CollectionWiz™

Library Collection Analysis with CollectionWiz™

Finding the time and best way to evaluate your library collection can be challenging, but is certainly an essential part of your overall collection development strategy to support student learning. Using a free library collection analysis tool like Capstone’s CollectionWiz™ can help identify opportunities in your collection—which titles to weed from your inventory and which areas to grow—providing you with valuable data to inform how you spend your limited budget more effectively to strengthen your collection.
 

 CollectionWiz™ helps you:

  • Automatically identify duplicate titles
  • Target urgent needs by analyzing aged title reports by Dewey ranges and call numbers
  • Meet your curriculum needs with automatic title recommendations
  • Evaluate titles for weeding by creating aged title lists based on your criteria
  • Demonstrate funding and purchasing needs through high-impact aged title and call number reports
  • Find fiction recommendations through genre, high/lo, and graphic novel searches
     

Robust in data, easy to use, and completely free, CollectionWiz can analyze your library collection in as fast as 10 minutes or less.

Simply export your MARC records and upload them to CollectionWiz for analysis based on the criteria you choose.

Our tool examines your collection searching for key data, such as call numbers and

Image of laptop computer with CollectionWiz™ MARC records on screen

copyright dates, to identify the number of titles you have within the different subject areas and the average age of the items in those areas. 

In minutes, CollectionWiz will show you how your collection shakes out—just adjust the suggested age for each Dewey main class or hundred division and your results instantly update to reflect those changes.

Library collection analysis has never been easier. Once you’ve uploaded your school’s MARC records, you’ll get a summary of your entire collection by Dewey, graphs, and suggested book lists showing your aged items. 

You will be able to use your library collection analysis to

Image of laptop computer with CollectionWiz™ Collection Aging List on screen

easily identify gaps in your collection, demonstrate your purchasing needs, and advocate for library funding. Plus, you’ll avoid ordering duplicate titles!

After your library collection analysis is complete, we’ll automatically flag titles you own as you shop with us!

Once you are ready to replace some of your aged and weeded books, maximize your budget with our Capstone Rewards program. After you upload your collection analysis, you’ll receive an email with a $150 coupon off your next order of $500 or more.

Image of laptop computer with CollectionWiz™ List Aging Comparison graph on screen

CollectionWiz™ FAQs

What makes CollectionWiz unique?

First, CollectionWiz does not require any setup work to use! Forget about needing to know your MARC tags and call number prefixes: simply export your MARC records and immediately upload them to CollectionWiz for your library collection analysis. 

Once you’ve uploaded your records, CollectionWiz allows you to adjust ideal retention or suggested dates at the Dewey main classes and hundred divisions. This feature assists you with identifying and evaluating those items that may need to be reviewed for accuracy, misleading or inappropriate content.   

What’s more, CollectionWiz aging lists complement your weeding practices and other de-selection procedures used by showing you those items in your collection that don’t meet specified dates.  And, to help with the selection process to replace items that are being evaluated, CollectionWiz instantly provides lists of products that are at or are newer than the selected ideal age. Plus, we alert you to books you already own. Our items are appealing, accurate, relevant and appropriate. Get started with CollectionWiz™.

How do I change the suggested age? Can I change this at the Dewey level?

Enter your preferred age in the suggested age number blank and click [SET]. Select the [RESET RANGE] button to reset that number to the default (five years), or select the [RESET ALL] button to set all your custom suggested age settings back to default. To modify at the Dewey level, simply click the [+] button on the left of the Dewey main class, then adjust the age for your preferred subclass. At the Dewey main class level, click the [RESET RANGE] button to reset all subclass years back to default.

Do I have to be an existing Capstone customer to use CollectionWiz?

No matter if your library is stacked to the rafters with Capstone titles or if you’ve never considered purchasing from us before, we’ve built CollectionWiz to address the collection development needs of all LMS professionals.  If you’re new to Capstone, simply take five minutes to sign up for an online account to get started!

Do I need to email you my records? How do I export my records?

You can run CollectionWiz yourself. Consult your automation software vendor’s technical manual, online help, or customer service team for the most up-to-date instructions.

Why do I need a Capstone account to use CollectionWiz?

Having an account allows you to save your uploaded records and CollectionWiz analysis for future use.  Plus, without an online account, our sites wouldn’t be able to offer such features as duplication notification when you peruse books on our site because we wouldn’t have the information about what you already own in our system to reference.

Do I need a special browser or software to use CollectionWiz?

You don’t need to download special software to use CollectionWiz. We’ve designed it to operate on  commonly used browser programs such as Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari. You’ll need a PDF reader such as Adobe Acrobat to download graphs and reports or choose to download as a Microsoft Excel file.

I have more questions about CollectionWiz. Who do I call?

Contact one of our customer service representatives for more information.