Stack management: collections management on libraries shelves

Abstract

A clear definition of stack management has never been analyzed in the Italian professional literature in its activities, practices, and indications on how to move collections.
However, some surveys of the University of Chicago reveal that users report the impossibility to retrieve books directly from library shelves, and untreaceable or lost books, as one of the main reasons fro their dissatisfaction with library services.
The Council of Australian State Libraries (CASL) defines stack management as the planning, monitoring, maintenance of stocks and of the systems of document supply in order to secure that users would access the entire library collection. Stavk management is a process in three main steps: planning - which is devoted to plan the growth of the collection; organization - that deals with the way in which books are placed onto shelves and how space is organized; maintenance, consisting into the replacement of books on shelves, mantenimento, the shelf-reading, the practices for finding lost books and stocktaking. Vital to stack management is a careful organization of collection shiftings or movings: these eventualities must be planned through a conscious choice of the method to adopt, of the staff to be hired, and of the necessary tools.