CDs and children’s music kits).
DVDs are an example of a material that makes an excellent floating collection. They are highly browsed, which means patrons will appreciate that the collection at each branch changes frequently. DVDs also have a uniform size and are shelved similarly at most branches.
Each float of an item saves three to five days in transit time which, in addition to making items available faster to patrons, also saves Library staff time. Once a collection is added to the float, it sees a 60-90% drop in how many items are in transit status at any one time. Staff time is saved because an item can be shelved right away at the return location instead of being placed in a bin and transported to its home branch, then unloaded and checked in again and shelved. (Want to see what’s involved in transiting a book? Watch the video below.)
Floating also refreshes the collection at each branch. In a six-month period in 2017, between 26% to 32% of items in the floating collections floated to a new location each month.
Floating is – literally – a balancing act. Sometimes a smaller branch, such as the Wallingford Branch, receives a high number of returns relative to its shelving capacity. Through the magic of shelf measuring and spreadsheets, we are able to run reports that tell each branch what parts of their collection are too large for their shelving and should be moved to another branch.
– Kate S.
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